NCAA Baseball Regional Picks, Upsets and SEC Predictions

Texas Athletics

By Chris Marler

It’s the best time of year for college baseball fans.

One of the most underrated weekends in sports is finally here as 64 teams begin their journey to Omaha across 16 regional sites. Here’s what to watch as the NCAA Tournament gets underway.

The SEC once again dominates the NCAA Tournament field

The SEC will be heavily represented, once again, in the tournament.

The conference placed 12 teams in the field, meaning 75 percent of the league reached the postseason and nearly 20 percent of the entire NCAA Tournament field came from the SEC.

The conference is also heavily represented at the top, with five national seeds and seven regional hosts.

Here’s a look at where each team is seeded.

No. 1 Seeds

No. 3 Georgia
No. 4 Auburn
No. 6. Texas
No. 7 Alabama
No. 8 Florida
No. 12 Texas A&M
No. 14 Mississippi State

No. 2 and 3 Seeds (regional location)

No. 2 Oklahoma (Atlanta Regional)
No. 2 Arkansas (Lawrence Regional)
No. 2 Ole Miss (Lincoln Regional)
No. 2 Tennessee (Chapel Hill Regional)
No. 3 Kentucky (Morgantown Regional)

The Official 2026 NCAA Baseball Tournament Bracket via @PEARatings: pic.twitter.com/Zap2ooJA9Y

— WolfpackFan317 (@WolfpackFan317) May 25, 2026

Lincoln Regional loaded with power arms and power bats

The Pac-12, and original PAC 8, family reunion that’s happening in Eugene, Oregon should be fun. The Hattiesburg regional is way more loaded than people realize with Southern Miss, Virginia and the best No. 3 seed in the entire tournament, Jacksonville State.

The one I am looking forward to most, however, is in Lincoln, Nebraska. The regional host is Nebraska. They will host Ole Miss, Arizona State and South Dakota.

I don’t care about South Dakota or their baseball team. I’ve always thought we only needed one Dakota as a state, to be honest. This entire regional is just brute force on a baseball field.

Ole Miss boasts the nation’s fourth-best strikeout rate on the mound, but the Rebels also rank 305th nationally in offensive strikeouts. They’ll open regional play against Arizona State, a club featuring one of the country’s best players, and arguably the best nickname in college baseball.

Landon Hairston, AKA Hairy Bonds, is unreal. He finished the season hitting .413 with 28 home runs and 78 RBIs.

2027 is chock full of corner profiles, but Landon Hairston may be the best of the bunch.

He’s playing himself into that Brendan Lawson, Adrian Rodriguez bucket at the top of next years draft.

Already 15 homers on the season. Scott Hairston’s kid. pic.twitter.com/xQJt2WRffa

— Joe Doyle (@JoeDoyleMiLB) March 30, 2026

Two SEC regional hosts facing more danger than expected

Seven SEC teams will host regionals this weekend, and I expect five of them to advance. Two hosts, however, look vulnerable to an early exit: Alabama and Texas A&M.

Alabama is such a tough team to break down because the resumé matches the No. 7 overall seed. But, they do not pass the eye test, and that’s saying something since I technically have four of them with these Warby Parker’s.

They finished the season with a team batting average of .253 which was 15th in the SEC. They also did most of their resumé building before April. The sweep of Florida and Auburn are incredibly impressive, but they also got swept by Kentucky in the opening series and got trounced 13-3 in their only game of the SEC tournament against Florida.

They only have two .300 hitters in the lineup and one player with double-digit home runs. Oklahoma State on the other hand rakes. They have six players with double digit home runs and finished second in the country in home runs. They’re a bad matchup for Alabama on opening weekend.

.@OSUBaseball‘s offense is terrifying on paper 😳

137 home runs as a team
Six players with 10+ homers
Five with 14+

🔗 https://t.co/7V139sUtQy pic.twitter.com/1tRM8vOU80

— D1Baseball (@d1baseball) May 28, 2026

The other team I think is on upset alert is Texas A&M. They’re the No. 12 seed and hosting the College Station Regional. The No. 2 team in that region is Southern Cal.

This is a fascinating matchup because I love the Texas A&M baseball lineup. I’ve said all season that its one-through-four may be the best in the country. The question has always been the pitching, and this weekend they’ll face a USC staff capable of putting that concern to the test.

The Trojans are intriguing because they haven’t faced much elite competition this season. When they have, they’ve struggled. USC Trojans baseball went just 1-11 against Quad 1 opponents, which raises legitimate questions about how they’ll handle the level of competition they’ll see this weekend.

Still, they have two of the best arms in the country, and are saving their ace, Mason Edwards, for Game 2 of the regional. Their top two guys finished the year with a combined 18-2 record and each had an ERA under 3.00 and WHIP under 1.00.

Can they beat someone with a pulse? That’s the biggest question.

Mason Edwards vs Roch Cholowsky 🍿🍿

Backwards K pic.twitter.com/VjGl2AbfPX

— 11Point7 College Baseball (@11point7) April 4, 2026

Battle-tested SEC clubs poised to spoil host sites again

There’s a consensus pick here, and it’s Arkansas. I like Arkansas to advance over Kansas, but they aren’t the only ones from the league that will. The other is Ole Miss.

Both hosts that Arkansas and Ole Miss will face (Kansas and Nebraska) have way less experience in this position. There’s a case to be made that Arkansas is playing its best baseball right now. But, their regional hosts each played just 17 games against Quad 1 teams this year.

Arkansas and Ole Miss played 28 and 31, respectively. They won 16 and 14, which is good for the second and fourth most in the country.

Give me the battle tested teams from the old SEC West to advance to next weekend.

GABE GAECKLE SLAMS THE DOOR 🔥🔥🔥

Arkansas throttles Texas to advance to SEC semifinals. Fayetteville Regional… I smell you. pic.twitter.com/mbPxZlodJn

— 11Point7 College Baseball (@11point7) May 23, 2026

Picking all 16 regionals: Who’s headed to Super Regionals?

Every week during the regular season, we put together a weekend preview packed with predictions, upset alerts and storylines to watch. Usually, we keep it strictly SEC-focused.I’ve consumed enough college baseball this year to feel comfortable enough predicting outside the league, so let’s broaden our scope and pick the winner of every regional this weekend.