NCAA Regionals open with historic chaos

By Chris Marler

One of the most underrated sports days of the calendar is in the books. Kinda. Rain delays pushed some of the opening day of colelge baseball regional action into Saturday. The 30 games that finished Friday produced one of the most historic days of the tournament. 

May the Fours be with you 

It was one of the most upset laden days in NCAA Tournament history. Lower seeded teams went 14-16 on the day which was an incredible story. The wildest part of the day was the success of No. 4 seeds. Four different bottom seeded teams beat the No. 1 seed in their regional. Little Rock beat Southern Miss in Hattiesburg, St. Johns beat Florida State, Milwaukee beat Auburn, and St. Mary’s upset UCLA. 

Those four upsets were the most in a single day in NCAA tournament history, with UCLA becoming the first No. 1 overall seed to lose their first game of the tournament. You go Gaels. 

The Earth is 4.543 billion years old.

And you’re alive to witness the FIRST EVER time a 4-seed has UPSET the No. 1 national seed in its regional opener in NCAA baseball history.

May MADNESS. pic.twitter.com/V0az27glgo

— Ben Stevens (@BenScottStevens) May 29, 2026

New Rules in effect, and shocker the NCAA didn’t think it through 

The run rule is not in effect in postseason play. That was something, I learned while watching Alabama up nearly three touchdowns against Alabama State and Georgia beat the brakes off of Long Island University. The latter served as a pretty big source of frustration for people because the game itself was suspended and restarted on Saturday. The rule in effect for this year is that if a game is postponed then teams have to wait at least 12 hours to restart the game the following day.

So just to recap… You have a team that works all year to earn a national seed and their opponent works all year to get to the tournament from a mid-major league.

National seed drops 15 runs before 16 outs have been recorded while their ace strikes out 10 and doesn’t allow a hit… https://t.co/UqLQZOUMrC

— Graham Coffey (@GrahamCoffeyDC) May 30, 2026

Without getting into the 30,000 foot view of why this decision was made, let’s take a look at a real impact situation it caused.

Georgia was up 15-1 versus LIU in the fifth inning. Their ace had thrown six innings without allowing a run. So, Georgia now has to show up to the park for a 9 a.m. local start time to resume the blowout game. Then LIU will play an elimination game at Noon against Boston College, and after playing another half game in the morning. Georgia will play in their winner’s bracket game at 5 p.m. – if weather permits. 

Not everything is black and white, but common sense seems to never prevail in these situations when the NCAA is involved. In no world is LIU scoring 15 runs in a restart setting. Just call it, and at the very least allow the teams to get some rest and show up the next day.

The SEC’s big day 

The SEC had the most teams make the NCAA tournament once again with 12. All but one of those teams played on Friday with Oklahoma being the lone to get rained out. It was a really good opening day for the conference which went 9-2 in their first 11 games. They also won those games by an average of 7.8 runs. 

It wasn’t the same for every major conference. The ACC went 3-5 in their first eight games with NC State trailing UCF 9-3 in a suspended contest.

Here’s a quick look at how some of the biggest conferences performed (counting the teams ahead at time of suspended game) for the conferences who fielded multiple teams in the tournament:

SEC: 9-2

ACC: 3-6

Big 12: 4-2

Big Ten: 2-2

Sun Belt: 1-4

JACKSONVILLE STATE TAKING VIRGINIA TO THE WOODSHED 🔥🔥

The ACC has looked rough today. pic.twitter.com/cuDYNaJc04

— 11Point7 College Baseball (@11point7) May 30, 2026

College Sports gonna college sports 

Day One was bookended with two extra innings gems. East Carolina beat Tennessee 7-3 in 14 innings to get the day started. Ole Miss and Arizona State ended at 1:16 a.m. local time after a walk-off hit from the Rebels. That’s just an elite 14 hour day of baseball. 

Outside of the walk-offs and underdogs, the best story for college baseball on Friday was the most college baseball story imaginable. St. John’s traveled to Tallahassee as the No. 4 seed to face No. 1 seed, and No. 10 national seed, Florida State. A few hours before their game a tweet started making its rounds on social media. 

Apparently one of St. John’s players forgot his jersey back home in New York, so he had to enlist the help of his buddies to bring it to him on the first commercial flight they could catch. As the person who for some unknown reason was in charge of bringing the bats on our college team’s road games, I cannot begin to tell you the amount of panic and anxiety that kid must have had when he realized he was going to have to tell his coach he forgot his jersey before the biggest game of the season. Luckily, the fans and friends rallied, and later that night so did the Johnnies when they knocked off FSU. 

Can confirm. Jersey secured. Johnnie Nation wins again 🔴⛈️#RedStorm | #EveryTrip https://t.co/0Rp4fMUdoA

— St. John’s Baseball (@StJohnsBaseball) May 29, 2026