Last weekend was a historic weekend in the NCAA Baseball Tournament. For the first time ever the No. 1 overall seed lost their first game in the tournament. Also, for the first time, two separate four seeds advanced to the super regionals.
It was a wild weekend, and we can expect more of the same this weekend for Supers. Here’s a full preview.
ESPN drops the ball
There are eight matchups this weekend and only two of them feature ranked versus ranked matchups.
Texas, the No. 6 seed, will host No. 11 Oregon, and No. 3 Georgia will host No. 14 Mississippi State in a rematch of their sweep in Starkville earlier this year. The latter is clearly the best matchup of the two. At the very least it features the highest ranked remaining team in the entire tournament, Georgia.
So, someone explain to me why they are playing at 10 a.m. CT on Saturday for Game 1, and 11 a.m. CT on Sunday for Game 2.
I’m not saying it needed to be in primetime under the lights, but the only other ranked on ranked matchup got that treatment. At the very least neither of these teams deserved brunchtime baseball to decide who goes to Omaha.
I can only assume an Arkansas second baseman was in charge of this decision because that is a pretty big moment of dropping the ball, guys.
Left side, (not) Strong side
That’s a really good Remember the Titans reference for those that caught it.
There are 16 national seeds when regionals start. It’s no surprise that all 16 didn’t advance. This, of course, was the first year that the NCAA Tournament committee decided to rank and seed the teams No. 1 through 32 for more parity and competitive balance. That didn’t seem to matter that much as there were more three and four seeds (5) that advanced to super regionals than two seeds (4).
That parity is probably great for the sport. I, for one, am really excited to see Troy or Little Rock get a shot at becoming one of the Omaha eight. That being said, the left side of the bracket is more bottom heavy than Iggy Azalea. The left side of the bracket has half as many national seeds (3) as the right (6).
The top half of that side is West Virginia, Cal Poly, Troy and Little Rock. That is a significantly easier road to Omaha than the right side that features Alabama, Kansas, Texas, Oregon, Georgia and Mississippi State. Not to mention, an Oklahoma team that just knocked off No. 2 national seed Georgia Tech.
Re-seeding is conceding
The path to Omaha for some is clearly a little more difficult than others. That has brought about one of my least favorite topics in collegiate sports in recent years, which is the idea of re-seeding the tournament after each round.
It was a topic last year when LSU and Arkansas were arguably the two best teams in the entire field in Omaha and had to face each other in the first two games. That felt like a national championship type of matchup. The same can potentially be said for the teams facing off in Austin and Athens this weekend.
If I were a Mississippi State or Oregon fan, I’d be a little frustrated that the road to a national title likely runs through road super regionals against Texas and Georgia, two teams that spent most of the season ranked in the top five.
Meanwhile, Alabama is playing a basketball school over in Tuscaloosa, and West Virginia is playing a California based team that hates monogamy. Kidding, I don’t think that’s what Cal Poly means, but you get my point.
The strangest part of the re-seeding debate is that it isn’t coming from Mississippi State or Oregon. The loudest complaints are actually coming from one of their potential opponents: Georgia.
That seems backwards to me. If you’re a higher-ranked national seed, you should expect to face lower-ranked teams. That’s the entire point of seeding. The notion that underdogs and automatic qualifiers should somehow get penalized for – checks notes – winning baseball games is ridiculous. At that point, you’re not arguing for competitive balance. You’re arguing against competition.
Picking some winners
Last week was incredible not just on the field, but in our picks. Despite one of the most upset-laden opening weekends in tournament history, we picked all 16 regional winners correctly. That’s a bold faced lie, we got eight right.
Better luck this week. Let’s pick some winners.
Morgantown Super Regional
No. 16 West Virginia vs. Cal Poly
Winner: West Virginia
Troy Super Regional
Troy vs. Little Rock
Winner: Little Rock
Chapel Hill Super Regional
No. 5 UNC vs. USC
Winner: UNC
Auburn Super Regional
No. 4 Auburn vs Ole Miss
Winner: Auburn
Lawrence Super Regional
No. 16 Kansas vs. Oklahoma
Winner: Oklahoma
Tuscaloosa Super Regional
No. 7 Alabama vs St. Johns
Winner: Alabama
Austin Super Regional
No. 6 Texas vs No. 11 Oregon
Winner: Oregon
Athens Regional
No. 3 Georgia vs No. 14 Mississippi State
Winner: Mississippi State
