2019 College Baseball Thread

[Batman]

It's about that time again. The NCAA Tournament bracket is out and it's a little bit of a WTF? If seedings hold, five of the eight super regional matchups will have conference opponents going head-to-head. That includes Oregon State and UCLA, which I'm sure will please some folks around here.

Ten SEC teams got in, tying a record, and there's a good argument to be made that an 11th (Missouri) got the shaft. Four of the 10 are top-8 national seeds.
And, for the first time since 1991, Cal State Fullerton is not in the tournament.

Time to start the road to Omaha.

2019 Division I Baseball Official Bracket | NCAA.com

 

[HanSenSE]

Stony Brook in the Baton Rouge regional ... hmmmm.

 

[DanOregon]

Used to think it was a travel thing - but it seems the NCAA really tries to get as many conferences to Omaha as it can with regional hosts seeded against regional hosts from their own conference. What stood out to me was a Big 10 team - Ohio State no less - in as a four seed. Surely there was a more worthy mid-major school.
And the seedings weren't strictly RPI - Oregon State was 20th in RPI - but they'll sell 4-5k in tickets.

 

[maumann]

Ohio State won the B1G tournament, I believe. That bounced an at-large.

 

[Batman]

And the seedings weren't strictly RPI - Oregon State was 20th in RPI - but they'll sell 4-5k in tickets.

Ole Miss was No. 22 and will sell 10,000 tickets. They had a great week in Hoover, but I'm not sure their on-field accomplishments merit a regional over a Tennessee team that was No. 14 in RPI and smacked them around two weeks ago.

 

[micropolitan guy]

Missouri played .333 ball (8-16-1) against Q1 opponents and had a 206 OOC strength-of-schedule. It's high RPI was more attributable to who it played (and who the SEC teams it skipped played) in conference, not how well it did. Missouri also played 25 games against Q3 and Q4 opponents. In essence, it's schedule sucked.

Okie State (2), UCLA (3) and Oregon State (8) had the top OOC SOS of the 16 seeds. Mississippi State's was 200th, it must have played no one of consequence OOC.

 

[tapintoamerica]

It's about that time again. The NCAA Tournament bracket is out and it's a little bit of a WTF? If seedings hold, five of the eight super regional matchups will have conference opponents going head-to-head. That includes Oregon State and UCLA, which I'm sure will please some folks around here.

Ten SEC teams got in, tying a record, and there's a good argument to be made that an 11th (Missouri) got the shaft. Four of the 10 are top-8 national seeds.
And, for the first time since 1991, Cal State Fullerton is not in the tournament.

Time to start the road to Omaha.

2019 Division I Baseball Official Bracket | NCAA.com

Missouri 31st in RPI. Excluded in favor of No. 59 or close to it. Pretty rare, I would suspect.

 

[DanOregon]

Ohio State won the B1G tournament, I believe. That bounced an at-large.

My bad. I forget some conferences do tournaments.

 

[HanSenSE]

Used to think it was a travel thing - but it seems the NCAA really tries to get as many conferences to Omaha as it can with regional hosts seeded against regional hosts from their own conference. What stood out to me was a Big 10 team - Ohio State no less - in as a four seed. Surely there was a more worthy mid-major school.
And the seedings weren't strictly RPI - Oregon State was 20th in RPI - but they'll sell 4-5k in tickets.

Yet we still have the death bracket for West Coast mid-majors at Stanford with the Cardinal, Fresno State, UC Santa Barbara and Sacramento State.

 

[ChrisLong]

I guess the Big West was the conference of death. Come in first or pack up your gear. UC Santa Barbara is the only rep.
UC Irvine came in second at 37-17, 17-7. Not invited.

 

[MileHigh]

Rough year for the Titans, but won their last two to avoid the first losing season in program history. And, yes, as usual, matching top seeds in the same conference for super regionals is a joke.

 

[micropolitan guy]

No western bubble teams (Arizona, BYU, UCI) made it, and the P5 conference runner-up, which finished 1/2-game behind the No. 1 seed, didn't get a top-8 national seed, while the fourth-place team from another league did. Surprise, surprise.

 

[MileHigh]

Can't have BYU in there because it screws up the TV schedule with no Sunday games.

 

[tapintoamerica]

Can't have BYU in there because it screws up the TV schedule with no Sunday games.

Yet their men’s golf team played on Sunday in the NCAA tournament. I’m confused on what the university or church stance is on this issue.

 

[heyabbott]

Yet their men’s golf team played on Sunday in the NCAA tournament. I’m confused on what the university or church stance is on this issue.

Golf is god’s Sport.

 

[Batman]

Missouri played .333 ball (8-16-1) against Q1 opponents and had a 206 OOC strength-of-schedule. It's high RPI was more attributable to who it played (and who the SEC teams it skipped played) in conference, not how well it did. Missouri also played 25 games against Q3 and Q4 opponents. In essence, it's schedule sucked.

Okie State (2), UCLA (3) and Oregon State (8) had the top OOC SOS of the 16 seeds. Mississippi State's was 200th, it must have played no one of consequence OOC.

I'm really surprised it was that low. They played 10 of their 26 non-conference games against teams in the top 100 and had early-season wins over national seeds Texas Tech and East Carolina. A neutral site game against Nebraska was rained out, so I guess that doesn't count, but it still didn't seem like a terrible schedule.

And I don't think anybody's crying for Missouri. Just pointing out that it's pretty strange for a top 30 RPI team to get left out.
Frankly, I think it's a joke that Florida (No. 27) got in. I think their SOS was really high, but they were still a sub-.500 team in the SEC.

 

[micropolitan guy]

OSU had made provisions to start the regional on Thursday if BYU made it and was sent here. That's a "reasonable accommodation" they apparently could not make for the golf tournament, when the course has a limited availability.

 

[Batman]

The first national seed goes down, and there will be a new national champion for the eighth year in a row. Oregon State loses 4-1 to Creighton and goes two-and-barbecue on its home field. Announcers said it's the first time since 1985, something like 12 appearances, that Oregon State has not won a game in the NCAA Tournament.

 

[ChrisLong]

Beavers looked like they expected to just show up and win. Creighton, however, did make some good plays on defense, diving catches in the outfield and catches against the fence. Pitched well, too, obviously.

 

[Roscablo]

Beavers looked like they expected to just show up and win. Creighton, however, did make some good plays on defense, diving catches in the outfield and catches against the fence. Pitched well, too, obviously.

Oregon State's bigger issue was yesterday. They blew that one not once, but twice. I really thought when they took the lead they'd cruise to the win. I'm guessing seedwise Creighton and OSU weren't tons apart, so not a huge upset, but of course Creighton was on the road. Still pretty interesting performance. Only seeded team to lose their first game, too, and obviously the first one totally out.