D1Baseball Field of 64 Projections: May 17
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With 13 weeks in the books, the postseason picture remains fluid from week to week, but at least one thing is constant and that’s Wake Forest. The Demon Deacons headline the top national seeds this week after having yet another strong weekend. Meanwhile, LSU, which was the No. 2 seed last week, dropped to the No. 5 overall national seed after losing a home series to Mississippi State.
In terms of the other top-eight national seeds, Arkansas and Florida are sitting at No’s 2 and 3, while Stanford, just like last week, is sitting at No. 5. Meanwhile, West Virginia and Vanderbilt are once again in the top eight, while Clemson vaulted from No. 11 last week to No. 7 this week after sweeping yet another ACC series, their third in the last four weekends. The Tigers are up to 8 in the RPI and have 14 wins vs. RPI Top 50 to go with an excellent conference record.
In terms of new hosts in the 9-16 range, it’s been a revolving door with at least a couple of teams over the past few weeks. This week, Connecticut and Boston College are no longer hosts, and instead, Oregon State and Virginia entered as hosts. The Beavers don’t have a great RPI, which is around 30, but are right there with Washington as the second-place Pac-12 team. We believe they will be in close-enough range to be a Top 16 seed. Meanwhile, the Cavaliers had a strong weekend and continue to have a very good RPI to go with a strong ACC record.
The SEC has the most projected bids with 10, one less than last week after Georgia dropped out of the postseason field. The ACC is next with 8, followed by the Big 12 with seven of nine teams making the field with the additions of Oklahoma and TCU. The Pac-12 is next up with six bids, while the Sun Belt, Big West and Big Ten each have three teams in the field. The Colonial is the only other league with multiple bids, and that’s with two in Northeastern and UNC Wilmington (the projected auto bid winner).
Mark Etheridge, Kendall Rogers and Aaron Fitt assembled the postseason projections. You can listen to their deliberations on this week’s NerdCast.
AT-LARGE LADDER:
Last four in, first four out, from strongest to weakest:
61. UC Irvine
62. Oklahoma
63. Arizona State
64. TCU
—–CUTOFF—–
65. Texas State
66. Georgia Tech
67. Rutgers
68. Louisiana
| WINSTON-SALEM | CORVALLIS | |
| 1 Wake Forest* (1) | 1 Oregon State (16) | |
| 4 Maine* | 4 Air Force* | |
| 2 Connecticut* | 2 Maryland* | |
| 3 UC Irvine | 3 Cal State Fullerton* | |
| FAYETTEVILLE | DURHAM | |
| 1 Arkansas* (2) | 1 Duke (15) | |
| 4 Little Rock* | 4 UNC Wilmington* | |
| 2 Texas | 2 Alabama | |
| 3 Oral Roberts* | 3 Kansas State | |
| GAINESVILLE | STILLWATER | |
| 1 Florida (3) | 1 Oklahoma State (14) | |
| 4 Alabama State* | 4 Sam Houston* | |
| 2 Oregon | 2 Dallas Baptist* | |
| 3 Troy | 3 Texas A&M | |
| BATON ROUGE | CORAL GABLES | |
| 1 LSU (4) | 1 Miami (13) | |
| 4 Nicholls* | 4 Army* | |
| 2 Southern Miss | 2 Washington | |
| 3 Oklahoma | 3 Florida Gulf Coast* | |
| STANFORD | CONWAY | |
| 1 Stanford* (5) | 1 Coastal Carolina* (12) | |
| 4 Loyola Marymount* | 4 Mercer* | |
| 2 Boston College | 2 Auburn | |
| 3 UC Santa Barbara | 3 TCU | |
| MORGANTOWN | COLUMBIA | |
| 1 West Virginia* (6) | 1 South Carolina (11) | |
| 4 Rider* | 4 Central Connecticut State* | |
| 2 Tennessee | 2 North Carolina | |
| 3 Notre Dame | 3 Southern California | |
| CLEMSON | LEXINGTON | |
| 1 Clemson (7) | 1 Kentucky (10) | |
| 4 Davidson* | 4 Wright State* | |
| 2 Campbell* | 2 Indiana State* | |
| 3 Texas Tech | 3 Iowa | |
| NASHVILLE | CHARLOTTESVILLE | |
| 1 Vanderbilt (8) | 1 Virginia (9) | |
| 4 Kent State* | 4 Pennsylvania* | |
| 2 Indiana | 2 East Carolina | |
| 3 Arizona State | 3 Northeastern | |