College baseball’s unpredictable nature has been on full display through roughly the first third of the regular season.
Preseason No. 1 Texas A&M, which opened the year as the overwhelming favorite to win the national title, is off to the worst start by a top-ranked preseason team since USC in 1999. Five other programs that were tabbed as projected regional hosts in the preseason—NC State, Oklahoma State, Virginia, North Carolina and Duke—have also fallen from the Top 25 and project host status.
There have been some pleasant surprises, too. Oklahoma, Ole Miss, Auburn and Alabama have risen from unranked to projected hosts while Oregon and Wake Forest—both of which were included in the Preseason Top 25 but outside the top 16—have also moved into regional hosting positions.
The SEC leads the charge in BA’s latest Projected Field of 64 with 14 bids followed by the ACC (10), Big 12 (6) and Sun Belt (3). The Big Ten, Big West, Southland and Conference USA all received two bids in the latest projection.
Here is Baseball America’s first in-season Projected Field of 64. Note that all hosts reflect the current Top 25 order of the top 16 teams.
| Knoxville, Tenn. | Tucson, AZ. | |
| 1. (1) Tennessee ^* (SEC) | 1. (16) Arizona^* (Big 12) | |
| 2. West Virginia (Big 12) | 2. UC Irvine* (Big West) | |
| 3. Grand Canyon* (WAC) | 3. Western Kentucky (CUSA) | |
| 4. Tennessee Tech* (Ohio Valley) | 4. Southern Illinois* (Missouri Valley) | |
| Fayetteville, Ark. | Oxford, Miss. | |
| 1. (2) Arkansas^ (SEC) | 1. (15) Ole Miss^ (SEC) | |
| 2. NC State (ACC) | 2. Georgia Tech (ACC) | |
| 3. UTRGV* (Southland) | 3. Loyola Marymount* (WCC) | |
| 4. Fairfield* (MAAC) | 4. Creighton* (Big East) | |
| Austin, Texas | Nashville, Tenn. | |
| 1. (3) Texas^ (SEC) | 1. (14) Vanderbilt^ (SEC) | |
| 2. Dallas Baptist* (CUSA) | 2. Louisville (ACC) | |
| 3. Duke (ACC) | 3. Southeastern Louisiana (Southland) | |
| 4. Austin Peay* (ASUN) | 4. Yale* (Ivy) | |
| Athens, Ga. | Winston-Salem, N.C. | |
| 1. (4) Georgia^ (SEC) | 1. (13) Wake Forest (ACC) | |
| 2. North Carolina (ACC) | 2. Kentucky (SEC) | |
| 3. Coastal Carolina (Sun Belt) | 3. Richmond * (Atlantic 10) | |
| 4. NJIT* (America East) | 4. High Point* (Big South) | |
| Baton Rouge, La. | Auburn, Ala. | |
| 1. (5) LSU^ (SEC) | 1. (12) Auburn^ (SEC) | |
| 2. Kansas (Big 12) | 2. Southern Miss* (Sun Belt) | |
| 3. UTSA* (AAC) | 3. East Carolina (AAC) | |
| 4. Oral Roberts* (Summit) | 4. Bowling Green* (MAC) | |
| Tallahassee, Fla. | Eugene, Ore. | |
| 1. (6) Florida State^* (ACC) | 1. (11) Oregon^* (Big Ten) | |
| 2. Florida (SEC) | 2. TCU (Big 12) | |
| 3. Central Florida (Big 12) | 3. Hawaii (Big West) | |
| 4. Bethune-Cookman* (SWAC) | 4. San Jose State* (Mountain West) | |
| Clemson, S.C. | Tuscaloosa, Ala. | |
| 1. (7) Clemson^ (ACC) | 1. (10) Alabama^ (SEC) | |
| 2. Mississippi State (SEC) | 2. Troy (Sun Belt) | |
| 3. Charleston* (CAA) | 3. Virginia (ACC) | |
| 4. East Tennessee State* (SoCon) | 4. Central Connecticut* (Northeast) | |
| Norman, Ok. | Corvallis, Ore. | |
| 1. (8) Oklahoma^ (SEC) | 1. (9) Oregon State^ (Indy) | |
| 2. UCLA (Big Ten) | 2. Stanford (ACC) | |
| 3. Kansas State (Big 12) | 3. South Carolina (SEC) | |
| 4. North Kentucky* (Horizon) | 4. Holy Cross* (Patriot) |
* denotes automatic bid
^ denotes regional host
Last Four In
East Carolina
Western Kentucky
Hawaii
Southeastern Louisiana
First Four Out
Arizona State
Southern California
Virginia Tech
UC Santa Barbara
Next Four Out
Florida Atlantic
Indiana
Northeastern
Minnesota
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