Three weeks remain until the NCAA baseball selection show on May 26. Until then, college baseball teams are jockeying for regional positioning in one of the more wide-open fields the sport has seen in some time.
Texas (38-8, 19-5 SEC) remains as the projected No. 1 overall seed despite getting swept at Arkansas due to a No. 2 RPI ranking and having the most Quadrant 1 wins of any team in the country, with 14.
The SEC has a legitimate chance of getting a record 14 teams in the NCAA tournament, just as the league did in basketball. The bottom two teams, South Carolina and Missouri, have a combined five SEC wins, which has helped the rest of the league boost their records for postseason consideration. Ten of the 16 SEC teams are still in legitimate hosting consideration as well with conference records over .500.
One question in the SEC is how the unbalanced conference schedules will be handled. Teams like Vanderbilt (34-14, 14-10) and Auburn (33-15, 13-11) played more difficult schedules than other SEC teams and did not face 0-24 Missouri. Despite those two teams being ranked lower in the standings than some of their SEC peers, they could find their way to national seeds due to strong RPI and strength of schedule marks.
On the edge of the hosting battle are two interesting cases: West Virginia (39-7, 18-4 Big 12) and Oregon (33-13, 16-8 Big Ten). The Mountaineers have an exceptional overall record but with only the No. 127 strength of schedule. The Ducks have a 9-1 Quad 1 record but a whopping 12 Quad 3 and 4 losses. West Virginia gets the nod in this projection due to its standing as Big 12 leader as well as a higher RPI and fewer bad losses.
Several ACC teams are on the bubble, with Notre Dame (26-19, 12-15 ACC), Virginia Tech (27-21, 11-16 ACC) and Virginia (26-16, 11-10 ACC) all trying to make their cases. All three are projected out this week but could make the field with strong finishes to the season.
Here is our projected field of 64:
NCAA baseball tournament projected host seeds
- Texas
- Arkansas
- Florida State
- LSU
- North Carolina
- Vanderbilt
- Georgia
- Clemson
- Auburn
- UCLA
- Coastal Carolina
- Tennessee
- Alabama
- TCU
- UC Irvine
- West Virginia
2025 NCAA baseball tournament bracket projections
Asterisks denote projected autobid. Projected autobids are given to the current conference leader, with ties broken by RPI.
All projections as of May 5
Last Four In: Cincinnati, Kentucky, Xavier, Kansas State
First Four Out: Western Kentucky, Notre Dame, Virginia, Virginia Tech
Austin, Texas Regional
- Texas* (1)
- Arizona
- UT Rio Grande Valley*
- New Mexico*
Morgantown Regional
- West Virginia (16)
- Oklahoma
- Fairfield*
- Wright State*
Clemson Regional
- Clemson (8)
- Florida
- UConn*
- Rhode Island*
Auburn Regional
- Auburn (9)
- Dallas Baptist*
- Duke
- Columbia
Baton Rouge Regional
- LSU (4)
- NC State
- Kansas
- Long Island*
Tuscaloosa Regional
- Alabama (13)
- Miami
- Kansas State
- Holy Cross*
Chapel Hill Regional
- North Carolina (5)
- Northeastern*
- Kentucky
- High Point*
Knoxville Regional
- Tennessee (12)
- Louisville
- Cincinnati
- Austin Peay*
Nashville Regional
- Vanderbilt (6)
- Georgia Tech
- East Tennessee State*
- SIU Edwardsville*
Conway Regional
- Coastal Carolina* (11)
- Ole Miss
- Iowa*
- Bryant*
Athens Regional
- Georgia (7)
- Wake Forest
- Troy
- Ball State
Los Angeles Regional
- UCLA (10)
- Oregon State
- Cal Poly
- Sacramento State*
Tallahassee Regional
- Florida State* (3)
- Southern Miss
- Mississippi State
- Bethune Cookman*
Fort Worth Regional
- TCU (14)
- USC
- Texas A&M
- Missouri State*
Fayetteville Regional
- Arkansas (2)
- UTSA*
- Xavier
- Oral Roberts*
Irvine Regional
- UC Irvine* (15)
- Oregon
- Arizona State
- San Diego
*Automatic berth
Seeding in parenthesis
Aria Gerson covers Vanderbilt athletics for The Tennessean. Contact her at agerson@gannett.com or on X, formerly Twitter, @aria_gerson.
