AP OMAHA, Neb. – Losses in six of its last seven games didn’t diminish defending national champion Florida’s overall body of work when it came to seeding the NCAA baseball tournament. The Gators (42-17) are No. 1, and there never was much doubt, NCAA Division I Baseball Committee chairman Ray Tanner said Monday after the 64-team field was unveiled. Kevin O’Sullivan’s program is the first to earn the No. 1 overall seed three times since the tournament went to its current structure in 1999. The Gators also were top seeds in 2012 and 2016. “They were incredible the majority of the season and didn’t finish strong,” said Tanner, athletic director at South Carolina. “As we were finishing up our data last week before coming to Indianapolis, I was curious to see if they were going to be a clear-cut (choice) once we got into the committee room, and they continued to be, despite not finishing the way coach O’Sullivan would have wanted them to finish. They clearly were the No. 1 seed with all the metrics considered.” POSTSEASON LINEUP: NCAA baseball tournament schedule TOP 25: The complete USA TODAY Sports baseball poll Play begins Friday in 16 regionals. Winners advance to eight best-of-three super regionals. Those winners move on to the College World Series in Omaha. The NCAA seeded 16 teams for the first time. There had been eight seeds previously. Stanford (44-10) is the No. 2 seed, followed by Oregon State (44-10-1), Mississippi (46-15), Arkansas (39-18), North Carolina (38-18), Florida State (43-17) and Georgia (37-19). Seeds nine through 16 are Texas Tech (39-17), Clemson (45-14), Stetson (45-11), East Carolina (43-16), Texas (37-20), Minnesota (41-13), Coastal Carolina (42-17) and North Carolina State (40-16). Florida, the regular-season champion in the Southeastern Conference, is the only team to earn a national seed in each of the last five seasons. “Obviously, we haven’t played well lately, but coming home and having a full week of practice before the regional will certainly help,” O’Sullivan said. “We’ll try to get healthy ahead of the weekend and get some guys back on track before we play Columbia on Friday. At the end of the day, everybody has a clean slate now, and our guys will be as motivated as anyone to show everyone how good they are.” Florida State, at 41 appearances in a row, has the longest active streak, but no national championships to show for them. “For me to say a national championship isn’t important is as dumb a thing as anybody can say. Darn right it’s important,” said Seminoles coach Mike Martin, whose 1,987 career wins are an NCAA record. “Every coach that works is striving to be known as the top dog when it’s all said and done. That is something our program is lacking and we’re working very hard to achieve that.” The last four teams to make the field were Dallas Baptist (40-19), Northeastern (36-19), Oklahoma State (29-24-1) and Troy (41-19). The first four out were Arizona (34-22), Illinois (33-20), Kentucky (34-22) and Central Florida (35-21). Perhaps the biggest surprise was Kentucky’s exclusion and Northeastern’s inclusion. At No. 30, Kentucky had the highest RPI of any team not selected. The Wildcats went 3-0 in a March tournament in Houston, including a win over the host and American Athletic Conference regular-season champion Cougars. They won two of three each against national seeds Texas Tech and Georgia. Northeastern, No. 35 in the RPI, lost two of three at Auburn, was outscored 56-12 in losing four straight at Texas Tech, and lost four of six to No. 65 RPI team UNC-Wilmington. Kentucky was punished for going 13-17 in the SEC and losing its league tournament opener. Northeastern went 17-6 and was first in the Colonial Athletic Association. Tanner said the committee placed emphasis on conference play perhaps more than previous committees. He pointed out that only one team in the field, Texas A&M, had a below-.500 conference record. The Aggies are No. 15 in the RPI, though. The SEC tied the tournament record with 10 teams in the field, including four top-eight seeds. Big 12 regular-season champion Texas is making its record 59th appearance. Hartford (26-29), the America East regular-season and tournament winner, is in for the first time and will play host Stetson as a No. 4 regional seed. Notable teams not in the field are Rice (26-31-2), which had made 23 straight appearances, and Virginia (29-25), which had made 14 in a row. TCU (33-23), which lost to Baylor in the Big 12 final, also will stay home after reaching the College World Series the last four years.<doc-sep>By Jose Saldana on May 29, 2018 The bracket and seeding for the NCAA Division 1 Baseball Tournament was revealed on Monday morning. As one of the eight national seeds (the Cardinal are second overall), Stanford baseball (44-10) will host a regional, and if it wins the regional, then it will have a chance to host a super regional. The Cardinal are the first seed in its region with Baylor (second seed), Cal State Fullerton (third seed) and Wright State University (fourth seed) all set to face off this weekend. This is the second consecutive year the Cardinal will host a regional, and it will be the second year that Fullerton will be in the regional with the Cardinal, but this time as the third seed instead of the second seed. The Titans defeated Stanford twice in the regional last season to advance to the super regionals. This is the 17th time the Cardinal have hosted an NCAA Regional. Stanford will first play against Wright State on Friday at 7 p.m. PT, while Baylor and Fullerton will battle it out at 2 p.m. PT. The NCAA Regional round has round-robin, double-elimination format, so if the Cardinal lose they still have a chance to make it out of the regional. Friday’s game against Wright State will be broadcast on ESPN2.<doc-sep>
Defending national champion Florida earned the No. 1 seed in the NCAA baseball tournament on Monday, leading four SEC teams among the top eight seeds and a record-tying 10 overall from the league. The Gators (42-17) won the SEC regular season this year after sweeping LSU in the championship series a year ago for the school's first national title in baseball. Stanford, which is 44-10 under first-year coach David Esquer, is the No. 2 national seed, followed by Oregon State, SEC tournament champion Ole Miss, Arkansas, North Carolina, Florida State and Georgia. After the round of four team regionals Friday through next Monday, the top eight seeds -- if victorious on the opening weekend -- would host best-of-three super regionals June 8-11 to determine the field for the College World Series, which opens June 16 in Omaha, Nebraska. Seeds 9 through 16, in order, are Texas Tech, Clemson, Stetson, East Carolina, Texas, Minnesota, Coastal Carolina and N.C. State. Stetson (45-11) is the first team to host from the Atlantic Sun Conference. It carries a nation-leading, 15-game winning streak into the tournament. South Florida, Oklahoma State and Hartford are headed to the DeLand, Florida, regional. Minnesota, which won the Big Ten regular-season and tournament crowns, is hosting for the first time since 2000. From the SEC, Auburn, South Carolina, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt, Mississippi State and LSU also made the field. The conference's 10 bids equal the record set previously by the SEC in 2014 and the ACC in 2016. A potential 11th SEC team, Kentucky, was denied a spot by the selection committee after losing its final four games. Notably, Texas A&M will open against Indiana in the Austin, Texas, regional, with the winner to play Texas or Texas Southern. And LSU, seeded second in Corvallis, Oregon, could meet host Oregon State in one of the most attractive matchups of the first weekend. Miami missed the tournament for a second straight season after a record 44 consecutive appearances.