Will Bolt and his B1G Champions are headed to Stillwater for the NCAA Regional Tournament and will face the Florida Gators in the first round. The second seeded Cornhuskers are also joined by the host Oklahoma State Cowboys and the Niagara Purple Eagles. Oklahoma State blew through the Big 12 conference tournament, and Niagara won the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.
Florida comes in with a 28-27 record, and was knocked out of the SEC tournament in their first game. They were considered a bubble team at best, but with an athletic director on the selection committee, they ended up in the field of 64. That said, they have arguably one of the best players in college baseball, Jac Caglianone. The committee chair cited their strength of schedule in their selection. Regardless of their record, they will be a formidable opponent for Nebraska.
The sixteen host sites were named on Sunday afternoon after the completion of the final conference tournament. To no surprise, the SEC and ACC dominated within this list, each of the two conferences having five host sites. In addition, it is no surprise that Oregon State is the only host in a northern state, though arguably there were some deserving schools, for example, Indiana State. However, when you look at the power-base of this sport, you still have to look where the sun shines longer. Here are the sixteen host sites for this year:
- Athens, Georgia – Georgia (39-15)
- Chapel Hill, North Carolina – North Carolina (42-13)
- Charlottesville, Virginia – Virginia (41-15)
- Clemson, South Carolina – Clemson (41-14)
- Bryan-College Station, Texas – Texas A&M (44-13)
- Corvallis, Oregon – Oregon State (42-14)
- Fayetteville, Arkansas – Arkansas (43-14)
- Greenville, North Carolina – East Carolina (43-15)
- Knoxville, Tennessee – Tennessee (50-11)
- Lexington, Kentucky – Kentucky (40-14)
- Norman, Oklahoma – Oklahoma (37-19)
- Raleigh, North Carolina – NC State (33-20)
- Santa Barbara, California – UC Santa Barbara (42-12)
- Stillwater, Oklahoma – Oklahoma State (40-17)
- Tallahassee, Florida – Florida State (42-15)
- Tucson, Arizona – Arizona (36-21)
Indiana got a bid from the conference as well. They are headed to Knoxville as the 3rd seed and will take on Southern Miss in their first-round game. The Hoosiers put together a very solid season in spite of a rash of injuries to many of their top-line players. Because they did not make the Sunday final in Omaha, there were some who doubted that they would get the call.
Regular season champions Illinois also made the tournament as the third seed in the Lexington regional, joining top seed Kentucky, Western Michigan, and a team that many thought was deserving of being named a host, the Indiana State Sycamores.
There are a few other Nebraska connections in the tournament. Former coach and Nebraska alum, Andy Sawyers has his SE Missouri State Redhawks in the tournament in back-to-back seasons. Former head coach Dave Van Horn has his Arkansas team are back in the tournament as a host once again, nailing down the fifth seed. The OmaHogs have one of the best pitching staffs in the country.
Nebraska’s strength of schedule shows up with the regional selections as well. In addition to playing Indiana, they also played against the following regional qualifiers this season: Kansas State, Oklahoma, Grand Canyon, and Nicholls.
Of note, ESPN analyst Kyle Peterson has the Stillwater regional as the must-watch of the sixteen. Fasten your seatbelts!
Games times have yet to be announced at this point.
