Editor's note: The following .
We’re at the final stretch of the regular season, and that means it’s time for the latest D1Baseball Field of 64 Projections. Note that we will have weekly projections leading up to selection Monday and daily projection updates during conference tournament week.
In terms of significant changes to the top eight seeds in our projections, there is just one change. Oregon State, following a 0-4 weekend against rival Oregon, slipped out of the top eight. That made room for UC Irvine, which continues to dominate the Big West Conference and has an impressive RPI of 11 to go with an elite non-conference strength of schedule of 19.
In terms of the Top 16 seeds, there was a little movement from last week’s projections. For instance, Arizona and TCU are narrowly out as hosts, with TCU being our No. 17 team this week. In as hosts are surging NC State, which has a rising RPI and a 15-6 ACC record, and the aforementioned UC Irvine, which vaulted from just outside the hosting mix to the No. 8 spot. Oregon is another team to watch, hosting-wise, over the next week. The Ducks are surging at the right time and have head-to-head series wins over UCLA and Oregon State. However, the RPI is still sitting at 29. We’re bullish on how UO will finish the season.
Mark Etheridge, Kendall Rogers and Aaron Fitt meet in our weekly to deliberate the latest Field of 64 projections.
Bids by conference: SEC (13), ACC (10), Big 12 (6), Big Ten (4), Sun Belt (3), Big West (2), Big East (2), Southland (2).
LAST FOUR IN: Texas A&M, UTRGV, Virginia Tech, Kansas State
FIRST FOUR OUT: Western Kentucky, Virginia, Mississippi State, McNeese
FOUR TO WATCH: Michigan, Cincinnati, Notre Dame, Kennesaw State
(* denotes conference automatic qualifier, parentheses indicate national seed)
| Austin, TX | Los Angeles |
| 1. Texas* (1) 2. TCU 3. U of Texas Rio Grande Valley 4. Oral Roberts* |
1. UCLA (16) 2. Cal Poly 3. Texas A&M 4. Fresno State* |
| Baton Rouge | Conway, SC |
| 1. LSU (2) 2. Dallas Baptist* 3. SE Louisiana* 4. Maine* |
1. Coastal Carolina* 2. Wake Forest 3. Arizona State 4. Fairfield* |
| Tallahassee, FL | Auburn, AL |
| 1. Florida State* (3) 2. Troy 3. Florida 4. Bethune-Cookman* |
1. Auburn (14) 2. Southern Miss 3. Miami 4. Ball State* |
| Fayetteville, AR | Raleigh, NC |
| 1. Arkansas (4) 2. Kansas 3. Iowa* 4. SE Missouri State* |
1. NC State (13) 2. Ole Miss 3. Connecticut 4. High Point* |
| Chapel Hill, NC | Morgantown, WV |
| 1. North Carolina (5) 2. Oklahoma 3. Northeastern* 4. Central Conn. State* |
1. West Virginia* (12) 2. Kentucky 3. Virginia Tech 4. George Mason* |
| Knoxville, TN | Corvallis, OR |
| 1. Tennessee (6) 2. UTSA* 3. Duke 4. Holy Cross* |
1. Oregon State (11) 2. Oregon 3. Kansas State 4. Sacramento State* |
| Clemson, SC | Athens, GA |
| 1. Clemson (7) 2. Alabama 3. Xavier* 4. Wright State* |
1. Georgia (10) 2. Georgia Tech 3. Stetson* 4. Yale* |
| Irvine, CA | Nashville, TN |
| 1. UC Irvine* (8) 2. Arizona 3. Southern California 4. San Diego* |
1. Vanderbilt (9) 2. Louisville 3. East Tenn. State* 4. Missouri State* |
