2026 NCAA Baseball Tournament

[jatchet]

So… UGAg is up 15-1.
They’re still playing…. Errr waiting to play.
No danger that they lose, but they’re still waiting to finish a game that the outcome has been decided. Why would any host team play the late game on Friday?

How does it work for these kind of games? Have to play 9, no matter what?

 

[Lagrangejacket]

So… UGAg is up 15-1.
They’re still playing…. Errr waiting to play.
No danger that they lose, but they’re still waiting to finish a game that the outcome has been decided. Why would any host team play the late game on Friday?

The host can usually choose, but TV can veto I believe.

GT always chose to play the evening game under CDH. I didn’t like it then. UNC always chose to play the afternoon game. Not sure why they didn’t this year.

 

[YJMD]

I understand the hand wringing about the rest of the ACC, buta a large portion of the SEC and UCLA have all stumbled mightily today. Great showing from the 3/4 seeds today!

True, but the ACC is also pooping the bed pretty hard.

 

[senoiajacket]

CJust a pitiful showing by the other 'competitors' in the ACC. Gawd awful.

Words can’t express the putrid performance of the ACC on this first day of regionals.

 

[CEB]

How does it work for these kind of games? Have to play 9, no matter what?

I started typing a whole bunch of stuff and realized the answer is “I don’t know.”

There is no run rule in tourney… we know that .
Weather rule regular season ( I think) requires you play 7. They stopped in 6th, so I think they have to take the field for at least a half inning? And I could also be 100% wrong.

 

[MWBATL]

Wolfpack is up… just top of second tho

Not anymore…

 

[Lagrangejacket]

Words can’t express the putrid performance of the ACC on this first day of regionals. View attachment 22206

The Choke next to Doak

 

[Buzz Rules!]

Finishing a metric vs. committee seeding analysis I started before tourney seeding (here). I wanted to do this before games got started but had to get work done so I could go to the game today . Ignore this post if you are not a metrics/stat person. Forgive any fat finger errors, I did a cursory look at accuracy but I don't get paid to do this. No AI bot was harmed or abused in this analysis. Numbers are rounded.

I analyzed the relative strength of the three metrics the committee can use (RPI, KPI, and DSR) by averaging them together and using various comparisons with actual seeding (top 32) and overall region/super region strength.

tldr;

Seeding Awards
The I got gifted my seed by the committee award: UC Santa Barbara (Texas Region) +15 seeding spots -- Honorable Mention: Boston College (Georgia Region) +10 spots
The committee gave me the finger for some reason...hmmm award: Oklahoma (GT Region) -5 seeding spots

Region Awards
The I gave the committee money and BJs to get my regional draw award: Texas (110 avg. metric strength of #2-#4 region seeds)
The committee shafted me worse than Ma Tech could given my seed award: North Carolina (53 avg. region metric strength and should have been 1 seed higher) -- Kansas, Southern Miss., and Texas A&M all had ~50 avg. region metrics but were much lower top 16 seeds)

Super Regional Awards
The committee wanted me to run through my super region faster than a hot dog from Sanford stadium award: (tie) Texas/Oregon, Auburn/Nebraska (103 avg. metric strength)
The "And it figures..." award: North Carolina/Texas A&M (52 avg. metric strength)

/tldr;

Here is the summary of super regional breakdowns and average difficulty based on strength. Easier regions have higher avg. strength and harder regions have lower avg. strength. In a perfect world as you go from #1 seed super region to #8 seed super region the difficulty should get harder (lower avg. strength) but should be a small gradual jump between each seed. But as you can see the North Carolina #5 Super Region has twice the difficulty as Texas #6 and Auburn #4. (Note that the top 16 seeds metric averages are not computed in the super region strength as 1) the difficulty calculation is for that top 16 seeds and 2) including their calculations are pretty much a wash considering their actual seeds don't deviate significantly from their metric seeds. Exception to that is Oregon and Southern Miss. who both got bumped 6 or 7 seeds. So that could have made the Texas and Florida super regions slightly easier)

In the above table, blue super regions are the UCLA side of bracket and gold (ok more yellow than old gold) is GTs side. I know people didn't care if we got the #1 or #2 seed, but we got the tougher side by being #2. And I still contend that Texas is the one team we don't want to meet in a series or couple of games (double elimination) against their best pitchers. But, maybe we get lucky and they have to burn their pitchers on other teams before we see them (provided we all make it). If we get to the title series, I do not fear anyone on the other side of the bracket.

And here is the metric breakdown if you are interested:

 

[TheStolenT]

Nc State playing 3d chess so they can eliminate Auburn tomorrow

 

[reckrider]

I really don’t give a flying F about other ACC teams or SEC teams. I only care about one.

 

[kg01]

I really don’t give a flying F about other ACC teams or SEC teams. I only care about one.

None of us GAF about them teams ... other than how their performances can impact us and put money into or out of our pockets.

 

[FredJacket]

Look at it this way... the ACC will have 3 opportunities to eliminate #1 seeds tomorrow in the loser's brackets:
VT v UCLA
UVA v So Miss
NCST v Auburn

...assuming current scores hold.

 

[TooTall]

Mutts fans complaining hard that they have to play at 8:30 in the am. Lol

 

[CEB]

Mutts fans complaining hard that they have to play at 8:30 in the am. Lol

Yup… late game is a fools errand.
Glad we’re smarter than that.

 

[gorcone]

How does it work for these kind of games? Have to play 9, no matter what?

Yep

 

[ibeattetris]

I understand the hand wringing about the rest of the ACC, buta a large portion of the SEC and UCLA have all stumbled mightily today. Great showing from the 3/4 seeds today!

yeah but we knew they were all overrated already

 

[ibeattetris]

UCSB folding back Flora:

I wonder how well they are built tom play through the loser's bracket

 

[Oldgoldandwhite]

It really goes to show you should give mid majors like Mercer a chance before taking number 9, 10, or 11 from a power conference.

Agree.

 

[davesbrain]

Milwaukee started the season 5-23..

That's one win more than Dwain Morrisons last team in 1980 (4-23)

 

[4shotB]

That's one win more than Dwain Morrisons last team in 1980 (4-23)

I was there for that. To be fair to Coach M, he was a bit unlucky. With a few more breaks throughout the season, that team very well could have had 6 or 7 wins.