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The college baseball season is hitting high gear, with the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska, less than a month away.
The NCAA baseball tournament’s field of 64 teams, consisting of 31 conference champions and 33 at-large entrants, will be announced at noon May 30 on ESPN2 and the ESPN App. The top 16 teams host regionals June 3-6, with four teams at each site competing in a double-elimination format. The 16 regional winners advance to super regionals, which are best-of-three series hosted by the top eight remaining teams to be held June 10-13.
The last eight teams left standing move on to the College World Series in Omaha beginning June 17. There, teams compete in two four-team double-elimination brackets, with the winners meeting in a best-of-three final beginning June 25 to determine the national champion. All CWS games will air on the ESPN family of networks.
Tennessee has spent much of the season as the clear-cut No. 1 team in the country, with Oregon State not far behind. From there, there is plenty of competition for the top 16 and top eight slots to host NCAA tournament games.
The conference tournaments occur before all of that. To get caught up on where things stand, we asked ESPN college baseball experts Mike Rooney, Chris Burke, Ryan McGee and Kyle Peterson what storylines they are watching most closely, what teams have been the most pleasant surprises and what sleeper teams could make some noise in Omaha, as well as their picks in the top conference tourneys.
What storyline are you following most closely?
Rooney: Can a No. 1 overall seed win the College World Series for the first time since 1999, when Miami did it? If anyone can, it’s the Tennessee Volunteers.
Burke: I agree. One of the weirdest stats in college baseball this century is that there has not been one No. 1 overall seed to win the CWS, and there have been numerous examples of No. 1 teams not even making it to Omaha. Can Tennessee, the likely top seed, be the team that finally breaks the…
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Source : espn
