13 SEC teams projected to make NCAA Baseball Tournament
With just over a week until the NCAA Baseball Tournament, the Oklahoma Soones have a bit of good news and a bit of bad.
The good is that OU is locked into the postseason. Oklahoma could lose its final two regular-season games against Texas, lost in the first round of next week's Southeastern Conference Tournament, and still make the NCAAs. The Sooners may not like their seeding if that happened, but they'd be in.
The bad news is after Friday's loss to the Longhorns, the chances of hosting in the NCAA Tournament are all but kaput. And finishing in the aforementioned manner might drop the Oklahoma to a Regional three-seed instead of a two-seed. As of now, in the latest bracket projections from USA TODAY Sports, OU remains a two.
Eddie Timanus and Erick Smith released their latest projection on Thursday and the Sooners found themselves as the No. 2-seed in the Chapel Hill Regional, hosting by North Carolina. If such a meeting were to come to fruition, Oklahoma would play No. 3-seed and former Big 12 rival Kansas State. The host Tar Heels would get No. 4 Yale.
The USA TODAY Sports projections listed 13 of the 16 SEC teams as in the tournament field. Another, preseason No. 1 Texas A&M slotted in the First Four Out listing. Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, Arkansas, LSU and Texas would all host regionals in the projections. Oklahoma's regional would be against national No. 8-seed North Carolina.
The Sooners won't know their NCAA Tournament fate until Sunday, May 25 during the NCAA Tournament selection show. They have at least three games left until then, meaning fortunes can change, even if it's unlikely they do.
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