Postseason Buzz: Sizing up national seed, hosting and bubble situations
Postseason Buzz: Sizing up national seed, hosting and bubble situations • D1Baseball
It was an important weekend from a national seed, hosting and at-large bubble standpoint. Who helped or hurt their postseason cases?
Other potential hosts to watch now include Indiana State, Dallas Baptist, Campbell, East Carolina, Southern Miss, and Oregon State. I feel like the metrics just aren’t there for the Sycamores when you consider the entire resume, DBU is still squarely in the mix as a conference champion with an RPI of 15, Campbell is up to 21 in the RPI and could host with a very strong showing in the Big South tourney, ECU won the American regular season title again and is sitting at 22 in the RPI, while Southern Miss and OSU are sitting at 28 and 30. Both of those teams have work to do, but if the Beavers, for instance, have a strong showing in the Pac-12 tournament, it’s my belief that they’ll host even with an iffy RPI given the fact they finished second in the Pac-12 with an 18-12 league record. Stay tuned, as the hosting race is still very much wide open.
Coastal Carolina continues to be in a good spot to host as a Top 16. The Chanticleers beat North Carolina in the midweek before sweeping Marshall over the weekend. So, no new blemishes. Furthermore, it won the nation’s No. 5 RPI conference and has a Top 16 RPI. I feel confident in saying Coastal will be a host in a couple of weeks. Furthermore, the Chants could get back into the top-eight mix with a strong showing at the SBC tourney.
Bubble Teams
• Texas State was the last team out of our field last week, and the Bobcats hurt their case over the past week with a midweek loss to TCU and a 2-1 record against ULM over the weekend. The Bobcats are now sitting at 52 in the RPI as the fifth-place team in the Sun Belt. That requires a very strong run in the conference tournament to make the field.
