A Look At The Selection Process & Tournament Format

CLICK HERE to see the up to date list of teams that have received automatic bids.

According to the NCAA’s 2010 Division One Baseball Championship Handbook (PDF)  here is how at-large selections are made:

• The committee uses the Rating Percentage Index (RPI), a computer program that provides the committee with (1) the institution’s Division I winning percentage, (2) opponents’ success and (3) opponents’ strength of schedule. The RPI is an additional tool used in the evaluation of at-large teams. Please note that the adjusted RPI takes into account a bonus/penalty structure. Bonus and penalty values will only be used for non-conference games.
• Regular-season conference standings and/or conference postseason competition shall be considered by the committee when selecting at-large teams.
• The committee may consider comparing data of individual teams, including, but not limited to, overall record, Division I record, overall RPI rank, non-conference record and RPI rank, conference regular-season record and conference tournament results, road record and RPI, last 15 games’ record, its record against teams ranked 1-25, 26-50, 51-100, 101-150 and below 150 in the RPI, head-to-head record, common opponents’ record and input from regional advisory committees.
• Make no mistake…RPI is a huge factor in the selection and seeding process.
• Regional host sites will be announced on Sunday, May 30, while the field of 64 will be announced on Monday, May 31 (Memorial Day).

The same criteria is also used in determining seeding for Regionals and the top eight national seeds.  The top eight national seeds are essentially the eight teams that (at least in theory) should make it to the College World Series.  Top eight seeds are guaranteed they would not have to play each other until the CWS.

It should also be noted that while making last year’s at-large selections 2009 Selection Committee Chairman, Tim Weiser, added an additional selection criteria to the process “Who are you least gonna wanna play,” is how Weiser explained how some teams were picked over others.

Here’s how the tournament is formatted:

Regionals

• Sixteen four-team regional tournaments take place at different locations around the country.
• Ordinarily, all regional and super regional tournaments are located on or near the campus of one of the competing institutions; however, a regional or super regional tournament may be scheduled at a neutral site provided advance approval is obtained from the Division I Championships/Sports Management Cabinet.
• The committee shall attempt to place regional tournaments so that maximum national balance can be obtained, preferably at least one regional in each of the eight Division I baseball regions.
• Except for the 16 No. 1 regional seeds, the pairings for the regionals, whenever possible, will be based on closest geographical location of the teams to the tournament sites. Teams may be moved outside their regions, if necessary, to balance the bracket, or if the proximity to an opponent outside the region would be comparable and a better competitive match-up would occur.
• Two teams from the same conference cannot be placed in the same regional.
• Teams from the same conference and seeded first in their respective regional will be placed on the bracket to avoid meeting in the super regionals.
• Typically, #1 seeds host regionals, but it is possible for a #2 seed to host.
• Teams are seeded 1-4, with the #1 seed playing the #4 seed and the #2 seed playing the #3 seed on the first day of the tournament.
• The tournament is played out in a double-elimination format, with the winner advancing to one of eight Super Regionals.

Here’s the Regional format:
Day 1
Game 1—No. 1 vs. No. 4
Game 2—No. 2 vs. No. 3
Day 2
Game 3—Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2
Game 4—Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2
Day 3
Game 5—Winner Game 3 vs. Loser Game 4
Game 6—Winner Game 4 vs. Winner Game 5
Day 4
Game 7—If necessary, same teams as in Game 6.

Super Regionals

• Two teams will play a best two of three format to determine the Super Regional winner.
• Super regional competition takes place at on-campus sites or alternate sites approved by the baseball committee.
• Consideration for hosting shall be given to the higher seed, including the eight national seeds, if a suitable hosting proposal has been received (e.g., meets financial guarantee and quality of facility criteria). If the higher seed has not submitted a proposal, the lower-seeded team will host if their proposal is acceptable.
• If the super regional match-up is between equally seeded teams, the committee shall review the hosting proposals according to the site selection criteria (e.g., quality and availability of the facility, revenue potential and other available accommodations) to determine the host. If only one of the teams has submitted a
  proposal, that team shall host if the proposal is acceptable.
• Winners of the eight super regional tournaments will qualify for the Men’s College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska.

Here’s the Super Regional format:

Day 1:  Game 1—Team A vs. Team B
Day 2: Game 2—Team A vs. Team B
Day 3: Game 3—If necessary, Team A vs. Team B.

College World Series

• The eight winners of the super regional competitions will advance to the Men’s College World Series.
• Two four-team bracket will play a double-elimination tournament to determine the bracket champions (similar to the regional format).
• The MCWS Finals best two of three format consists of single games Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday (if necessary), June 28-30.
• The College World Series begins on Saturday, June 19 at Omaha’s Rosenblatt Stadium.

30 conference champions earn automatic berths into the field of 64 in the 2010 NCAA Division One baseball tournament.  We will list them as they secure their bids.

CLICK HERE to see the NCAA selection handbook, which includes at-large selection criteria and more information.

NCAA Tournament Selection Timeline

America East-Stony Brook

ACC:  Florida State

Atlantic Sun:  Mercer

Atlantic 10-St. Louis

Big East-St. John’s

Big South-Coastal Carolina

Big Ten-Minnesota

Big 12-Texas A&M

Big West-Cal State Fullerton

CAA-Virginia Commonwealth

CUSA-Southern Mississippi

Horizon:  Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Ivy League-Dartmouth

MAAC-Rider

MAC-Kent State

MEAC-Bethune-Cookman

Missouri Valley-Illinois State (Won First Ever Tournament)

Mountain West-TCU

Northeast-Central Connecticut St.

Ohio Valley-Jacksonville St.

Pac 10-Arizona State

Patriot League-Bucknell

SEC-LSU

Southern-The Citadel

Southland-Texas St.

SWAC-Grambling St.

Summit League-Oral Roberts (Won 13th straight tournament)

Sun Belt-Florida International

WCC-San Diego

WAC-Hawaii (First title since 1992)

FAIRFIELD, Conn. - Fairfield University Baseball Head Coach John Slosar announced the Stags’ 2010 slate this afternoon. The schedule includes opponents from the Big East, the CAA, the Atlantic-10, the Horizon League, and the Ivy League.

Fairfield head coach John Slosar

13-14, for a three-game series with the Hornets.

Complete 2010 Fairfield Schedule

Fairfield returns to the Northeast on March 16 for a single game against Big East foe St. John’s. The Stags open play at Alumni Diamond on March 18 when they host Quinnipiac. It’s the first of three games against the Bobcats that the Stags will play this season. The two teams will also meet in Hamden, Conn. on April 10 and will be back at Alumni Diamond on April 11.

The Stags will head to Hofstra, March 20-21, for a four-game tilt with the CAA foes. Fairfield will also travel to Sacred Heart and Hartford before opening MAAC play at Saint Peter’s on March 27. After non-league home games against Fordham and Bryant, the Stags will host Rider during Easter weekend for their first MAAC home series. The two teams will play a doubleheader on April 3 followed by a single game on April 5. The Stags will host three additional MAAC series which includes Manhattan, Canisius, and the regular season finale against Marist, May 20-21.

Fairfield will have several weekday non-conference games throughout the month of April. The Stags travel to Yale for a doubleheader on April 14, host UConn on April 20 and Sacred Heart on April 27, head to Stony Brook on April 28, and will have home and home series with Central Connecticut.

Fairfield went 20-27 overall and 10-14 in the MAAC last season. The Stags return eight starting position players and six starting pitchers, including senior captains David Dudish, Bill Rafferty, and Rob Gariano, a First Team All-MAAC selection.

(Release)

CAMBIDGE, Mass. - Harvard has posted its completed 2010 baseball schedule. Joe Walsh’s Crimson plays its first 22 games away from home in what will be a 43-game regular season schedule.

Harvard Head Coach Joe Walsh

7 p.m. that night to face the host Hatters team. The next day Harvard confronts Kansas State in a noon start.

Complete 2010 Harvard Schedule

The Crimson then embarks on a 10-day trip to Minnesota and the Carolinas. On March 12-14, Harvard plays single games at the Minneapolis Metrodome, opening against the host Gophers on the 12^th. Harvard defeated Minnesota, 9-1, during its last trip to the Dome in 2005. Harvard will also play South Dakota State (13^th) and Creighton (14^th) during the three-day tournament.

Harvard has a short turnaround following the Creighton game as the Crimson takes on Gardner-Webb in Boiling Springs, N.C. at 3 p.m. on March 15.   The following day Harvard takes on Winthrop in Rock Hill, N.C. before playing two games in as many days at UNC – Greensboro. Harvard concludes its southern swing with a three-game set at Charlotte, March 19-21.

After six off days, Harvard travels to Hartford, Conn. for doubleheaders against Sacred Heart (March 27) and the University of Hartford (March 28). Following a midweek game at Holy Cross, March 31, Harvard gets into its Ivy League schedule with twinbills at Princeton (April 3) and Cornell (April 4).

Harvard’s home opener comes April 6 against Bryant University. That weekend, the Crimson hosts Penn and Columbia at O’Donnell Field as part of the five-game home stand.

The Crimson makes a short trip to Northeastern on April 13, one day before a first round game of the annual Beanpot at Boston College. The final round of the tournament is scheduled for April 20 at Fenway Park and Harvard will play another regularly-scheduled game against Boston College on the 21st.

Harvard hosts the Brown Bears in a four-game set at O’Donnell Field April 17-18 while traveling to Yale for four games the following weekend in its pivotal Rolfe Division games. The Crimson then plays home-and-home twinbills against Dartmouth with the first set being played at O’Donnell Field on May 1. The Ivy League Championship Series, pitting the Rolfe and Gehrig Division winners in a 2-of-3 series, will take place May 8-9.

(Release)

BGSU Head Coach Danny Schmitz

season and defending their home field with an 81 percent success rate. The Cardinal pitching staff led the Big East in team ERA (4.32) as well as in homeruns (85) and total bases (1,124). Last year UL swept BG in a three game set by a combined score of 33-12.

Complete 2010 Bowling Green Schedule

The road trip through Ohio’s southern neighbor continues with three games against the University of Kentucky. Though UK baseball finished fifth in the SEC East Division, College Baseball Newspaper has tabbed the Wildcats as having the sixth-best recruiting class in the nation, an honor the program has received two years in a row.

To open the month of March the Falcons will head further south to the former home of the Cleveland Indians spring training program, Winter Haven, Florida. The Falcons will spend nine days (March 5-14) in Winter Haven and play as many games during that span. Only two of the eight opposing teams return for this year’s Russ Matt Central Florida Invitational with Indiana and Sacred Heart, but six very skilled teams will visit to provide the Falcons some tough competition.

The Falcons will take the field against Northeastern, who finished the 2009 season with a 28-25 overall mark, to open their slate during the invitational. The next three days will feature match ups against Rhode Island, Butler and Sacred Heart. Those three teams sport a combined record of 77-89-1 from a season ago with Rhode Island garnering the most success following a 37-20-1 campaign a season ago. After enjoying an off-day at the mid-way point of the week long trip, the Falcons will head back into battle against the Ivy League’s Yale University for a double-header against the Bulldogs. North Dakota State and Indiana will round out the schedule for the duration of the tournament before the Brown and Orange return to Bowling Green.

Last year, the Falcons finished 5-3 during their stay in Winter Haven with signature wins over Bradley in extra innings and against 2010 recurring opponent Eastern Kentucky University. Of the two teams that the Falcons will play in back-to-back years in the tournament, Indiana and Sacred Heart, the Falcons were 1-1 in games against those opponents having lost to the Hoosiers 15-7 and defeating the Pioneers in a pitcher’s duel, 1-0.
Bowling Green will bring baseball back to northwest Ohio when they open their home schedule with a local rival in the Findlay Oilers. The Falcons will engage in a battle for I-75 South on March 16 at Warren E. Stellar Field for the home opener. Bowling Green has won their last ten home openers at Warren Steller Field and has not lost since a 7-6 defeat to the Wright State Raiders in the 1999 season opener.

Schmitz and Company continue to yield southern hospitality as the team travels east straight from EKU to play another Big East team in the West Virginia Mountaineers. The Mountaineers finished third in the Big East last season and only lost five games at home. The Falcons had not played a Big East team since 2008 when the Falcons fell to Villanova 10-8 in Bradenton, FL. This year, the teams will meet at a neutral site at VA Memorial Stadium in Chillicothe, Ohio.

Of the early non-conference schedule, head coach Danny Schmitz said, “This is probably the toughest schedule we’ve put together. It is a schedule that we wanted to challenge our team with. We’re doing that for a reason. We have to get ourselves ready for conference play because the Mid-American Conference is an outstanding baseball conference.”

Schmitz continued, “We have high expectations [of the players]. You still have to earn it each day you cross the white lines. This schedule is going to be very, very competitive. We hope our kids are going to be up to the task.”

With their return back to Falcon country, BGSU will open its conference slate with MAC West foe Central Michigan on March 24. It will be the only time the Chippewas and the Falcons will play in 2010 but will ready Bowling Green for a home weekend set with Northern Illinois beginning two days later.

Bowling Green will step out of conference again to play Atlantic-10 power house Dayton for a single showdown to close out the month of March. The Dragons and Falcons have had three of their last five matchups cancelled due to weather since 2007. In those two matchups, the Dragons have come out on top both times. In their lone matchup in 2007, the Falcons took the Dragons to 12 innings before losing 8-7 in an extra-inning thriller.

The next four contests between April 2 and April 6 will take the Falcons into Michigan for a three-game series against Eastern Michigan. BG will then hop on the bus to East Lansing, MI. for its first contest with a Big Ten opponent in the Michigan State Spartans. Since 2001, Bowling Green has a 15-19 record when playing in the state of Michigan with nearly as many weather cancellations as wins.

The Falcons will then embark on their final game with a Michigan school against Michigan on April 14. Last year the Falcons beat the Wolverines 8-3 after not having played them since the 2002 season when the Falcons lost 4-3.

Right across the border heading back into Ohio, MAC rival Toledo will be waiting for the visiting Falcons for a weekend series to be held in the Glass City. Bowling Green possess 102 wins against Toledo over their 88 year rivalry. That stands as the most wins BGSU has over any school they have played in program history.

After back-to-back home games against Dayton and Western Michigan on April 20-21, the Falcons hit the road again, this time going to Athens for three games against Ohio and then heading to northeast Ohio for the season finale versus Cleveland State.

Six consecutive Mid-American conference home games follow on the Falcon schedule when Bowling Green plays host to the Miami Redhawks and Akron Zips to close out April heading into the first week of May (April 30-May 9).

For the first time since April 26, 2006 the Falcons will head back to South Bend, Ind. for a single out-of-conference game with the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame. The last time Bowling Green took the trip to South Bend the Falcons outscored the Irish 11-8 on their home field. That win had broken a ten game winless streak against Notre Dame since 1990.

Bowling Green then heads to Kent, Ohio to take on the once nationally ranked Golden Flashes, who had taken two-of-three from the Falcons in 2009. Kent State finished one game behind the Falcons in the MAC standings last year after ranking second in the conference in team pitching as well as in team batting, finishing behind Bowling Green.

Another Horizon League team will come to the Falcons’ territory when the Penguins of Youngstown State come to Steller Field on May 18. Despite a 16-35 record a season ago, the Penguins return six of eight regular position players from their starting lineup and all three of their starting pitchers from last season.

“I think year in and year out there are some outstanding teams,” said Schmitz on the quality of MAC baseball this year. “Kent State as well as OU will be very strong again this year. Miami (OH) was a little young last year, but they’ve gained a lot of experience. We finished off the season with Akron and had a heck of a battle with them for three games and we expect Akron to be very much improved. You really have to bring the ‘A-game’ this year.”

This year the Mid-American Conference Tournament will be held in Chillicothe, Ohio at VA Memorial Stadium. Should the Falcons win a bid to be in field of eight MAC teams to participate in the tournament, they will return to the same field that they are scheduled to play West Virginia earlier in the season.

(Release)

HANOVER, N.H. — Dartmouth College head baseball coach Bob Whalen today announced the 2010 schedule for his defending Ivy League champion squad this spring, including eight games against teams that participated in the 2009 NCAA Regionals. The Big Green will open the season with excellent challenges on March 6 in Charlottesville, Va., where they will square off against Wright State and host Virginia, both of which played in the postseason with the Cavaliers advancing to the College World Series. The three-game trip will conclude the following day with another contest versus Virginia. Dartmouth's Bob Whalen In mid-March, Dartmouth will embark on an 11-game spring trip with the first stop in Winter Haven, Fla., where they will play three Big Ten schools — Illinois twice, Northwestern and Ohio State (a 2009 NCAA participant) — before wrapping up the trip with a three-game series at another 2009 NCAA team, Bethune-Cookman. Complete 2010 Dartmouth Schedule The Ivy season will get under way with a doubleheader on April 3 at Cornell, the team the Big Green defeated in the Ivy Championship series this past May. The first of 10 home dates will take place on April 6 against Williams to begin a 12-game homestand. Columbia, Penn and Yale will all make the trek to Red Rolfe Field at Biondi Park, as will New England rivals Quinnipiac, Holy Cross and Boston College of the ACC, the final NCAA team Dartmouth will play in the regular season. After the season wraps up on May 1-2 with doubleheaders against Harvard, the victors of the Rolfe and Gehrig Division will play in the Ivy Championship on May 8-9. Dartmouth is coming off a 27-18 campaign in 2009 when it won the Ivy Championship series by defeating Cornell, two games to one. The Big Green went 16-4 in league play, winning their first 11 games against conference foes. The 2009 Ivy League Player of the Year, Nick Santomauro, signed with the New York Mets this summer as a 10th-round draft choice, but Coach Whalen has his entire pitching staff back as well as four positional starters to defend their title. Senior left-hander Robert Young (5-4, 4.63 ERA) is the Big Green captain and anchors the staff with a pair of right-handers in All-Ivy second-teamer sophomore Kyle Hendricks (6-3, 4.84 ERA) and senior Ben Murray (6-1, 5.27 ERA) in the rotation as well. The Ivy leader in saves, junior right-hander Ryan Smith (2-3, 11 saves), returns already owning the single-season and career marks for saves at Dartmouth. Offensively, sophomore shortstop Joe Sclafani (.339 BA/.417 OBA/.477 SLG) is the Big Green’s leading returning hitter and provides excellent defense up the middle. He combines with junior second baseman Jeff Onstott (.308/.427/.497) to make up the league’s foremost double-play combination. A pair of senior outfielders in Jim Wren (.325/.374/.506) and Brett Gardner (.314/.419/.500) return to help give Dartmouth a strong nucleus in its offensive attack. (Release)