{"id":10646,"date":"2015-05-27T09:03:31","date_gmt":"2015-05-27T13:03:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=10646"},"modified":"2015-05-27T09:03:31","modified_gmt":"2015-05-27T13:03:31","slug":"2015-cws-field-of-64-announced-teams-and-analysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=10646","title":{"rendered":"2015 CWS Field of 64 announced; teams and analysis"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"CWS<\/a><\/p>\n

Soon after the conference tourneys finished up, the field of 64 was announced.\u00a0 Earlier this week we reviewed the college season<\/a> for all DC local teams; now lets talk about the field of 64.<\/p>\n

This post at d1baseball.com<\/a> has a great amount of information.\u00a0 Here’s your top 16 seeds (each a regional host).<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. UCLA (42-14); Pac-12 regular season champ (no post-season tourney)<\/li>\n
  2. LSU (48-10); SEC Western Division regular season champ<\/li>\n
  3. Louisville (43-16): ACC Atlantic Division regular season champ<\/li>\n
  4. Florida (44-16): 2nd place, SEC Eastern division, SEC tourney champs<\/li>\n
  5. Miami (Florida) (44-14): ACC Coastal Division regular season champ<\/li>\n
  6. Illinois (47-8-1); Big10 regular season champ (21-1 in conference record),<\/li>\n
  7. TCU (43-11): Big12 regular season champion<\/li>\n
  8. Missouri State (45-10): MVC regular season and tourney champs.<\/li>\n
  9. Oklahoma State<\/li>\n
  10. Texas A&M<\/li>\n
  11. Vanderbilt<\/li>\n
  12. Dallas Baptist<\/li>\n
  13. Florida State<\/li>\n
  14. Cal-State Fullerton<\/li>\n
  15. Houston<\/li>\n
  16. UC Santa Barbara<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Top8 thoughts:\u00a0 in no particular order<\/p>\n

      \n
    • I don’t think UCLA is better than the handful of teams ranked below it.\u00a0 They played just 8 games against top 25 teams all year and went 4-4 in them.\u00a0 Teams from the SEC and the Big12 played twice as many quality games and had far better records.<\/li>\n
    • For my money, I would have picked one of the SEC teams, likely LSU, as my #1.\u00a0 And I would have had the other (Florida) as #2.<\/li>\n
    • Louisville seems about where they should be … and were given a very, very easy regional.<\/li>\n
    • I don’t know what to think of Miami or Dallas Baptist (the top two teams by RPI most of the year).\u00a0 Miami’s ACC division was weak but Miami played a very tough schedule.\u00a0 Are they under seeded or over seeded?\u00a0 Either way, Miami was given a very easy regional and these two RPI wonders (if seeds hold) are set to meet in the super-regional.<\/li>\n
    • Illinois will be quickly exposed despite their lofty record (Strength of schedule: 175!).\u00a0 They have a sneaky #2 seed in Notre Dame in their regional for an interesting geographical matchup.<\/li>\n
    • Missouri State is a good story, but unlike their basketball breatheren I think MVC’s participants will also get exposed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Seeds 9-16: still regional hosts but will travel if the higher seed wins.<\/p>\n

        \n
      • TAMU is a heck of a good team; i’d favor them over Missouri State in a super regional.<\/li>\n
      • Florida State played the 6th hardest schedule and had a 10-6 record against top 25 teams; and they’re just#13 overall?\u00a0\u00a0 And, to add insult to injury they have to travel to arch rival Florida in a super-regional to advance?\u00a0 Wow.\u00a0 Someone at Florida State must have pissed off a committee member.\u00a0 That being said, pundits seem to think Florida State is chronically over-rated (as are teams like Rice and Cal State Fullerton), so perhaps 13 seed is good.<\/li>\n
      • Houston’s regional is a fun one: three teams within Houston city limits.<\/li>\n
      • Is UC Santa Barbara more than just Dillon Tate<\/strong>?\u00a0 We’ll find out.<\/li>\n
      • Lots of griping about the selection of UC Santa Barbara as a “host.”\u00a0 Instead of playing on-campus, they’re hosting 3 hours away at the Lake Elsinore stadium (host of the Padres’ high-A affiliate).\u00a0 Lots of people asking why not name College of Charleston as the host and then have UVA and Maryland be its 2\/3 seeds, instead of forcing the two east coast teams to fly across the country?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        Local teams and teams of interest in the draw with comments:<\/p>\n

          \n
        • Maryland, a #3 seed, travels to Los Angeles to be in the #1 seed’s division.\u00a0 Tough draw for them.\u00a0 But probably appropriate seeding.\u00a0 Pundits think Maryland was one of the last teams in.<\/li>\n
        • UVA, also gets a #3 seed and has to travel to Santa Barbara.\u00a0 UVA is not a #3 seed; they had worked their way back to the fringes of the top 25 by season’s end, and in RPI they finished #21.\u00a0 That’s the upper end of the #2 seeds, not a #3 seed who is forced to travel 3,000 miles.\u00a0 Now that being said, they get a very winnable regional.\u00a0 UC Santa Barbara may only have one arm and USC is about even with UVA.<\/li>\n
        • College of Charleston (and Ashburn’s Taylor Clarke<\/strong>) get a #2 seed (well deserved; they were almost a\u00a0 host) but have to go to Florida State (tough).\u00a0 See commentary above.<\/li>\n
        • VCU heads to Dallas for Dallas Baptist’s regional, which also has traditional powerhouse Texas thrown in as a #3 seed.\u00a0 Ouch.<\/li>\n
        • Radford gets a #2 seed (??) but heads to Vanderbilt’s regional, who I have as a dark horse to make the CWS.<\/li>\n
        • UNC got screwed; probably the last team out.\u00a0 Ask yourself; do you think UNC loses to Maryland in a three-game neutral site series?\u00a0 Yeah, I don’t think so either.\u00a0 RPI of 28 and left out; that’s apparently the 2nd highest RPI of a team left out in a decade.\u00a0 7th hardest schedule.\u00a0 But if you look at the ACC standings … every team that finished with a .500 or better conference record made the field, and every other team did not.\u00a0 UNC’s conference record?\u00a0 13-16.\u00a0 If they don’t get swept in their last two conference seasons, they’re in the field.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

          Predictions?<\/p>\n

            \n
          • Of the top 8 hosts, I don’t see many upsets.\u00a0 I could see Notre Dame taking out #6 Illinois.\u00a0 I could see NC State giving #7 TCU issues.\u00a0 I’d also say that Missouri State is in trouble .. but their 2\/3 seeds don’t seem to scare anyone (Iowa and Oregon).<\/li>\n
          • Of the 9-16 seeds, I can see Cal State Fullerton getting into trouble, and I could see a scenario where practically anyone could come out of the Santa Barbara regional.\u00a0 I’m not sure I think Dallas Baptist is good enough to beat two power-houses in Oregon State and Texas.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

             <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

            Soon after the conference tourneys finished up, the field of 64 was announced.\u00a0 Earlier this week we reviewed the college season for all DC local teams; now lets talk about the field of 64. This post at d1baseball.com has a great amount of information.\u00a0 Here’s your top 16 seeds (each a regional host). UCLA (42-14); […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[2746,2429],"class_list":["post-10646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-college","tag-dillon-tate","tag-taylor-clarke"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10646"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10655,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10646\/revisions\/10655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}