2023 NCAA Tournament Projected Field of 64 (5/3/23)

With the calendar now flipped to May, college baseball is into the stretch run of the season. Most conferences have just three weekends of play remaining before the start of their tournaments.

Still, at this time of the season, there is some projection involved with building a Field of 64. This is meant to illustrate what the tournament would look like on Selection Monday, not how it would be seeded if it started tomorrow.

This week’s projection includes a few new hosts. Connecticut, Dallas Baptist and Miami move up to the host line this week. UConn again flips with Boston College as the likelier host of a potential Northeast regional. Both teams could host, but with BC losing a home series against Clemson last weekend, it is slipping in the ACC pecking order. DBU has maintained a top-20 RPI and its place atop the Conference USA standings and should that continue, the Patriots can expect to be rewarded. While other ACC teams have slipped in recent weeks, Miami has been solid and now only Wake Forest has more ACC wins than the Hurricanes. They’re also up to a top-16 RPI with a top-10 strength of schedule, putting them on track.

Just off the hosting bubble are teams like BC, Clemson, Kentucky and Tennessee. Any of that group could host with a strong finish in conference play, but none have much of a margin for error over the next three weeks as they’re only a game or two over .500 in conference play. Oklahoma State is in better shape in terms of conference record (11-7) and is back in the mix as well.

On the tournament bubble, Auburn’s series win at South Carolina and Georgia’s series loss at Mississippi have the Tigers and Bulldogs flipped as the last SEC team in. Louisville’s slide continued last weekend with a home series loss to Miami and the Cardinals are now in must-win mode the rest of the season. For more in-depth bubble analysis, Baseball America will update Bubble Watch weekly.

Baseball America will continue to update the projected field weekly throughout the spring.

PROJECTED FIELD OF 64
Baton Rouge, La.		Storrs, Conn.
1. (1) LSU*^		1. (16) Connecticut^*
2. Southern Miss		2. Boston College
3. Washington		3. Northeastern*
4. Maine*		4. Army*

Winston-Salem, N.C.		Dallas
1. (2) Wake Forest^*		1. (15) Dallas Baptist^*
2. Texas Tech		2. Texas
3. Elon		3. Texas A&M
4. Davidson*		4. Sam Houston State*

Nashville		Terre Haute, Ind.
1. (3) Vanderbilt^		1. (14) Indiana State^*
2. Oregon State		2. Indiana
3. Louisville		3. Notre Dame
4. Fairfield*		4. Central Michigan*

Fayetteville, Ark.		Eugene, Ore.
1. (4) Arkansas^		1. (13) Oregon^
2. Oklahoma State		2. Cal State Fullerton*
3. Texas State		3. TCU
4. Oral Roberts*		4. Loyola Marymount*

Columbia, S.C.		Morgantown, W.V.
1. (5) South Carolina^		1. (12) West Virginia^*
2. East Carolina*		2. Tennessee
3. North Carolina		3. Iowa
4. Fairfield*		4. Wright State*

Durham, N.C.		Charlottesville, Va.
1. (6) Duke^		1. (11) Virginia^
2. Campbell*		2. Maryland*
3. Wofford*		3. Alabama
4. Central Connecticut State*		4. Pennsylvania*

Conway, S.C.		Coral Gables, Fla.
1. (7) Coastal Carolina^*		1. (10) Miami^
2. Clemson		2. Kentucky
3. Auburn		3. UCLA
4. Air Force*		4. Florida Gulf Coast*

Stanford, Calif.		Gainesville, Fla.
1. (8) Stanford^*		1. (9) Florida^
2. UC Santa Barbara		2. Arizona State
3. Texas-San Antonio		3. Troy
4. Incarnate Word*		4. Alabama State*