Projected Field Of 64: March 2

PROJECTED FIELD OF 64
Gainesville, FL	Lafayette, LA
1. (1) Florida^*	1. Louisiana-Lafayette^*
2. Tulane	2. Arkansas
3. Texas Tech	3. Southeastern Louisiana*
4. Penn*	4. Wright State*
College Station, TX	Tallahassee, FL
1. (2) Texas A&M^	1. Florida State^
2. College of Charleston	2. Florida Atlantic*
3. Texas	3. Maryland
4. Alabama State*	4. Florida Gulf Coast*
Corvallis, OR	Charlottesville, VA
1. (3) Oregon State^*	1. Virginia^
2. Kentucky	2. Mississippi State
3. Rice	3. Oral Roberts*
4. Southeast Missouri State*	4. Richmond*
Louisville, KY	Berkeley, CA
1. (4) Louisville^*	1. California^
2. Oklahoma State	2. Cal State Fullerton*
3. Missouri State	3. Fresno State*
4. Quinnipiac*	4. Cal State Bakersfield*
Nashville	Chapel Hill, NC
1. (5) Vanderbilt^	1. North Carolina^
2. UNC Wilmington*	2. Coastal Carolina*
3. Washington	3. South Carolina
4. Stony Brook*	4. Kent State*
Eugene, OR	Oxford, MS
1. (6) Oregon^	1. Mississippi^
2. Michigan*	2. North Carolina State
3. Oklahoma	3. Southern Mississippi
4. Creighton*	4. Bryant*
Coral Gables, FL	Baton Rouge, LA
1. (7) Miami^	1. Louisiana State^
2. Southern California	2. East Carolina
3. South Florida	3. Notre Dame
4. Florida A&M*	4. Navy*
Fort Worth, TX	Los Angeles
1. (8) Texas Christian^*	1. UCLA^
2. Houston*	2. Georgia Tech
3. Dallas Baptist*	3. UC Irvine
4. Mercer*	4. San Diego*
*-Automatic qualifier; ^-Regional host

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Bids By Conference
9: SEC
8: ACC
6: Pac-12
5: Big 12
4: American
3: Conference USA
2: Big Ten, Big West, Colonial, Missouri Valley
1: A-Sun, A-10, America East, Big South, Big East, Horizon, Ivy, MAC, MAAC, MEAC, Mountain West, NEC, OVC, Patriot, Southern, Southland, SWAC, Summit, Sun Belt, WAC, WCC

New At-Large Bids: East Carolina, Missouri State, Texas Tech

Dropping Out: Arizona State, Indiana, Winthrop

On The Radar: Tennessee, Troy, Long Beach State, Michigan State, Stanford, UC Santa Barbara, Auburn, Duke

Field of 64 Thoughts

• Texas Christian makes the biggest move from last week, checking in as a new national seed. With Oklahoma and Oklahoma State both stumbling out of the gates at the same time the Horned Frogs looked dominant at the Shriners College Classic in Houston, TCU looks like the team to beat in the Big 12. The Frogs can bolster their non-conference resume further when Southern California comes to Fort Worth in two weeks. Even if this proves to be another down year in the Big 12 from a tournament perspective—it can’t be worse than last year—the league’s struggles didn’t stop TCU from getting a national seed last time around and we expect them to have a strong case again.

• Indiana and Winthrop, which dropped out this week, could both be in long-term trouble. Winthrop dropped a series at Alabama State last weekend—in addition to getting pummeled 16-4 by South Carolina in a midweek game—and even though Alabama State is the best program in the SWAC, losing a series to any SWAC school could be an albatross come selection time. Indiana has likewise painted itself into the corner having to perform very well in the Big Ten after losing a series to Middle Tennessee State on opening weekend and then getting swept at Cal State Fullerton last weekend. The rest of the Hoosiers’ non-conference schedule is fairly light, and the luck of the draw in their conference schedule looks like it’ll afford them few opportunities at marketable wins—they miss Michigan, Maryland and Ohio State.

• Removing Oklahoma from the field entirely would be justifiable at this point—we dropped them to a 3-seed—with the Sooners sitting at 3-5 and having been swept by Sam Houston State last weekend. We’ll keep them around for now, based on their talent level, and see if they can rebound this weekend against a quality tournament field—USC, UCLA and Mississippi State—at the Dodger Stadium Classic. Another disappointing week would leave them in a hole certainly, although they do have a couple of respectable non-conference series left after this one against Long Beach State and Cal State Bakersfield to at least make up some ground before Big 12 play.

• Rice is in the same boat after a disappointing 0-3 showing at Minute Maid Park, on top of losing a home series to Arizona on opening weekend. Winning non-conference series against Central Florida and East Carolina over the next two weekends would be helpful.

• Keep an eye on Tennessee at the Keith LeClair Classic in Greenville, N.C., this weekend. The Vols have gone 5-1 over the first two weekends with a neutral-site series win against Memphis—a solid AAC team—and then a perfect weekend against representative mid-majors Grand Canyon, Saint Mary’s and Central Michigan in Week Two. Nothing that blows you away yet, of course, but the Vols do have talent, led by Nick Senzel, and can significantly boost their non-conference profile over the next two weekends. They’ll face Maryland, East Carolina and Southeastern Louisiana at the LeClair—all of them potential regional teams—and then host UC Irvine for a weekend set the weekend of March 11-13. Strong showings there would set the Vols up well going into SEC play.