Help Requested - Seeding/Placement Process for NCAA Regionals

[AuroraHawk]

I've done some internet digging and can't find anything that I'd consider to be remotely definitive.

My question: After the NCAA Selection Committee has picked its 64 teams, how does it decide how the 48 non-host teams are seeded and, more importantly, where those teams play?

I've seen some reporting (and historical brackets) strongly suggesting that geography plays a role - largely because baseball is a non-revenue sport at most institutions.

Or, does the committee rank the teams 1-64 and set up the 16 Regionals as:
1-64-32-33
2-63-31-34
3-62-30-35
4-61-29-36
5-60-28-37
6-59-27-38
7-58-26-39
8-57-25-40
9-56-24-41
10-55-23-42
11-54-22-43
12-53-21-44
13-52-20-45
14-51-19-46
15-50-18-47
16-49-17-48

I suspect that it is a combo of those approaches where they may have teams "lumped" in certain groups (i.e. 6 teams in the 22-27 range) and they place them in a Regional that makes the most sense geographically (or, to be cynical, place them in a bracket which best advantages the SEC and ACC chances of dominating the teams in Super Regionals).

It then begs the question . . . Iowa is now #31 in RPI. Does it want to be a #2 seed in a Regional hosted by a team that is considered be the #2 nationally? Or, would it be better to be a #3 seed in a Regional hosted by a team that is considered be say, #13-#16 nationally?

Regardless . . . how fun is it to have our days filled up with such thoughts as opposed to wringing our hands whether Iowa can beat Purdue, Michigan twice and have enough pitching left to beat Rutgers just to become an automatic qualifier?

 

[ssckelley]

We know RPI plays a huge part and then from there geography gets sprinkled in where it makes sense. I don't think they seed strictly by the seed process you laid out but they might start there and then mix and match.

My thought process if I was making these decisions is to first determine who is in and who is out, which is not an easy process in itself. Once I have that then I'd rank them 1-64 just like you have them and then start moving teams around using geography but doesn't put the top 2 seed with one of the top 1 seeds, it has to make some sense in regards to the seeding process. If I've got 2 teams seeded close together and there is a region that's 100 miles away for 1 while 500 miles away for the other then I'm going to place the team that's only 100 miles away at that regional.

NCAA baseball is in the building phase, you want to build as much excitement for all the fans as possible both TV matchups and convenience for fans that are able to attend.

 

[ICWestfan]

I've done some internet digging and can't find anything that I'd consider to be remotely definitive.

My question: After the NCAA Selection Committee has picked its 64 teams, how does it decide how the 48 non-host teams are seeded and, more importantly, where those teams play?

I've seen some reporting (and historical brackets) strongly suggesting that geography plays a role - largely because baseball is a non-revenue sport at most institutions.

Or, does the committee rank the teams 1-64 and set up the 16 Regionals as:
1-64-32-33
2-63-31-34
3-62-30-35
4-61-29-36
5-60-28-37
6-59-27-38
7-58-26-39
8-57-25-40
9-56-24-41
10-55-23-42
11-54-22-43
12-53-21-44
13-52-20-45
14-51-19-46
15-50-18-47
16-49-17-48

I suspect that it is a combo of those approaches where they may have teams "lumped" in certain groups (i.e. 6 teams in the 22-27 range) and they place them in a Regional that makes the most sense geographically (or, to be cynical, place them in a bracket which best advantages the SEC and ACC chances of dominating the teams in Super Regionals).

It then begs the question . . . Iowa is now #31 in RPI. Does it want to be a #2 seed in a Regional hosted by a team that is considered be the #2 nationally? Or, would it be better to be a #3 seed in a Regional hosted by a team that is considered be say, #13-#16 nationally?

Regardless . . . how fun is it to have our days filled up with such thoughts as opposed to wringing our hands whether Iowa can beat Purdue, Michigan twice and have enough pitching left to beat Rutgers just to become an automatic qualifier?

Shoot dude, you are one of about 3 or 4 people that can answer that question. The rest of us are just here to ride your coattails. Also.....