NCAA Division I Baseball Championship
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The NCAA Division I Baseball Championship tournament is held each year from May though June and features 64 college baseball teams in the United States, culminating in the College World Series.
The tournament is unique in that it features four tiers of competition, each contested on a double-elimination basis. In fact, throughout the entire tournament, a team can lose a total of four games and still be crowned champions.
During team selection, eight teams are given national seeds which guarantees them home-field advantage (provided they continue to win) throughout the tournament until the College World Series. As in other NCAA tournaments, conference champions (usually determined by a tournament) receive automatic bids, and the selection committee fills the remaining spots.
The first tier, called Regionals, consists of 16 locations that include four teams, seeded 1 through 4, competing in a double-elimination bracket. The 16 host sites are determined mostly by merit - most No. 1 seeds host - but are also contested by bids from schools guaranteeing the NCAA a certain amount of revenue from that regional. Host teams traditionally have a large advantage, although the home team for each game is determined by rule, so the host school sometimes plays as the visiting team. The winner of each regional moves on to the second tier, the Super Regionals.
Super Regionals are played at eight locations throughout the country and consist of the 16 surviving teams, matched up by predetermined regional pairings. National seeds cannot meet each other in the super regional and are guaranteed to host. If the national seed in the bracket is eliminated in the regional stage, the super regional will be bid upon by the two competing teams. The two teams play a best-of-three series to determine who moves on to the College World Series. Although one school hosts all three games, the teams split home-field advantage in the first two games and toss a coin to determine home-field advantage in the third game.
The final eight teams meet in Omaha, Nebraska in the College World Series. The CWS mimics the earlier rounds, consisting of two double-elimination brackets of four teams each. Thereafter, the winners of each bracket meet in a best-of-three final. The winner of this final series wins the College World Series and is crowned National Champion.
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[edit] Past formats
[edit] 1947
The first tournament was an 8 team single elimination tournament. Four teams each were put into two playoff brackets, named the "Eastern Playoff" and the "Western Playoff." The winner of each bracket moved onto the College World Series, which was, at that time, a 2 team best-of-three game series.
[edit] 1948
The second year of the tournament maintained the "Eastern Playoff" and "Western Playoff" format, however, they were now double elimination. The winner of each bracket moved onto the College World Series to play a best-of-three game series.
[edit] 1949
The third year of the tournament consisted of four regions named Region A, Region B, Region C and Region D. Each region consisted of two teams playing in a best-of-three game series. The winner of each region moved on to the College World Series, which was now a 4 team double elimination tournament.
[edit] 1950 - 1953
From 1950 to 1953 the preliminary rounds were not managed by the NCAA but rather by the district colleges, and thus these games are not recorded in the official history books of the NCAA. The winner of each district managed playoff (although some districts did not have playoffs and chose to select their teams by committee) were sent to the College World Series. The College World Series was a double elimination tournament.
[edit] 1954 - 1974
From 1954 until 1974 the tournament consisted of eight Districts named District 1 through District 8. Each district consisted of between two and five teams playing in differently formatted tournaments. Some years included automatic College World Series qualifiers. In that case, no District games were played for that team. For an example see: 1959 NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament. The winner of each district moved on to the College World series, which was a double-elimination tournament.
[edit] 1975
1975 was the first year of the Regional format. Eight Regionals consisted of four teams in a double elimination tournament. The winner of each Regional moved onto the College World Series, which was also a double elimination-tournament.
[edit] 1976 - 1981
The tournament essentially remained unchanged from the 1975 version, however, one Regional consisted of six teams in a double-elimination tournament, instead of four like the other 7 Regionals. The winner of each Regional moved onto the College World Series, which was also a double elimination-tournament.
[edit] 1982 - 1987
The tournament expanded again in 1982 to include two Regionals with six teams while the other six Regionals only had four teams. The Regionals remained double-elimination with the winners moving onto the College World Series, which was also a double elimination-tournament.
[edit] 1988 - 1998
From 1988 until 1998, the NCAA tournament featured 48 teams, which contested in eight regionals of six teams each for the right to go to the College World Series. The four-team regional format and the best-of-three super regional format debuted in 1999. The best-of-three championship series at the College World Series debuted in 2003 after CBS ceased coverage of the one-off College World Series championship game, allowing the NCAA to institute the best-of-three series, which better mimics the traditional three-game series played during the regular season and makes a pitching staff's depth a key factor. ESPN and ESPN2 now cover the entire CWS.
[edit] National Seeds
Since 1999, the NCAA has awarded eight teams with a National Seed. These teams automatically host a super regional if they advance past the regional round.
Green Italics indicates team made the College World Series. Bold Italics indicates team won the College World Series.
| 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Miami (FL) | South Carolina | Cal St. Fullerton | Florida State | Florida State | Texas | Tulane | Clemson | Vanderbilt | Miami (FL) |
| #2 | Florida St. | LSU | Miami (FL) | Clemson | LSU | South Carolina | Georgia Tech | Rice | Rice | North Carolina |
| #3 | Cal St. Fullerton | Georgia Tech | Southern California | Alabama | Georgia Tech | Miami (FL) | Nebraska | Texas | North Carolina | Arizona State |
| #4 | Baylor | Clemson | Stanford | Rice | Auburn | Georgia Tech | Baylor | Alabama | Texas | Florida State |
| #5 | Alabama | Houston | Tulane | Texas | Rice | Stanford | Ole Miss | Cal State Fullerton | Arizona State | Cal State Fullerton |
| #6 | Stanford | Florida State | Georgia | South Carolina | Stanford | Rice | Cal State Fullerton | Nebraska | Florida State | Rice |
| #7 | Texas A&M | Arizona State | East Carolina | Wake Forest | Cal State Fullerton | Arizona State | Florida | Georgia | Arkansas | LSU |
| #8 | Rice | Stanford | Nebraska | Stanford | Miami (FL) | Arkansas | Oregon State | Georgia Tech | San Diego | Georgia |
| NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament | |
| 1940s | 1947 1948 1949 |
| 1950s | 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 |
| 1960s | 1960 1961 1962 1963 1954 1965 1966 1957 1968 1969 |
| 1970s | 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 |
| 1980s | 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 |
| 1990s | 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 |
| 2000s | 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 |
[edit] See also
- College baseball records
- List of college baseball career home run leaders
[edit] External links
- College World Series site
- NCAA Baseball site
- 2006 NCAA Baseball Records BookPDF (3.07 MiB)
- Official NCAA baseball bat certification center
- 64 team bracket
