Now, we wait!

As I write this, Miami has claimed the ACC Baseball Championship title with an 8-4 victory over Virginia, so congrats to the Canes. The sixteen regional sites have been announced and the ACC has landed four (Miami, FSU, UNC and NCSU). Coastal Carolina has been named a regional host for the second year in a row. The field of 64 will be named tomorrow at 12:30pm. There are 30 automatic qualifiers and 34 at-large teams. Is Clemson worthy of one of those 34 bids? Here are the pros. First of all the Tigers are #26 in the RPI according to Warren Nolan's "Nitty Gritty Report" which is about as close to the formula used by the NCAA. Secondly the Tigers played only eight games against teams below #88 in the RPI and they went 8-0 versus those teams. Compare that to Coastal which played 35 games against teams with an RPI of 101 or less. The Chanticleers went 31-4 versus those teams. Lastly, Clemson went 6-4 in their last ten games of the year, not overly impressive but good nevertheless. Now the cons. The Tigers went a combined 0-15 versus Miami, UNC, FSU, South Carolina and Georgia and only 9-20 versus teams in the Top 50. Secondly, Clemson was only 11-18-1 in the ACC this year. Thirdly, Jack Leggett's team was 10-12-1 on the road.

There is some talk that the SEC may get 9 teams in the field of 64 with Arkansas being the ninth team. The Razorbacks didn't even make the SEC Tournament, so that brings up the question of "If you don't qualify for your own tournament should you get a berth in the NCAA's?". Now I brought up Coastal earlier and I did that to ask you this question, "If the Tigers had played Coastal's schedule how many wins would they have and would it be enough for a NCAA berth?" How about, "How many games would Coastal have won against Clemson's schedule and would they be hosting a regional?"

Here is hoping for the best tomorrow and that the NCAA Tournament streak continues.