2024 NCAA Baseball Tournament Bracket: Projected Field Of 64 (Conference Tournament Week) (2024)

* denotes automatic bid
^ denotes regional host
Bold denotes an automatic bid that has already been clinched

Last Four In

61. Georgia Tech
62. Northeastern ⬇️
63. Xavier
64. James Madison ⬇️

First Four Out

65. UNC Wilmington
66. Troy
67. Cincinnati
68. Louisville

Next Four Out

69. California
70. St. John’s ⬆️
71. Kansas ⬆️
72. Ohio State ⬆️

When does the NCAA baseball bracket come out?

The full field of 64 is released on Monday, May 27 at 12 p.m. ET, an event commonly referred to as “Selection Monday.” The 2024 NCAA Tournament is set to begin later that week with regionals on Friday, May 31. That sets the path to the 2024 Men’s College World Series, which begins Friday, June 14.

Some notes about the field

One change on the host line today. I pushed Mississippi State onto the host line after it beat Texas A&M on Wednesday night. With that win, the Bulldogs moved into the top 20 in RPI and picked up their 16th quad 1 win (only Kentucky, Tennessee and Texas A&M have more nationally). The resume is not without flaws for Mississippi State, however. Most notably, the Bulldogs have five quad 4 losses, which is two more than any other team in the hosting mix.

Oregon State was the team that got bumped to make way for Mississippi State. I do not feel good about doing that at all. The Beavers lost earlier in the day to Utah, however, and dropped to 18 in RPI. They are still ahead of Mississippi State by one in RPI, but that (and their fewer quad 4 losses) is the only way in which their metrics are better. The Pac-12 has had a host every year since 2016 and it just doesn’t seem super likely that it doesn’t produce one this year. But as of Thursday morning, this is where we’re at.

The hosting race is far from over. Both Mississippi State and Oregon State could fall out of the top 20 in RPI with losses today. Duke could jump into the top 20. Arizona, Dallas Baptist and Louisiana Tech are in striking range if they win out. I know everyone in Starkville has been eagerly awaiting this development, but the job is not done yet.

The No. 1 overall seed race has gone to the dogs.The SEC’s top four seeds all came into the week with a chance to grab the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. On Wednesday, when they opened play in Hoover, they all demurred. All four lost and face elimination today. North Carolina, the ACC’s regular season champion, has yet to play this week and has already risen to No. 2 in RPI. UNC now could conceivably finish the regular season at No. 1 in RPI. I’m going to stick with Tennessee as the No. 1 overall seed for now, but this has gotten weird in a hurry.

The last spot in the top-eight seeds is going to go down to the finish. I think that the first seven seeds are pretty well locked in. But that still leaves one malleable spot. I’m sticking with Georgia, which is already sitting at home after losing its opener Tuesday in Hoover. But the Bulldogs left the door pretty wide open for an ACC team – Florida State, NC State or Virginia – to grab that spot. The next two days in Charlotte will tell us a lot.

The SEC has 11 bids in this projection.That would set a record and be a controversial decision. But as it stands on Thursday morning, all 11 teams won 13 SEC games and are in the top 30 of RPI and the top 25 of KPI. I believe that the committee did not go through the trouble of adding KPI and tweaking the quadrant system only to ignore it on Selection Monday. This is a potentially unprecedented season, with the SEC so powerful in every metric.

The selection committee is also being presented a situation where five teams tied in the standings with a 13-17 record. In the past, when one of those teams has been left out, it’s been easier to justify as a team that finished off the pace. This year, these teams represent the middle tier of the SEC.