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2025 CWS Coverage – Field of 64 and Regional Preview

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Its College Baseball post-season time, something we’ve followed in this space for years. Here’s a quick guide to the CWS 2025 post season. The field of 64 was announced on Memorial Day Weekend at Noon, so here’s a preview of this coming weekend’s 16 regional events.

First off, some resources for you.

  • Your final top 25 heading into the post-season according to d1baseball, baseballamerica, and usatoday Coaches poll.
  • Local teams in the rankings: it’s a really down year for area college: there’s not one Virginia team anywhere near the top 25 this year. In fact, there’s not a single VOTE for a DC/MD/VA college team in the final USA Today poll.
  • WarrenNolan’s RPI rankings are a very important part of the seeding and selection process, as we’ll discuss in a bit.
  • Here’s D1Baseball.com’s Tournament Central, my favorite place to track the tourney.
  • Here’s the NCAA.com field of 64 Bracket with some great data points at NCAA.com

Your top 8 seeds and favorites to make Omaha, in order, along with their RPI and their Strength of Schedule (SoS) denoted:

  1. Vanderbilt (42-16): RPI #1, SoS #2
  2. Texas (42-12): RPI #4, SoS #19
  3. Arkansas (43-13): RPI #5, SoS #14
  4. Auburn (38-18): RPI #3, SoS #1
  5. North Carolina (42-12): #6 RPI, #23 SoS
  6. LSU (43-14): #10 RPI, #36 SoS
  7. Georgia (42-15): #2 RPI, #4 SoS
  8. Oregon State (41-12-1): #7 RPI, #42 SoS

There’s definitely some interesting stuff to digest here. Vanderbilt finished 4th in the SEC regular season but won the post-season title, which vaulted them above Texas for #1. They’ve been RPI #1 for a bit, so no surprise here. Texas won the SEC regular season title by two games over Arkansas, who gets the #3 national seed. UNC finished 3rd in the ACC regular season but won the ACC title, likely cementing their slot as a top 8 seed. Interestingly Georgia Tech was the ACC regular season winner but didn’t even get a hosting spot. LSU sneaks into a regional spot at the expense of #8 RPI Coastal Carolina, likely a nod to the amazing atmosphere at LSU’s home stadium. Lastly the orphaned Oregon State team more than earned its #7 seed with its barnstorming season. There’s no easy outs amongst the top 8 seeds.

The National seeds 9-16 and the other regional hosts go as follows:

  • #9 Florida State (38-14) : #14 RPI, #24 SoS
  • #10 Ole Miss (40-19): #12 RPI, #5 SoS
  • #11 Clemson (44-16): #9 RPI, #16 SoS
  • #12 Oregon (42-14): #16 RPI, #35 SoS
  • #13 Coastal Carolina (48-11): #8 RPI, #66 SoS
  • #14 Tennessee (43-16): #11 RPI, #12 SoS
  • #15 UCLA (42-16): #15 RPI, #22 SoS
  • #16 Southern Miss (44-14): #19 RPI, #67 SoS

Unlike 2024, there’s no real hosting shocks here. Oregon remains a host despite losing early in the Big 10 conference tournament. Ole Miss made a huge run to the SEC tourney final and will be a tough out. Alabama ends up being the highest RPI team to not host (#13), likely due to an early exit in the SEC tournament and a 16-14 league record.

Local DC/MD/VA local teams in the tourney:

None. Last year there were three Virginia teams in the field of 64, including UVA as a national seed. This year, not so much. West Virginia is in, along with nearby Carolina schools like ECU and Coastal Carolina that sometimes recruit in the state. This year, nothing.

Quick Regional Thoughts

Here’s one sentence or so on each regional

  1. Vanderbilt (42-16): The #1 seeds get a super easy regional with their #2 as RPI #32 Louisville. No upsets here, but Louisville has a big-time arm that could throw a monkey wrench into the plans.
  2. Texas (42-12) gets a really easy regional, with three mid-majors and no real threats.
  3. Arkansas (43-13) gets the Big East champ Creighton as a #3 seed, a bit troubling, but may not even see them. Their #2 seed is Kansas, not exactly a baseball powerhouse this year.
  4. Auburn (38-18): gets NC state as their 2nd seed, and gets Stetson, who got into the tournament in controversial fashion when their conference tournament got rained out.
  5. North Carolina (42-12) was not done any favors by the committee, getting #2 Oklahoma and the big10 tourney champs Nebraska as a #3. Ouch.
  6. LSU (43-14) will have Dallas Baptist to contend with (#20 RPI), but otherwise has an easy draw.
  7. Georgia (42-15) gets two storied programs in Duke and Oklahoma State, but both programs struggled this year against Quadrant-1 schools.
  8. Oregon State (41-12-1) has a pretty manageable regional that includes TCU and USC in down years.
  9. Florida State (38-14) gets the team with the best record in the land in Northeastern (48-9 with a 25-2 in-confernece record), but they have almost no Q1 experience.
  10. Ole Miss (40-19) comes in red-hot, having made the SEC tourney final. For their troubles they get ACC regular season champ Georgia Tech, but being hosts will make the difference here.
  11. Clemson (44-16) struggled at season’s end and has a tricky regional that includes West Virginia and the controversial Kentucky, who squeaked into this draw as the last of 13 SEC teams in the tourney.
  12. Oregon (42-14): Upset watch here: Oregon has two tough teams in Arizona and Cal Poly to contend with.
  13. Coastal Carolina (48-11): They’ll have to prove their lofty RPI here; they have to deal with Florida. Florida is certainly battle tested: 28 of their 58 games were against Q1 schools.
  14. Tennessee (43-16): probably saves their Ace for Wake Forest in game two and should cruise in a relatively easy regional.
  15. UCLA (42-16): gets three other West Coast teams, any of whom seem to be possible to win here. UC Irvine, Arizona State, and Fresno State all have major college baseball pedigree, and California college baseball is just different.
  16. Southern Miss (44-14); the mid-major has to contend with both Alabama, who arguably should have had a host, AND Miami. Ouch.

Prospect Watch. We’ve talked the top guys to death, but here’s where they’re playing. By region, here’s some guys to watch that are like top 50 college prospects in this year’s draft:

  1. Vanderbilt Regional: Vandy could have to contend with Supp-1st projected Alabama ace Patrick Forbes in game 2 of their regional.
  2. Texas Regional: Texas’ speedy OF Max Belyeu is a late 1st round projection.
  3. Arkansas Regional: their transfer SS Wehiwa Aloy projects as back of 1st round now, and they have a big left in Zach Root who’s a supp-1st rounder projection.
  4. Auburn Regional: their big hitter is Ike Irish a C/OF type.
  5. North Carolina Regional: UNC’s catcher Luke Stevenson projects as a late 1st rounder. Oklahoma’s ace Kyson Witherspoon could face UNC in game 2.
  6. LSU Regional: left ace Kade Anderson will lead the way for LSU.
  7. Georgia Regional: Georgia is really a team effort; they only have one top 200 projected draft player in OF/1B Tre Phelps
  8. Oregon State Regional: top-5 projected pick Aiva Arquette stars for OSU.
  9. Florida State Regional: FSU’s ace Jamie Arnold likely goes game 2.
  10. Ole Miss Regional: Ole Miss’ big arm is Mason Morris, a likely 3rd rounder.
  11. Clemson Regional: their leading hitter Cam Cannarella was on upper 1st round watch early, but has faded.
  12. Oregon Regional: Arizona’s leading hitter Brendan Summerhill leads their attack.
  13. Coastal Carolina Regional: Their leading prospect is C Caden Bodine, who has seen his star really fade this season.
  14. Tennessee Regional: top-5 projected Liam Doyle will have scouts out for sure. Tennessee also has mid-1st rounder Gavin Kilen and supp-1st round Andrew Fischer in the lineup. Wake’s Marek Houston has top-5 buzz and would be a great matchup when Doyle pitches. Wake also has late 1st rounder Ethan Conrad in the OF.
  15. UCLA Regional: there’s a slew of 3rd and 4th rounders amongst all the teams here, typical for a California-heavy regional.
  16. Southern Miss Regional: Southern Miss is led by ace RHP JB Middleton, a late 1st round projection. He could face off in game 2 against Alabama’s Riley Quick, a Fastball/Slider guy who also projects in the same range.

Top 1st round prospects whose team outright missed the post season:

  • TAMU and Jace LaViolette, projected 1-1 to begin the year, now a mid-1st rounder.
  • UC Santa Barbara and Tyler Bremner: how his stock has fallen this year.
  • Indiana and Devin Taylor got a couple of shout outs, but he’s pushed back to end of 1st round.

We’ll circle back next week with Regional recaps and Super Regional projections. We probably will also return with a check-in on the 1-1 candidates in our regular series.