May 29, 2005
Indianapolis, Ind. - The NCAA Division I Baseball committee selected the 16 regional sites for the 2005 NCAA Division I Baseball Championship on Sunday and a string of nine consecutive years (1996-2004) with Stanford as one of the sites ended when Stanford was not selected as a host. The entire 64-team field, top eight national seeds, first round regional pairings and site assignments for the event will be announced live on ESPN during a half-hour television program on Monday, May 30 (8:30 am, PT).
The committee will set the entire 64-team bracket through both the super regionals and the first round of the College World Series, and will not reseed the field after play begins. A total of 30 Division I conferences receive an automatic berth to the event, along with 34 at-large selections.
Stanford completed the 2005 regular season with a 32-23 overall record and a 12-12 Pac-10 mark to finish tied for sixth in the conference after a 4-2 loss in its 2005 regular season finale at USC on Sunday. The Cardinal has made the NCAA's postseason event for 11 consecutive campaigns (1994-2004).
A complete list of regional hosts (and locations) are as follows: Arizona State (Tempe, Ariz.); Baylor (Waco, Tex.); Cal State Fullerton (Fullerton, Calif.); Clemson (Clemson, South Carolina); Florida (Gainesville, Fla.); Florida State (Tallahassee, Fla.); Georgia Tech (Atlanta, Ga.); Louisiana State (Baton Rouge, La.); Long Beach State (Long Beach, Calif.); Miami (Coral Gables, Fla.); Mississippi (Oxford, Miss.); Nebraska (Lincoln, Neb.); Oregon State (Corvallis, Ore.); Tennessee (Knoxville, Tenn.); Texas (Austin, Tex.); and Tulane (New Orleans, LA). All regional sites are on campus.
By virtue of being awarded a regional, nine of the host institutions also have been selected as at-large teams to the 64-team field. Arizona State, Clemson, Florida, Florida State, Louisiana State, Long Beach State, Miami, Tennessee and Texas have made the field as at-large selections. Baylor, Georgia Tech, Mississippi, Nebraska and Tulane could clinch automatic berths by winning their conference tournament championship, which are scheduled for Sunday afternoon. A loss in those tournament championship games makes them an at-large selection. Cal State Fullerton and Oregon State already have clinched automatic berths by virtue of winning the Big West Conference and Pac-10 Conference, respectively.
Oregon State will host a regional for the first time, while Long Beach State, Mississippi and Tulane are hosting for the second time in school history. This will be the 24th occasion that Florida State has hosted a regional, while Miami and Texas are hosting for the 21st time since the NCAA went to the regional format in 1975. LSU is hosting a regional for the 17th time, while Arizona State (16th), Clemson (10th), Georgia Tech (seventh), Florida (seventh), Cal State Fullerton (fifth), Tennessee (fifth), Nebraska (fourth) and Baylor (third) have hosted in the past as well.
Seven sites (Cal State Fullerton, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Louisiana State, Miami, Mississippi and Texas) also hosted in 2004. Long Beach State hosted a super regional last year but did not host a regional.
Each regional field features four teams playing a double-elimination tournament scheduled to be conducted from Friday, June 3 - Monday, June 6. The format for the 2005 regionals is modified slightly from previous seasons. Games 1 and 2 will be played on Friday, followed by Games 3, 4 and 5 on Saturday. The first championship game (Game 6) will be contested on Sunday with the second championship contest (Game 7) to be played Monday if necessary. In the past, Games 1-2 were played on the first day, followed by Games 3-5 on day two, and Games 6 and 7 (if necessary) on the third day.
Regional champions will advance to one of eight super regionals with selection of the super regional hosts announced on the ESPN Bottom Line on Tuesday, June 7 (9 am, PT). The super regionals will take place from Friday, June 10 - Monday, June 13.
Super regional winners will make up the eight-team field for the 59th College World Series to be held Friday, June 17 - Monday, June 27, at Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Nebraska.