2024 D1Baseball Field of 64 Projections: May 26
https://d1baseball.com/stories/2024-d1baseball-field-of-64-projections/NC State #12
Raleigh Regional
NC State
East Carolina
James Madison
High Point
The race for the final couple of national seeds/host spots continues to be hotly contested. Indiana State created some uncertainty when it failed to win its conference tournament against Evansville on Saturday night. However, the Sycamores still dominated their league in the regular season, played the No. 19 non-conference SOS, and have an RPI of 10. It's hard to see the Sycamores left out, but we must discuss the possibility. East Carolina and Mississippi State remain heavily in the mix. ECU was eliminated from the American tournament on Saturday and is down to 23 in the RPI. ECU had a strong showing in the regular season and has a very solid non-conference SOS of 9. However, it's worth mentioning that the American was the 12th-rated RPI conference. Mississippi State's only issue is an RPI of 24, but the Bulldogs have star-studded metrics in other areas, with a whopping 16 wins against Quad 1 and 20 wins against Quads 1 + 2. Furthermore, MSU accumulated 20 wins against SEC teams. The other team I'd watch out for is Duke. The Blue Devils are 17 in the RPI and have 19 wins against ACC competition. A win over FSU tomorrow would give the Devils 20 ACC wins with an RPI in the Top 16. That would seem very host-worthy across the board. The three sleepers would be San Diego (18), Dallas Baptist (22) and Arizona (31). The Wildcats have the most compelling case by far of those three teams, with a Pac-12 regular season and tournament title. However, the committee would make history by selecting a team with an RPI of 31 as a Top 16 seed. Arizona checks all the boxes … except the RPI.