NCAA baseball tournament bracket projections after Week 12, see bubble movement

NCAA baseball tournament bracket projections after Week 12, see bubble movement

The NCAA Tournament bubble saw a significant shake-up after Week 12 of the college baseball season, with bubble teams like Vanderbilt and Pittsburgh getting swept while others like Virginia Tech and Kentucky helped their cases with series wins.

With three weeks to go until the selection show on May 25, the hosting battle is still fluid. In this case, the final host spot came down to Ole Miss, Nebraska and Southern Cal. Ole Miss got the nod due to a 13 RPI, but at a 12-12 SEC record, the Rebels will need to continue to win conference games to host. Nebraska has an RPI of 18 and an 8-7 Quadrant 1 record but just got swept by Ohio State. USC has the best RPI of the bunch at 10, but its 0-8 Q1 record is a non-starter.

On the bubble, Michigan and Kentucky joined the field, while UAB and Texas State dropped out from last week. Michigan, which has an RPI of 41 but a Q1 record of just 2-8, and TCU, with an RPI of 50 and Q1 record of 3-9 but a 13-11 Big 12 record, were the last two teams in.

One intriguing bubble case is Pitt. The first team out this week, the Panthers are 49th in RPI and have performed well against high-end opponents. Their 8-9 Q1 record is by far the best of anyone on the bubble. However, a 10-14 ACC record is keeping them out for now. Generally, the committee is willing to put in ACC teams that have poor RPIs or are below .500 in conference, but not both.

To create the bracket, automatic bids were selected using each conference's current leader, with ties broken by RPI. The 2-seeds were ranked 17-32 and paired with host teams in groups of four to avoid conference rematches. The 3- and 4-seeds were assigned by geography.

****Last 4 In: Virginia Tech, Arizona State, TCU, Michigan

First 4 Out: Pittsburgh, Louisiana, UAB, Mercer

*Denotes projected automatic bid

Los Angeles Regional

(1) UCLA*