The final weekend of the college baseball regular season is upon us as conference play continues to wind down. Automatic bids to Regionals will go to 33 different conference champions, while another 31 are given to at-large teams.
The NCAA selection committee will reveal the field of 64 on Monday, May 27 after determining 16 Regional hosts.
Teams that have won a regular-season conference title may elect to preserve their rotation in the final week, making them a stay-away team at the window.
Here's a list of conferences with a regular-season champion already decided:
- America East: Bryant
- ACC: North Carolina
- Ivy: Columbia
- Big 12: Oklahoma
- MAC: Bowling Green
- Missouri Valley: Indiana State
- Patriot: Army
- Sun Belt: Louisiana
- West Coast: San Diego
- WAC: Grand Canyon
Before we get to projections for this weekend's college baseball series, here are notes on motivation in each conference.
College Baseball Odds, Picks
Moving Up
- Illinois (+50000) has the inside track to the Big Ten regular-season conference title. The Fighting Illini hold a one-game lead over Nebraska. Purdue would need to sweep Illinois at home to win the conference. Nebraska didn't play Purdue or Illinois this year, leaving no tiebreaker advantages.
- UTSA (+25000) might trail East Carolina by a game in the AAC standings, but the Roadrunners hold the tiebreaker over the Pirates. ECU hosts a Rice team with a 9-13 road record this season. A UTSA sweep of Florida Atlantic will have East Carolina fans sweating.
- Saint Louis leads by a game in the Atlantic 10 over Dayton while holding the tiebreaker over the Flyers. The Billikens can post a 2-1 weekend and do no worse than a shared title.
- Austin Peay hosts lowly North Alabama this weekend for the ASUN title. The Governors hold tiebreakers over several teams a game behind in the standings, including Stetson, Florida Gulf Coast and Jacksonville.
Moving Down
- UC Irvine (+6000) may have allowed UC Santa Barbara (+10000) to get too comfortable in the Big West. The Anteaters may lose the conference title but have an RPI in the top 25 that should produce an at-large bid
- Dallas Baptist (+5000) may not represent Conference USA as its champion. The Patriots are tied with Louisiana Tech (+10000) in the conference standings with the Bulldogs holding a tiebreaker advantage. Both teams will hit the road this weekend with Dallas Baptist at Middle Tennessee and Louisiana Tech at Liberty.
- Poor Maryland Eastern Shore. It holds a record of 0-45 while being the only team left in the way of Sacred Heartin the NEC.
- Vanderbilt (+3500) is on a heavy downward slide in the SEC standings. The Commodores have lost three consecutive conference series, ending the season against top RPI-ranked Kentucky. Vandy head coach Tim Corbin should make the postseason with a top-30 RPI, but a good showing in the SEC Tournament is needed.
In our weekly projections, sides are based on a calculation of ERA, FIP and xFIP. The total is based on the same numbers, along with calculated BaseRuns and park factors.
You can use this data along with our Fanatics Sportsbook promo code to get the most value on college baseball this season.
Be sure to follow along for college baseball picks in the Action App. Here are the projections for games starting on Thursday, May 16:
