Big Ten Baseball Blog: 2009 NCAA Tournament Bracket Released

Monday, May 25, 2009

2009 NCAA Tournament Bracket Released

This morning, the 2009 NCAA Tournament bracket was released. 3 Big Ten schools made the field. Indiana recieved a #4 seed after earning an automatic bid for winning the Big Ten tournament, and will play against Louisville in the Lousiville regional. Ohio State earned a #3 seed after recieving an at-large bid and will play Georgia State in the Talahassee, FL regional. Minnesota earned an at-large bid as well, and is a #2 seed and will play Baylor in the Louisiana State regional. Here is the complete field:

Austin, TX Regional:
#1 Texas
#4 Army
#3 Boston College
#2 Texas State

Forth Worth, TX Regional:
#1 Texas Christian
#4 Wright State
#3 Oregon State
#2 Texas A&M

Atlanta, GA Regional:
#1 Georgia Tech
#4 Georgia State
#3 Southern Mississippi
#2 Elon

Gainesville, FL Regional:
#1 Florida
#4 Bethune-Cookman
#3 Jacksonville
#2 Miami (FL)

Tempe, AZ Regional:
#1 Arizona State
#4 Kent State
#3 Cal-Poly
#2 Oral Roberts

Clemson, SC Regional:
#1 Clemson
#4 Tennessee Tech
#3 Oklahoma State
#2 Alabama

Greenville, NC Regional:
#1 East Carolina
#4 Binghamton
#3 George Mason
#2 South Carolina

Chapel Hill, NC Regional:
#1 North Carolina
#4 Dartmouth
#3 Kansas
#2 Coastal Carolina

Fullerton, CA Regional:
#1 California State-Fullerton
#4 Utah
#3 Gonzaga
#2 Georgia Southern

Louisville, KY Regional:
#1 Louisville
#4 INDIANA
#3 Vanderbilt
#2 Middle Tennessee State

Talahassee, FL Regional
#1 Florida State
#4 Marist
#3 OHIO STATE
#2 Georgia State

Norman, OK Regional:
#1 Oklahoma
#4 Wichita State
#3 Washington State
#2 Arkansas

Irvine, CA Regional:
#1 California-Irvine
#4 Fresno State
#3 San Diego State
#2 Virginia

Oxford, MS Regional:
#1 Mississippi
#4 Monmouth
#3 Western Kentucky
#2 Missouri

Houston, TX Regional:
#1 Rice
#4 Sam Houston St.
#3 Xaiver
#2 Kansas State

Baton Rouge, LA Regional:
#1 Louisiana State
#4 Southern University
#3 Baylor
#2 MINNESOTA

As you can see, there are 16 regionals with four teams in each. The four teams in each regional will play a double elimination format tournament, and the winners of the regionals will advance to the Super Regionals. Super Regional matchups:

Winner of Austin Regional vs. Winner of Fort Worth Regional

Winner of Atlanta Regional vs. Winner of Gainesville Regional

Winner of Tempe Regional vs. Winner of Clemson Regional

Winner of Greenville Regional vs. Winner of Chapel Hill Regional

Winner of Fullerton Regional vs. Winner of Louisville Regional

Winner of Talahassee Regional vs. Winner of Norman Regional

Winner of Irvine Regional vs. Winner of Oxford Regional

Winner of Houston Regional vs. Winner of Baton Rouge Regional

The super regionals will consist of a head-to-head, best of three series between the two specified regional winners. The winners of the super regionals will advance to the College World Series (8 teams.)

Overall, today is a good day to be a Big Ten baseball fan. For the first time in quite a while (I'm still searching for a specific year, let me know if you can find it), the Big Ten has sent 3 teams to the NCAA tournament.

If Indiana can play the way they played in the Big Ten tournament, don't be surprised if they win the Louisville regional. Ohio State's regional is tough, and I do not see them surviving, but who knows. Minnesota has a shot at winning their regional, but it depends which Gopher team shows up to play. If the Gopher team that won three straight games in the Big Ten tournament shows up, it's going to be tough for anyone to touch them. We will see what happens.

Regional play begins this Friday, May 29th. Stay tuned for results and updates.

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Big Ten Baseball Blog

Hello everyone and thanks for checking out my Big Ten Baseball Blog! This website is a great resource for anyone and everyone who is interested in not only Big Ten baseball, but baseball in general. Obviously, the main topics of discussion will be Big Ten baseball, but there will also be discussion of other levels of baseball as well. I will try to faithfully update the blog with scores, statistics, standings, and discussions as much as possible.

If you are unfamiliar with Big Ten baseball, or the Big Ten conference in general, here is a quick overview:

The Big Ten Conference was established in 1895, and originally included seven midwestern universities (University of Chicago, University of Illinois, University of Michigan, University of Minnesota, Northwestern University, Purdue University, and the University of Wisconsin.). In 1899, Indiana University and Iowa University joined the Big Ten while in 1912, Ohio State joined. In 1946, Chicago withdrew from the Big Ten and later in 1949 Michigan State University was added. For a period of 40 years, the Big Ten remained with its 10 members until 1990 when the Big Ten agreed to add Pennsylvania State University. Since this addition, the Big Ten has become the 11-team elite athletics conference it is today. In recap, today's Big Ten conference includes Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Michigan St., Iowa, Penn St., Northwestern, Purdue, Indiana, Ohio St., and Wisconsin.

The Big Ten athletics conference competes in 12 men's sports and 13 women's sports, and has become one of the strongest collegiate athletics conferences in the nation. Among these is baseball, this blog's focus.

Big Ten baseball has a long and rich tradition which sadly has gone "under the radar" due to the lack of popularity of not only baseball in the midwest, but college baseball in general. It is my goal to gain more attention to this great conference and sport which is always filled with extremely gifted student athletes and exciting competition.

Currently, 10 of the 11 teams in the Big Ten conference compete in men's baseball. Wisconsin is the only team which does not participate, cutting their program in the late 1980's. These 10 teams play a full 50-60 game schedule each spring, and ultimately strive to become not only Big Ten champions, but NCAA champions. Each season, teams play a handful of non-conference games against various opponents across the nation, as well as 24 games against conference opponents (this determines who wins the Big Ten regular season championship). Once the 24 conference games have completed, the top 6 teams in the conference recieve spots in the Big Ten tournament, which has been held at the regular season champion's home field in the past, but this year will be held at a neutral site in Columbus, OH (Huntington Park). The winner of this tournament recieves an automatic bid into the NCAA baseball tournament which ultimately determines the national champion.

Each year, Big Ten teams are getting more talented and are creating a more exciting situtation for fans and followers. The Big Ten has produced some very quality major league baseball players, and will continue to do so.

I hope that this blog will serve as a great resource for you to follow, learn, and enjoy the great sport of baseball, and more specifically, in the great Big Ten Conference.