College baseball teams who may have messed up their NCAA tournament chances

Kellen Strohmeyer and his Iowa team probably need to win the B1G tournament (Picture from Iowa Baseball X)

By Andrew Riedell

With more conference tournaments starting this week after some began last week, I wanted to talk about some teams who may have not had the best weekends going into postseason play. These teams we are going to discuss really sullied their opportunities to host a regional, or maybe even making the tournament at all. Let's jump into it.

Texas A&M (RPI 54, 28-25 Record)

The preseason number one is on the fringe of not making the tournament after being one of the most hyped teams in recent history, having sorely underperformed this season. Coach Earley and his team hosted the Missouri Tigers needing to sweep to achieve the magical 13 conference wins number to solidify a spot in the NCAA tournament. Missouri came in at 0-24 and ended up doing the sweeping themselves, blanking the Aggies in College Station. The Aggies then hit the road and dropped two out of three to the Georgia Bulldogs, finishing the regular season as the 14 seed in the SEC, which sets them up for a long road of needing five wins in six days to make a run at the automatic bid for the SEC.

West Virginia (RPI 28, 40-13 Record)

The West Virginia Moutaineers will most likely make the NCAA Tournament, but I believe they blew their chance of hosting a regional after dropping 8 out of their last 12 games, which dropped their RPI to 28. I believe West Virginia will set up as a solid two seed with a solid showing at the Big 12 Conference Tournament, but I believe there will not be any teams from the Big 12 hosting this season.

Southeastern Louisiana (RPI 55, 37-16 Record)

Even with their Athletic Director Jay Artigues leading the NCAA Selection Committee this season, I think the Southeastern Lions have damaged their chances of entering the tournament this year. The Southland Conference will be a one-bid league this year because of number 8 seed New Orleans winning the Hammond Bracket and the No. 6 seed Houston Christian winning the Edinburg Bracket. Contending teams like UT-Rio Grande Valley and Lamar were eliminated. Southeastern's RPI is not strong, and neither is their strength of schedule. Southeastern dropping their bracket opener and then not making it to the championship series solidifies that they will most likely be one of the first teams out.

Iowa Hawkeyes (RPI 73, 30-20-1 Record)

The Iowa Hawkeyes have been playing solid baseball all season, coming into May near the top of the Big 10 conference, but so far this month have won only one game. They had opportunities to build good wins vs good RPI teams such as Washington, Oregon State, and Oregon. Instead, they win just one of those nine games, tied one with Oregon State, and were outscored 32-10 by the Ducks in a last chance to build a stronger resume. Their strength of schedule is not good as well, sitting at 94, meaning they have to make a strong run in the Big 10 Conference Tournament, most likely win the whole thing.

UT-Rio Grande Valley (RPI 42 36-18 Record)

The number two seed in the Southland Conference will also most likely be watching the NCAA tournament from home, having gone just 2-2 hosting the Edinburg Bracket and dropping games to Houston Christian. The only way I believed there would have been a two-bid Southland conference was if both UTRGV and Southeastern made the championship series. UTRGV did get that far, but now we will have to settle with either UNO or HCU. Personally, that is not a problem, both teams are significantly underrated.

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