Riedell Report: Does the Road to Omaha need to change?

By Andrew Riedell

“We have a special tournament, and it's like a great restaurant, and they expand and then all of a sudden things fall apart on them. That's something we always need to be very cognizant of. However, I'd love to see more teams participate because I think there are teams that are deserving and would excel in the field. I don't think it's just an additional type of team. These are teams that belong in. I hope we continue to evaluate that.”

This is what Craig Keilitz, the executive director of the American Baseball Coaches Association, said back in June at the State of the College Baseball press conference in Omaha. With news of a new committee leader and now seeding changes coming for college baseball, we need to ask ourselves the big hard hard-hitting question. Will there be a change to the tournament format, and does it need to be changed?

I reached out to some head coaches and assistant coaches to ask them their opinions on whether the current format should be changed and what they would rather want in the NCAA Tournament, and here were some of their thoughts: 

Anonymous Coach: “32 Hosts and an expanded field.”

Anonymous Coach: “I would love for them to reseed after regionals and super regionals, but I think they need to focus on fixing some geographical aspects of the seeding first.” 

Anonymous Assistant: “I like the old system because it has more of a true tournament feel. Three game series with 32 hosts to me really feels like another weekend, and most likely attended and watched as such. Three-game regional series vs a lower seed doesn’t feel as fun and exciting as a 1 seed vs a 4 seed, and then the winner plays the 2 or 3 seed. That feels like a tournament.”

Let’s start with the news that was reported today, as there will be a new chairman of the D1 Baseball selection committee, as Southeastern Louisiana’s Athletic Director Jay Artigues, the former chair of the baseball selection committee, will step down, and FSU AD Michael Alford will step into his role. Alford was part of the committee this past year and is on the committee until 2027.

So, we are moving from a mid-major athletic director to a P4 athletic director sliding into the role. I think this is the beginning of a bunch of changes we will be hearing regarding the NCAA streamlining and changing a bunch of their archaic processes, as they have already started making changes, and you can read about it here. 

The other news that was reported today is that the NCAA Baseball selection committee will be switching to a format that is used by both softball and soccer. The new format will see the selection committee seeding the top 32 teams instead of the top 16. The Top 16 seeds will still be the national seeds, but the way they are paired with the other teams will be changed. It has been a popular concept in softball this last year, and I reached out to a few D1 softball coaches, who all agreed that they liked the new concept. I believe the new format will ultimately just lead to a format of 32 regionals. 

Does the Road to Omaha need to change, though? I believe that the selection process for the tournament needs to change, but I believe the tournament does not need to expand, and it is perfect the way it is.

I think that the committee needs to be more upfront with updated rankings and where teams stand throughout the season. I believe that teams and fans take on the media in polls such as D1, Baseball America, and College Baseball Central, and then believe that the committee is just going to magically rank them the same way that we do.

I believe that if the committee gave more resources to the teams and to the fans, we could see and agree on what their decisions are more and more. (For the record, I believe the committee did a good job on the 2025 bracket.)

I believe when it comes to geographical locations, with seeding 3-4 locations, we need to kind of just throw it out the window. We need to place the best teams where they should be ranked, not where it is easy for them to go. There has been an instance of the NCAA sending some schools to crazy places, such as Tulane and Nicholls State (both in Louisiana), to Corvallis, OR, in 2024 for the regionals there.

We'll do our best to keep you posted, but for now, just know the writing is on the outfield wall that changes are coming, and we may have not heard them all yet.

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