(This report will be updated)
They've had enough hours to absorb the letdown of not hosting a NCAA regional. Now the Diamond Dogs are accepting the challenge of beginning their post-season path in Charlottesville.
Mississippi State has been assigned to the Charlottesville Regional as the second seed. The Bulldogs will be taking on third-seeded St. John's in Friday's opening round, while host and top-seeded Virginia faces Penn.
Ticketing and other information for the Regional will be provided as available.
These and all NCAA Tournament assignments were published during the late-morning presentation. The regional hosts were already announced Sunday evening, when Mississippi State got the bad non-news they were not among that sweet sixteen.
Now the seeding order 1-through-16 is set including the top eight national seeds, as well as the bracketing of what regionals are paired for the next weekend's super round. The Charlottesville Regional is seeded #12 overall and its winner will be sent to #5 Arkansas barring upsets in both events. In such case the NCAA will formalize the super regional hosts on June 4.
This double-elimination first round is May 31-June 3, though most will be completed by Sunday. The extra day is allowing for weather, always a springtime consideration. The best-of-three game series super round runs June 7/8-through-8/10 depending on TV preferences.
All super winners, even if decided off the field due to delays, need be set by the 11 as the College World Series begins Friday June 14.
Mississippi State as a program knows how to get to and play in Charlottesville. The 2013 Diamond Dogs, winners of the Starkville Regional, were paired with Virginia for the super round. Coach John Cohen's team won both games behind the hitting of Adam Frazier and Hunter Renfroe in a weekend disrupted by rain.
That State team advanced to the College World Series and reached the championship round.
Coach Chris Lemonis is to meet with media around 12:45 today as Mississippi State resumes practicing. Among other things he will likely be asked travel plans, initial ideas of how the pitching sets up, and just how this team is responding to a road regional assignment after playing themselves into position to host.
Players and fans can and will point to a handful of late-season losses, or even a non-conference win, as tipping the balance against Mississippi State. While easy and not inaccurate, the Bulldogs could like any club have put the question out of question during the course of the full regular season with just a couple more wins here, or even one more conference series won there.
Mississippi State, which had a #25 RPI in today's final NCAA update, is not the only program feeling rejected. Or just robbed in a couple of cases, such as #10 RPI Indiana State, #16 Duke, and #17 Dallas Baptist. All are comparing their own larger resumes and conference quality to chosen hosts such as #18 RPI Oregon State, #22 East Carolina, and most of all #31 Arizona.
Five SEC peers are hosting, all expected. Tenessee is the #1 overall seed this year, followed by #2 Kentucky, #3 Texas A&M, #5Arkansas, and #7 Georgia as national seeds. All will host super rounds if they win their home regional.
The SEC and ACC both have five host sites this year, a drop-off for the SEC which had eight hosts last year en route to the league claiming the fourth-consecutive national championship.
There is no overlooking the advantage hosting has in winning regionals, first or super rounds alike. However for all their disappointment these Diamond Dogs can and will be reminded of four previous Mississippi State squads which won their way to Omaha whether partly or entirely playing in hostile settings.
Those team's feats will be recalled in a later story this lead-up week.
In all eleven SEC teams earned at-large bids. Besides Mississippi State and the five hosts, Alabama, LSU, Florida, and South Carolina are in the field of 64. All are #2 seeds in regionals except for the #3 Gators.
Florida athletic director and former Mississippi State AD Scott Stricklin was a spring addition to the NCAA baseball committee. East Carolina AD and former director at Southern Mississippi Jon Gilbert is also on this year's committee which rotated on three new members this semester. Rotating off was Cohen, now AD at Auburn.
