What to watch for in the NCAA baseball tournament and Women's College World Series

Published May 31, 2021 8:44 pm ET

Summer ball is full-speed ahead.

The Division I NCAA baseball championship field was announced Monday, and 64 teams will compete for the chance to make it to the College World Series in Omaha in June.

The top 16 seeds are Arkansas, Texas, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Arizona, TCU, Mississippi State, Texas Tech, Stanford, Notre Dame, Old Dominion, Ole Miss, East Carolina, Oregon, Florida and Louisiana Tech.

Meanwhile, the final eight teams in contention for the Division I NCAA softball championship, led by the dominant Oklahoma Sooners, are off to the Women's College World Series this week.

It's a big week for baseball and softball.

Here are the biggest takeaways from the baseball bracket:

Powerhouse presence

The Arkansas Razorbacks took the No. 1 seed for the first time in school history and will host the Fayetteville Regional beginning Friday.

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If Arkansas wins the national championship, it would be the first No. 1 seed to do so since the Miami Hurricanes defeated the Florida State Seminoles in 1999, the first year of the tournament’s current format.

Since then, 14 of the 21 top-seeded teams made it to Omaha, and Arkansas will try to keep that streak alive. The Razorbacks won the SEC regular-season and tournament titles, and the previous two teams to accomplish that won the College World Series.

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Meanwhile, SEC baseball powerhouse Vanderbilt will be making its conference-best 15th straight tournament appearance.

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It's a draw

After securing the Big Ten’s automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament, the Huskers have found themselves in a tough spot alongside top-seeded Arkansas.

If looks could kill …

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Nebraska, which expected to host a regional as the Big Ten champion, will open against Northeastern as a 2-seed next weekend. Even so, the Huskers are making it clear they don't care about being sent to No. 1 Arkansas.

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… did we mention the Huskers don't care?

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New kids on the block

Grand Canyon, NJIT, Norfolk State and Presbyterian will make their first appearances in the NCAA baseball tournament.

Western Athletic Conference (WAC) tournament champion Grand Canyon (39-19-1) will make its postseason debut as an automatic qualifier, and NJIT will head into the tournament on a nine-game winning streak and with 26 victories, both school records.

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Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) champion Norfolk State will make its first appearance this weekend against No. 11 national seed East Carolina, and Presbyterian will take on No. 4 national seed Vanderbilt.

History in the making

Three-time Mountain West champion Nevada will make its first tournament appearance since 2000, and the Maryland Terrapins are back in the field for the first time since 2017.

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This will be the 43rd consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance for Florida State, and the 2-seed Texas Longhorns, with their highest national seed since 2010, are making their NCAA-best 60th tournament appearance.

Meanwhile, Fairfield University snagged the first at-large bid in Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference baseball history, and the players couldn’t hold back their excitement upon receiving the news.

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The 64-team tournament begins Friday and will narrow the field to eight. Those eight teams will travel to Omaha for the College World Series, which begins June 19 at TD Ameritrade Park.

Speaking of the College World Series, the women’s softball double-elimination bracket begins Thursday at USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City.

The eight teams in the hunt are top seed Oklahoma, No. 2 UCLA, No. 3 Alabama, No. 5 Oklahoma State, No. 10 Florida State, No. 11 Arizona, James Madison and Georgia.

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Here are some softball storylines to watch:

Star power

The No. 1 seed Oklahoma Sooners and 2019 national champion UCLA Bruins highlight the eight-team WCWS field. The Sooners (50-2) are making their 14th WCWS appearance, and second-seeded UCLA (46-5) is looking to secure its 14th softball title.

Oklahoma, which won national titles in 2000, 2013, 2016 and 2017, will open against first-time qualifier James Madison University. The reigning champion Bruins will open against Florida State.

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History repeating itself

If both Oklahoma and Oklahoma State win their openers, the in-state rivals would face off in a second straight WCWS. Oklahoma defeated Oklahoma State in 2019 en route to meeting UCLA in the championship series. (There was no 2020 event due to the COVID-19 pandemic.)

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First-timers

For the first time in program history, the JMU Dukes are headed to the Women’s College World Series after a 7-2 triumph against No. 8 Missouri in the super regionals.

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JMU is the first non-Power 5 school to reach the WCWS since the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns in 2014. With JMU and Georgia advancing, this is the first time since 2012 that a non-seeded team made the eight-team WCWS field.

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The Women's College World Series action begins Thursday with Oklahoma-JMU, Oklahoma State-Georgia, Alabama-Arizona and UCLA-Florida State. Two teams will advance to the championship series, which starts June 7.