INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The NCAA announced the schedule for the eight super regionals in the Division I baseball tournament. No. 1 seed Arkansas opens at home against North Carolina State on Friday night. Other Friday openers have East Carolina at Vanderbilt, Stanford at Texas Tech and Mississippi at Arizona. Saturday openers are South Florida at Texas, LSU at Tennessee, Notre Dame at Mississippi State and Dallas Baptist against Virginia or Old Dominion in Columbia, South Carolina. Winners in the best-of-three series advance to the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska.
2021 NCAA Division I baseball tournament: Schedule
- Regionals: Friday, June 4 through Tuesday, June 8
- Super Regionals: Friday, June 11 through Monday, June 14
- CWS Opening Celebration Day — Friday, June 18
- First day of CWS games — Saturday, June 19
- CWS Finals — Start Monday, June 28 (best out of 3)
- Final championship game — Tuesday/Wednesday, June 29/30
NCAA Division I baseball tournament: How it works
It took a while to get to the format that takes place today. From the 1947 field of eight to the current field of 64, the bracket has gone through several upheavals in its day. The current 64-team bracket began in 1999 with the addition of the super regions and took one more step forward by making the College World Series finals a best-of-three series in 2003.
Of the 64-team field, 31 receive automatic qualifying bids for winning their conferences, while the NCAA Division I Baseball Committee selects the final 33 teams. Sixteen of those teams receive a national seed and could host the Super Regional tournament should they advance.
College World Series: The eight winners of the Super Regional tournaments head to TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Nebraska. Each of the eight teams is given a seed and split into two four-team brackets. The two winners of each bracket square off in a best-of-three College World Series finals.
For a detailed look at how the College World Series works, click here.
College World Series: History
California defeated Yale in the first-ever College World Series, the first of two played in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Texas put itself on the map as the first back-to-back champions in winning the only CWS ever played in Wichita, Kansas in 1949. The following season Texas won its second championship, opening Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha.
CWS HISTORY: Coaches with most wins | Most titles | Most appearances | Conferences most represented
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