With the NCAA baseball tournament field now whittled down to 16 teams, it’s natural to ask which of the regional champs have the best chance to bring home the title in Omaha, Nebraska, at the end of the month. In all honesty, given that half the national seeds have already been eliminated, your guess is probably as good as ours. Nevertheless, we shall take a stab at ranking the 16 remaining teams.
First and foremost, a few caveats are in order. This ranking is completely unscientific. Poll positions and seeds are taken into account, but recent performance and historic postseason success are also factors considered. Home field in the upcoming super regional round is an edge, but it’s anything but a guarantee of success as we’ve already seen in this tournament. With all that out of the way then, here’s how we rank the 16 survivors.
Is this finally the Razorbacks’ year? Arkansas was a win away in 2018 but has yet to claim a national championship. In addition to being the highest-seeded team still in the tournament, this year’s squad would appear to have the necessary combination of pitching depth and timely hitting for a long stay should it make it to Omaha. But the Hogs have a tough assignment against the defending champion Volunteers.
