GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- The Florida Gators baseball team on Monday was named the No. 8 overall seed in the 2026 NCAA Tournament, officially clinching hosting duties for both the Regional and the Super Regional should it advance that far.In doing so, the Gators also made history. With its tournament appearance, Florida now holds the longest active streak for reaching the NCAA Tournament at 18 seasons. The Gators jumped Vanderbilt, which made 19 straight before failing to make the tournament this season.Florida ended Vanderbilt's season with a win over the Commodores in the SEC Tournament, after which, Gators head coach Kevin O'Sullivan declined to reflect on what the accomplishment would mean for him and instead praised Vanderbilt head coach Tim Corbin."I'm not one to reflect right in the middle. I do know how difficult it is to win in this league," he said. "I do know that there have been years where we've been close of not getting in. But it's an unbelievable accomplishment, what Tim's done at Vanderbilt and where he started with that program and where it is now. I mean, I have the utmost respect for Tim and the way he goes about things."Second to none. pic.twitter.com/Yepzp2Uk5A— Florida Gators Baseball (@GatorsBB) May 25, 2026Heading into Monday's announcement, Florida trailed Vanderbilt and was ahead of LSU (13 straight), Oklahoma State (12 straight) and Dallas Baptist (11 straight). Both LSU and Dallas Baptist also failed to make the tournament, giving Oklahoma State (13 straight), Southern Miss (11 straight) and North Carolina, Arkansas and Oregon State (10 straight each) the other longest regional streaks.Florida's streak of making a regional, which encompasses the entirety of the O'Sullivan Era outside of the cancelled 2020 season, is no surprise. However, the Gators quickly rose this season from on the bubble to hosting a regional to now guaranteed to host a super regional if Florida advances.A combination of RPI (No. 11), strength of schedule (No. 2) and the Gators' performance in recent weeks (10 wins in their last 12 games) ultimately clinched a top-eight seed for the first time since 2023. Corbin went as far as to call Florida an "Omaha team" after the Gators' win over the Commodores last week."If they're able to stay at home, even if they're not, I would not want to see them in my ballpark," he said. "That's a good team. That was a really good team. We would have had to play a whole lot cleaner to win that baseball game."Florida will now look to turn its home-field advantage into a deep postseason run as the Gators search for its third College World Series appearance in four years and first national title since 2017. The Gators begin play on Friday at 1 p.m. against Rider, with the winner set to face the winner of Troy-Miami on Saturday.Sign up for our free Florida Gators newsletter and follow us on Facebook and X or the latest news!Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow