Alabama is going to the NCAA baseball playoffs, Troy is left out

On Monday, the University of Alabama was selected to play in the NCAA baseball tournament. Troy University, another bubble team for the tournament, was left out.

Alabama will be joined by the University of Central Florida, Stetson and Florida State in the NCAA Tallahassee Regional at Dick Howser Stadium from May 31 to June 3.

The Crimson Tide is the No. 2 seed in the region. They will begin play with the third-seeded UCF Golden Knights at 5:00 p.m. CDT. Florida State, who is the number 8 team in the nation will open with the number four seeded Stetson Hatters at 11 a.m. on Friday.

The first round of NCAA Regionals will begin on Friday, May 31 and run through Monday, June 3. Each Regional is double-elimination with only one team advancing from each Regional site into NCAA Super Regional play.

Alabama is making its 27th all-time appearance in the NCAA Tournament.

Alabama has won eight Regional Championships in its history - 1950, 1983, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2006, 2010 and 2023.

The Tide fell to South Carolina, 10 to 5, in the opening round of the SEC Baseball tournament in Hoover last week. Alabama finished the season with a 33 and 22 overall record - 13 and 17 in the conference.

The Tide was one of a record 11 Southeastern Conference teams to be selected to go to the NCAA tournament.

The previous SEC record was 10 teams, including last year in 2023.

The SEC received the top three seeds and four of the top-five in the 64-team field. Tennessee was selected as the No. 1 overall seed, followed by No. 2 Kentucky and No. 3 Texas A&M. Arkansas earned the No. 5 seed, and Georgia earned the No. 7 seed. Those five teams will be 5 of the 8 regional hosts. North Carolina, Clemson, and Florida State are the other regional hosts.

Alabama, Florida, LSU, Mississippi State, South Carolina and Vanderbilt also received tournament bids.

Next year, the conference will add Texas and Oklahoma.

Five SEC programs were selected as regional hosts: Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Texas A&M.

The next eight are Oklahoma, NC State, Oklahoma State, Virginia, Arizona, UC Santa Barbara, Oregon State and East Carolina.

The Sun Belt Conference is 1 of 4 conferences with four-or-more teams in the NCAA field, joining the SEC, ACC and Big 12.

Troy University however was left out of the NCAA tournament even though they finished third in the Sun Belt Conference at18 and 12 and 37 and 22 overall.

Four fellow Sun Belt Conference teams were chosen for the tournament. Southern Miss, who finished second in the regular season, won the automatic bid by winning the conference tournament in Montgomery. Louisiana, who won the Sun Belt Conference regular season, is going to the Tournament with a 40 and 12 finish. James Madison University jumped Troy from fourth in the conference (17 and 12) and 34 and 23 overall. Troy was also jumped by Coastal Carolina, who finished seventh in the conference (16 and 14) and 34 and 23 overall.

The winner of each double-elimination regional tournament will then compete in NCAA Super Regionals from June 7-10 in 3 game series. The eight Super Regional victors will then advance to the 2024 College World Series in Omaha, Neb., from June 14-24.

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