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The eight national seeds and the remainder of the 64-team field of the 2014 NCAA Division I Baseball Championship bracket will be revealed on Monday afternoon, with a televised selection show on ESPNU. Update: NCAA Baseball Tournament bracket announced
The one-hour selection show will begin at noon ET and will be hosted by Dari Nowkhah, who will be joined in studio by analysts Kyle Peterson and Ben McDonald. The program will feature interviews with several coaches as well as NCAA baseball committee chairman Dennis Farrell.
NCAA Baseball
The 16 regional hosts were announced on Sunday night, but the all-important national seeds have yet to be revealed. Being named as a national seed ensures a team gets home field advantage through the tournament's first two rounds.
As of now, it seems safe to assume that six of the eight spots are claimed: Florida, Virginia, Oregon State, Florida State, Indiana and Louisiana-Lafayette. The last two slots are more contentious, as TCU, LSU, Ole Miss and Miami each have strong arguments. TCU did well to boost its chances, knocking off Oklahoma State in the Big 12 title game. LSU also came away with a conference championship, beating Florida for the SEC title. Whether those two wins are enough to put the Horned Frogs and Tigers over the top remains to be seen.
Oregon State was ranked No. 1 in last week's polls by both the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association and Baseball America. Defending champion UCLA has struggled to an under-.500 record in 2014, putting an end to any hopes of a repeat.
The bracket announcement on Monday is the first step in the process toward the College World Series. The 64 teams are split into 16 four-team Regionals, each with a host team. Every four-team Regional is a double elimination tournament to be played from May 30 to June 2, with 16 winners advancing to the Super Regionals.
Each Super Regional is a best-of-three series between two teams to be played from June 6-9, with the eight winners advancing to the College World Series in Omaha, Neb., which begins on Saturday, June 14. The details of the final eight matchups in Omaha will be announced on June 11.
But before there can be eight teams, there must first be 64, and those teams and the bracket get announced on Monday at noon on ESPNU.