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Ole Miss named a regional host in the 2016 NCAA Baseball Tournament

We'll have to wait until Monday to find out if the Rebs are a national seed.

By Jeff Gray
Josh McCoy/Ole Miss Athletics

The selection committee revealed NCAA baseball regional hosts on Sunday evening, naming Ole Miss as one of the 16 teams guaranteed to host during the first round. We'll find out which three teams are joining them in Oxford—as well as whether the Rebs will land a coveted national seed—during the big selection show on Monday.

The regional starts this coming Friday, June 3 and runs through Monday. There's a chance of storms on Friday, but the rest of the weekend should be clear and warm. Pack up your coolers and get ready to spend another weekend at Swayze.

Ole Miss hosting comes as no surprise, though it was just days ago that we were discussing a scenario in which the Rebs could get left out of an unprecedentedly crowded SEC host race. They were able to lock themselves in with a run at the SEC Tournament in Hoover, where they jumped out to a 3-0 start before dropping a semifinal game to A&M, which in turn beat Florida on Sunday to claim the conference title.

A record seven SEC teams were named hosts, the most by a single conference in history of the tournament. In addition to Ole Miss, that list includes Texas A&M, Mississippi State, Florida, LSU, South Carolina and Vandy.

The conference is expected to set another benchmark on Monday by fielding half of the eight national seeds. A&M, State and Florida are locked in, with Ole Miss and LSU competing for the fourth spot. The resumes are close enough that Ole Miss' head-to-head series win should earn the nod, but I'm afraid the committee will be seduced by LSU's late-season hot streak (the Tigers won 14 of their last 16 games and, like the Rebs, advanced to the semis of the SEC Tourney).

Here's the full list of regional sites

The committee won't seed these until Monday, so we'll just list them in alpha order for now.

  • Baton Rouge, La. - LSU
  • Charlottesville, Va. - Virginia
  • Clemson, S.C. - Clemson
  • College Station, Texas - Texas A&M
  • Columbia, S.C. - South Carolina
  • Miami, Fla. - Miami
  • Fort Worth, Texas - TCU
  • Gainesville, Fla. - Florida
  • Lafayette, La. - Louisiana-Lafayette
  • Louisville, Ky. - Louisville
  • Lubbock, Texas - Texas Tech
  • Nashville, Tenn. - Vanderbilt
  • Oxford, Miss. - Ole Miss(!)
  • Raleigh, N.C. - N.C. State
  • Starkville, Miss. - Mississippi State
  • Tallahassee, Fla. - Florida State

How to watch the selection show on Monday

Time: 11 a.m. CT
TV: ESPNU
Online: WatchESPN

Remember the last Oxford regional?

That was in 2014, when the Rebs beat out Washington and prompted one of the most badass sports celebrations I've ever seen.

Ole Miss went on to beat Louisiana-Lafayette in a super and advance to its first College World Series in over four decades.

Here's to more of that.