2021 NCAA Baseball Tournament: Ole Miss to host regional in Oxford next weekend

The National Collegiate Athletic Association announced the 16 host sites for the 2021 NCAA Baseball Tournament Sunday evening and Oxford, Miss. was one of them. No. 12 Ole Miss (41-19, 18-12) won three games in Hoover before bowing out in the semifinals and are currently sitting 13th in Warren Nolan’s RPI rankings.

It’s the third-straight season and 10th time in the last 17 seasons that the Rebels will host three other programs in the Velvet Ditch.

Now, Mike Bianco and the Rebels will await a second announcement on Monday at 11am CST when the NCAA selection committee will announce the top-eight national seeds, regional pairings, and the rest of the tournament field.

The latest projections by D1Baseball have Ole Miss as the 10th overall seed playing host to two-seed Southern Miss, three-seed North Carolina, and four-seed Presbyterian. The Rebels have 19(!) top-50 wins and some believe made their case for a top-eight national seed after an impressive showing in Hoover at the SEC Tournament.

The Golden Eagles (37-19, 22-9) lost in the semifinals of the C-USA Tournament to Louisiana Tech, the Tar Heels (27-25, 18-18) just finished over .500 after a few wins in the ACC Tournament, and the Blue Hose did the same, ending their regular season with a record of 22-21 (18-16) and losing in the Big South title game to Campbell.

It’s not the toughest regional but it’s also not the easiest. Southern Miss went 6-9 against the top-25 this year and led their conference in team ERA (3.53). And sure, North Carolina doesn’t have a great resume on paper, but they faced the 8th-toughest schedule in the country and finished 13-20 against the top-50 in Scott Forbes first season on the top step.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s selection show to see if Ole Miss can sneak into the top-eight for a national seed and who they will face in Oxford next weekend.

Cheers!

How to watch

When: Monday, May 31st, 11am CST
TV: ESPN2
Online: WatchESPN