Starting on May 19, many Division I baseball conferences will begin their postseason tournaments. Not only are automatic berths on the line but also, for the power schools across the DI landscape, a chance to cement the shot at securing a Regional host site for their respective team.
ACC
We’ll start with the ACC, which looks surprising — and unsurprising at the same time.
After finishing near the bottom of the ACC standings last year, Boston College picked up the #4 seed in the tourney after an impressive season. But now, the real season begins for BC, which should receive at least an at-large berth this season.
The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets & the North Carolina Tar Heels are the heavy favorites here. Both GT and UNC have stacked, older teams that will likely be raided by big-league clubs this season. A deep Georgia Tech lineup, led by Ryan Zuckerman, Drew Burress, and Vahn Lackey, carried the team to great success this season. UNC’s pitching, meanwhile, was elite all year long.
On the flip side, Clemson and Louisville had disappointing seasons.
Big 10
There may be no bigger favorite to win a conference tourney this week than UCLA.
The Bruins enter the post-season as the favorite to be the top seed heading into the 2026 tourney. And with a team filled with soon-to-be-pro talent, many eyes will be on Omaha this coming week.
However, this is not a layup. Oregon has an impressive lineup, while Mason Edwards of USC was, perhaps, the best-performing pitcher of the regular season. In his last regular-season start, Edwards struck out 12 Oregon Ducks.
And, don’t sleep on Nebraska.
Big 12
For weeks, it appeared that Kansas and West Virginia were going to be the first and second seeds in the Big 12 tournament. It was just a matter of what order those teams would fall in.
Kansas’ baseball program has been a smashing success this season. Heading into 2026, it was believed that Brady Ballinger was going to be the Jayhawks’ key to success. But amidst a down season for him, Tyson LeBlanc hit 19 home runs and helped carry the load.
There are a lot of potential winners between those schools, plus two surging programs in Oklahoma State and Cincinnati, the latter of which had another impressive campaign in 2026.
Perhaps the most significant wild card is TCU, which entered the tourney as the seventh seed. The Horned Frogs had high expectations — College World Series-caliber expectations. However, TCU didn’t meet those expectations in the regular season.
Sawyer Strosnider hit just .273, although he did hit 13 home runs to pace the team. Noah Franco, who missed much of the first half, hit .226. The good news? Tommy LaPour tossed five innings in his final regular-season start after missing all of 2026.
SEC
LSU, the school that opened the year as the top-ranked school, is the #14 seed and will have to play on Day 1. Talk about a difference.
In what was a disappointing year for several SEC powers, all eyes will be on the top three seeds and what each can do in Hoover.
Georgia has, perhaps, the best offense in the conference, while Texas (and Florida) had a cumulative team ERA of 4.15. Texas A&M, meanwhile, boasts a rejuvenated offense.
There’s also the Auburn Tigers, who rebounded from heartbreak last season to have a strong, pitching-dominant 2026 campaign. The Tigers were the only SEC school to place in the top ten of D1 in team ERA (3.60). Quite the shift after losing key bats, including Ike Irish, last year.
Sun Belt
Coastal Carolina and Southern Miss are virtual locks to make it as at-large teams. But for Southern Miss, a conference championship could mean not just a Regional berth but also the possibility of hosting the first two rounds.
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