The newly minted number 15 nationally ranked Ole Miss Rebels posted an upset series win over number 10 Texas A&M over the weekend in Oxford.
But was it enough to move the needle in the tight race for the top 16 seeds who will host the regional round of the NCAA Tournament later this month? The genius prognosticators at D1Baseball and Baseball America have been leaving the Rebels out of its top 16 as of late, and with only four games remaining in the regular season, Ole Miss (34-18, 14-13 SEC) is running
out of opportunities to impress the selection committee
Just last week, Baseball America put the Rebels at No. 17 on its field of 64 projection with No. 16 Oregon State just ahead. The Beavers are a team with no conference and only games against Portland and Air Force remaining, which I would imagine a loss in any of those four games would be devastating at this juncture. The aforementioned defeated Aggies were then a No. 9 overall seed, so a series win should give Ole Miss some kind of boost.
D1Baseball who has Ole Miss ranked at 15th nationally could also move the Rebels into the top 16 in its projection expected on Tuesday. In its May 5 projection, Ole Miss sat at No. 19 and traveling to Hattiesburg as a two seed in the Southern Miss regional. The projection’s 16-seed Oregon lost its series to UCLA over the weekend, and its 9-seed Coastal Carolina endured a 1-3 week against Clemson and a series loss to Old Dominion.
Obviously all projections aside, the Rebels need another good week of baseball or none of this matters. Alabama is expected to host a regional after it easily swept South Carolina and solidified an above .500 conference record, and now Ole Miss comes into Tuscaloosa this weekend looking to take two of three and keep itself in the hosting conversation.
The vast majority of analysts online are pointing to Ole Miss getting to 16-14 in the SEC as the mark for firming up hosting chances. The Rebels have one of the toughest schedules in the country, should end up with more than 35 wins in the regular season, and somehow still doesn’t have the clout in the media to get some hosting attention. It’s baffling because outside of a 0-4 blemish to Mississippi State, there is not much bad on this Ole Miss resume.
Maybe the analysts have it wrong, because a top 15 RPI Ole Miss team would pack its stadium for another regional and should be in that position later this month.
