Odds are, you’ve filled out an NCAA tournament bracket for a March Madness pool at your work or school, or you’ve done one with friends and family. It’s become ubiquitous for millions of people who haven’t watched a minute of college basketball from November to February suddenly become ASUN or Atlantic 10 experts to pick their upsets.
But if you want real chaos and unpredictability, the real madness has come in May and should continue well into June with the NCAA baseball tournament. A raucous run of regionals has left fans with the top two overall seeds out in the opening weekend, upset winners in seven of the 16 pods and absolutely no idea who could be next in the super regionals this weekend. It’s been the most exciting playoffs of the year on the top level of college sports, an example of what makes having teams like Little Rock and Troy play giants like UCLA and Florida such a joy.
Not everyone will agree with this. Gator fans definitely won’t after Troy shocked them with two straight wins to steal the Gainesville Regional (they took down another Sunshine State perennial power in Miami along the way). Florida State fans also aren’t too happy to see St. John’s go 3-0 in the Tallahassee Regional, beating FSU twice. The Red Storm became the third team seeded last in their regional to advance to the super regionals; the second came the day before after Little Rock helped eliminate Southern Miss.
Watch NCAA baseball tournament live on Fubo (free trial)
This baseball tournament has been a welcome return to insanity. The magic of college playoffs comes from underdog runs out of nowhere. It comes from Cinderella teams like Butler, who rose from a No. 5 seed out of the Horizon League to within a few feet from winning the national championship, then followed that up with another title game appearance as a 9-seed. When 11-seeds like George Mason or VCU make it to the Final Four, America takes notice. It doesn’t matter whether you follow basketball, you root for 15-seeds like Florida Gulf Coast or Saint Peter’s to stick around as long as they can against the behemoths.
March Madness, CFP slanted toward Power 4 conferences
Sadly, those days in hoops might be done. Conference realignment has decimated the mid-majors, and the upcoming expansion to 76 teams is expected to further weed out the little guys. Sure, we still had a 5-12 upset (thank you, High Point), and No. 1 seed Florida didn’t make it to the Sweet 16. But that 9-seed that beat the defending champs was Iowa, while the only double-digit seed to advance past the first weekend was Texas. A Big Ten team and SEC team don’t exactly exude “lovable underdog.”
It was similar in 2025, the first tourney after the old Pac-12 dissolved. Five double-digit seeds won, but the only one to win two games was No. 10 Arkansas. The year before saw a 4-seed and 11-seed make the Final Four, but those were Alabama from the SEC and NC State from the ACC. The women’s tournament has traditionally been dominated by the power players: The last mid-major to even make the Sweet 16 was 10-seeded South Dakota in 2022. Even the always entertaining softball tournament has seen one team from outside the Big Ten, SEC, ACC and Big 12 reach the super regionals over the past two seasons. Going back to include the Pac-12, four have made it that far since 2021 with only 2021 James Madison reaching the Women’s College World Series.
And that’s before we get to the College Football Playoff, which is working toward a turbocharged erasure of tournament magic. A 12-team playoff lasted all of two years before it became “inevitable” that the field would soon expand to either 16 or 24 teams, and everyone knows the powers that be aren’t looking at making sure more great teams like Tulane and JMU get their one shot at glory (and the money that comes with it). Indiana’s run to an undefeated season and its first national championship was possible in large part because the Big Ten school has the alumni base to bring in big money when activated.
NCAA tournament needs upsets, small teams to make deep runs
Now contrast that with what we’ve seen on the road to Omaha. St. Mary’s (West Coast Conference) shocked the country by beating No. 1 overall seed UCLA in the first game of their regional, opening the door for Cal Poly (Big West) to move on. Troy, an at-large bid out of the Sun Belt, is hosting a super regional against Little Rock (Ohio Valley) in a battle of mid-major Trojans. One of them is guaranteed at place in the College World Series. The little guys winning helps make all the other upsets — Oklahoma over No. 2 Georgia Tech, USC over No. 12 Texas A&M, Ole Miss over No. 13 Nebraska — more enjoyable.
And this isn’t just a one-year flash in the pan. In fact, this is the second straight year both of the top two overall seeds were bounced in the regionals: Louisville advanced after Wright State (Horizon) eliminated No. 1 Vanderbilt, while UTSA (American) beat No. 2 Texas twice. Five other regional hosts fell on the opening weekend, Murray State (Missouri Valley) reached the CWS, and No. 13 Coastal Carolina (Sun Belt) played for the national championship.
That’s not all! Every postseason this decade has had something wild to offer, signifying that this is just the way NCAA baseball operates:
This is the essence of college sports. Traditional powers will have the upper hand, yes, and there will be years where the favorites hold sway more than they have recently. But as the mightiest consolidate into four (or let’s face it, two) super conferences, the NCAA baseball tournament promises fans something different, something far more unpredictable and something more like the bracket-busting mayhem of old. Bring on June Madness.
NCAA baseball bracket
Here’s a look at the schedule for the NCAA baseball super regionals, including the scheduled TV channel for Game 1 of each series. All times Eastern.
NCAA baseball schedule
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Forget March Madness. College sports’ best bracket lives in baseball
Reporting by Dan Rorabaugh, USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida / Tallahassee Democrat
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Dan Rorabaugh, USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida | USA TODAY Network
