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 Bracket racket College World Series pairings, seedings announced
Posted: Tuesday June 08, 1999 10:30 AM
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- The chairman of the NCAA baseball committee hailed the expanded 64-team tournament Monday for sending "the best eight teams" to this week's College World Series. "We're basically patting ourselves on the back," Dick Rockwell, athletics director at LeMoyne College in Syracuse, N.Y., said during a teleconference. "I think the seeding prevailed and the best eight teams got to Omaha. Obviously, that was the objective of the committee." The tournament begins Friday at Rosenblatt Stadium with fifth-seeded Alabama (51-14) playing No. 4 seed Oklahoma State (46-19). In the late game, top-seeded Miami (46-13) will play No. 8 seed Rice (58-13). Second-seeded Florida State (53-12) plays No. 7 seed Texas A&M (52-16) on Saturday. The late game has third-seeded Cal State-Fullerton (49-12) against No. 6 seed Stanford (48-13). Except for Oklahoma State, seeded second in the Wichita, Kan., regional, the teams that advanced to the College World Series were the top seeds for their regionals. The Cowboys beat top-seeded Baylor in last weekend's super regional. When the tournament brackets were announced last month, the committee also seeded the top eight teams nationally, and those rankings were used to make up the assignments for Omaha. Rockwell said he was surprised there weren't more upsets as the tournament progressed. "I think this indicates the criteria used by the committee -- the RPI [strength of schedule] and so on -- it reinforces the fact this is a real good system," Rockwell said. "If we can continue to build on it, it will be good for college baseball." Aside from having two schools from the Big 12 -- Texas A&M and Oklahoma State -- the committee also limited the number of representatives from each conference to one school. In recent years, the Southeastern Conference had as many as four teams in Omaha. "Maybe in other parts of the country, they don't think so, but I think these pairings are good for college baseball," Rockwell said. Miami, which advanced to Omaha for the sixth time in Jim Morris' six seasons as coach, was seeded No. 1 for the entire 64-team tournament. Rockwell was asked whether he could name a favorite to win the whole thing. "We seeded Miami No. 1, and to go against that would not be in the best interest of anyone," Rockwell said. "But I do think this: The way the brackets are fixed, if you're on top of your game and playing your best baseball, you'll come out on top."
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