The NCAA Baseball Tournament Selection Committee announced the 16 regional host sites Sunday evening, and much to the dismay and surprise of Mississippi State fans, postseason baseball will not be played in Starkville, at least not for regional play.
Mississippi State baseball was not named as one of the regional hosts despite a good bit of expectation both from fans and some national outlets that the Diamond Dawgs would be playing the first weekend of the tournament at Dudy Noble Field.
MSU will return to the postseason for the first time since 2021, but for the first time since 2018, the Bulldogs will travel for regional play.
Which teams beat out Mississippi State to host?
14 of the 16 host teams were to be expected. Tennessee, Kentucky, Texas A&M, Arkansas, Georgia, North Carolina, NC State, Florida State, Clemson, Virginia, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, UC Santa Barbara, and Oregon State were all consensus host selections in the most recent projections.
Of that group, Oregon State was viewed as the most at risk to not host, but few thought the Beavers would have to leave Corvallis. The final two spots were the most surprising: East Carolina and a true wildcard of Arizona.
The Pirates had heavily been projected as a regional host prior to today, but after poor losses to Wichita State, most expected them to miss out on hosting. No one saw Arizona hosting. The Cats had plenty of support to host as a "most-deserving" team after winning both the Pac-12 regular season and tournament titles, but most thought their #31 RPI was too low to justify hosting.
These moves will cause plenty of backlash, and Mississippi State's not the only team frustrated. As D1 Baseball's Kendall Rogers pointed out, Indiana State, Duke, and to a lesser extent Dallas Baptist has arguments to host this year and certainly didn't expect to see both ECU and Arizona ahead of them.
Indiana State, Mississippi State and Duke were the headliners left out of hosting, along with Dallas Baptist. @HailStateBB having 20+ wins in the #SEC was extremely loud, and the Sycamores having the RPI they had and not hosting seems odd.
— Kendall Rogers (@KendallRogers) May 27, 2024
It was crowded at the hosting cutline this year, and some form of controversy was largely inevitable.
Were the Bulldogs snubbed?
This morning I dove into the hosting resumes of several teams in a similar boat as Mississippi State, and I came to the conclusion that I felt State's overall body of work was good enough to put them ahead of several teams, including both ECU and Arizona. When it came to the Wildcats specifically, I didn't think they'd even be much of a threat given their metrics and lack of high-level wins.
I felt good about State hosting, but I also acknowledged that if the selection committee chose to go another direction, I would understand it. And for State, it simply came down to the fact that they lost too many games to bad competition. Their five Q4 losses were the most of any team in hosting consideration.
And while I don't believe those losses are truly indicative of MSU's actual quality, they're still a stain on the resume. The Diamond Dawgs were going to have to handle business throughout SEC play to overcome that, and while 17-13 and a 5th place league finish is very good, State left several wins on the table that could've left no doubt about them as a host.
Instead, they left things up to the discretion of the committee, and the committee chose to go another way. I personally can't pound my fist and say they were snubbed with that in mind, but I certainly won't blame any fans who choose to.
We'll learn Mississippi State baseball's postseason destination tomorrow during the NCAA Baseball Tournament Selection Show on ESPN2 at 11:00 am CT.