How do regionals work in college baseball? Explaining the NCAA tournament’s format 

The NCAA Baseball Tournament features 64 college teams grouped in 16 four-team brackets. They compete in a double-elimination tournament called regionals.

The 16 regional winners then slug it out in a best-of-three super regional series for a chance to advance to the College World Series.

Here's a closer look at the first part of the college baseball tournament, the regionals.

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How do regionals work in college baseball?

As mentioned above, the regionals are divided into 16 four-team brackets and play in a double-elimination tournament, with the winners advancing to the super regional.

The eight super regional winners go on to compete in the College World Series and the top two teams slug it out in a best-of-three championship series.

Last year, LSU was crowned champions as they edged Florida in the best-of-three finals series, winning 2-1. They survived the regional, super regional and CWS before advancing to the finals.

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Regional expansions through the years

The regional format was instituted in 1975, replacing the district tournament. During that period, 32 teams were divided into eight, four-team brackets and played in a double-elimination format. The winners of each regional go on to the College World Series which is also double-elimination.

A year later, two teams were added to the 32-team field. Due to this, one group had six teams playing in a double-elimination tournament and the remaining 28 were grouped in seven four-team brackets played under the same format.

The setup ran until 1981 and the following year, two teams were added to the 34-team field. Due to this, two regionals were now played under a six-team, double-elimination tournament, while other squads were grouped in six, four-team brackets. The eight winners qualified for the CWS.

From 1985-1987, the tournament expanded to 48 teams. A year later, the regionals are played in eight, six-team brackets with the winners advancing to the CWS. This format was played until 1998.

The NCAA amended the regional format in 1999 following the expansion of qualified teams to 64. The regionals were played under 16, four-team brackets with the winner advancing to the best-of-three super regionals.

The eight winners of the super regionals advanced to the CWS with the top two teams playing in a one-off final clash. The format for the championship game was changed once again in 2003, with the finalists competing in a best-of-three series.

In 2018, the selection committee expanded the top seeds for the tournament from eight to 16. The expansion was instituted to ensure the top-ranked team was paired with the No. 16 seed in the super regionals and prevented super-regional pairings that were geography-classified.