OMAHA, Neb. — The Vanderbilt baseball team, which gave up just three runs over three games in the SEC Tournament, was awarded the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament on Monday and was among a record 13 teams from the conference to be selected to the 64-team field.
The tournament opens Friday with 16 double-elimination regionals. Regional winners advance to eight best-of-three super regionals. Those winners move on to the College World Series in Omaha beginning June 13.
UCLA (42-16) was the highest seeded California school at No. 15. USC (35-21) was among the final four teams selected.
UCLA will host a regional that includes Big West regular season champion UC Irvine (41-15), Fresno State (31-27) and Arizona State (35-22). UCLA plays Fresno State at 1 p.m. Friday and UC Irvine faces Arizona State at 6 p.m.
USC travels to Corvallis, Ore., and opens against TCU (39-18) on Friday. Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, the Big West tournament winner, goes to Eugene, Ore., and opens against Arizona.
Vanderbilt has won eight straight games and 13 of its past 16 to earn the No. 1 seed for the second time, and first since 2007. The Commodores, who play Wright State in the opener of the Nashville Regional, are in the tournament for the 19th straight time for the longest active streak.
The national seeds following Vanderbilt (42-16) are Texas (42-12), Arkansas (43-13), Auburn (38-18), North Carolina (42-12), LSU (43-14), Georgia (42-15) and Oregon State (41-12-1). Those eight teams would be in line to host super regionals if they win their regionals.
Seeds Nos. 9 through 16: Florida State (38-14), Mississippi (40-19), Clemson (44-16), Oregon (42-14), Coastal Carolina (48-11), defending champions Tennessee (43-16), UCLA and Southern Mississippi (44-14).
The last four teams to get at-large bids, in alphabetical order, were Arizona State, Kansas State, Oklahoma State and USC.
The first four teams left out were Southeastern Louisiana, Troy, UConn and Virginia.
The SEC’s 13 teams in the tournament are two more than its record 11 that made it in 2024.
