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Ole Miss

Bracket Watch: Ole Miss is back in a must-win situation to clinch a host seed

11by: Jake Thompson05/23/25JakeThompsonOn3
Syndication: Tuscaloosa News
May 21, 2025; Hoover, AL, USA; Ole Miss players huddle together before the game with Florida in the second round of the SEC Baseball Tournament at the Hoover Met. Mandatory credit: © Gary Cosby Jr. / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The victory late Wednesday night over Florida in the second round of the Southeastern Conference Baseball Tournament felt like enough to put Ole Miss over the top to secure a National Seed and host a Regional next weekend.

Roughly 36 hours later the Rebels might be back where they started the week. Now they are in a must-win situation in Friday’s quarterfinal round match up against Arkansas at 3 p.m. CT.

During conference tournament week the Field of 64 projections update on a near daily basis by Baseball America. In the span of a day the hosting fate of Ole Miss went from positive back to ‘unclear, ask again later.’

In Friday’s updated projections Baseball America moved the Rebels out of a hosting seed and back to a high 2 Seed, playing in the Atlanta Regional with host and 16 National Seed Georgia Tech. Creighton (3 Seed) and Missouri State (4 Seed) round out the Regional field which is paired with the Austin Regional and No. 1 National Seed Texas.

D1Baseball also has Tennessee as a new host seed in Friday’s projections. Ole Miss is a projected 2 Seed in the Hattiesburg Regional with Southern Miss the No. 14 National Seed.

Tennessee leap-frogged the Rebels into a hosting seed after its 7-5 extra innings win over 1 Seed Texas on Wednesday. Currently, Ole Miss is at 17 in the RPI and a win over the Razorbacks would pass the Longhorns for the most Quad 1 wins in the country with 18. The two teams are currently tied with a nation-leading 17.

Immediately after being the Gators to advance in the SEC Tournament Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco presented his team’s case to be in the hosting conversation, if not earned one already, when talking on the SEC Network.

“I don’t think we have to get (the selection committee’s) attention. I think the committee, you got their attention and we’re one of the teams that’s in the running,” Bianco said. “Nobody knows what’s going to happen in that room in Indianapolis this weekend. I really like our résumé, but I’m sure the other teams that are bubbles like their résumé. The best thing we can do is win our baseball games. This is a team that has a top 10 strength of schedule. It’s got a lot of Quad 1 wins and we’ve got a lot of victories over some really good teams.”

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