2026 Preseason NCAA Tournament Projected Field Of 64
Projecting the NCAA Tournament field has always been part snapshot, part thought exercise. But this year’s postseason comes with a new set of rules.
Baseball America’s initial preseason Field of 64 for 2026 reflects upcoming changes to the NCAA selection committee’s seeding process, which will now rank the top 32 teams rather than only the 16 regional hosts.
Under the new system, teams seeded 1-16 will continue to host, while seeds 17-32 will be distributed across regionals based on their ranking. Teams 29-32 will be placed with No. 1-4 seeds, 25-28 with No. 5-8, 21-24 with 9-12 and 17-20 with 13-16. The projected bracket below illustrates how that structure will function.
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As before, the selection committee will continue to avoid placing teams from the same conference in regionals together and will factor in geography as much as possible within those constraints.
With that in mind, here is our preseason projected Field of 64. Teams 1-25 were determined by BA’s preseason Top 25. The SEC leads the preseason field with 13 bids followed by the ACC (nine), Big 12 (seven), Big Ten (four), Sun Belt (three), Big West (three) and American (two).
| Los Angeles, Calif. | Oxford, Miss. | |
| 1. (1) UCLA^* (Big Ten) | 1. (16) Ole Miss^ (SEC) | |
| 2. (32) UC Santa Barbara* (Big West) | 2. (18) Louisville (ACC) | |
| 3. Kentucky (SEC) | 3. Northeastern* (CAA) | |
| 4. Cal Baptist* (WAC) | 4. Miami (OH)* (MAC) | |
| Baton Rouge, La. | Corvallis, Ore. | |
| 1. (2) LSU^* (SEC) | 1. (15) Oregon State^ (Independent) | |
| 2. (31) Wake Forest (ACC) | 2. (17) Vanderbilt (SEC) | |
| 3. Stetson* (ASUN) | 3. Gonzaga* (WCC) | |
| 4. Yale* (Ivy) | 4. Fresno State* (Mountain West) | |
| Starkville, Miss. | Fayetteville, Ark. | |
| 1. (3) Mississippi State^ (SEC) | 1. (14) Arkansas^ (SEC) | |
| 2. (30) Dallas Baptist* (CUSA) | 2. (20) Clemson (ACC) | |
| 3. Kansas (Big 12) | 3. UC Irvine (Big West) | |
| 4. Holy Cross* (Patriot) | 4. Fairfield* (MAAC) | |
| Atlanta, Ga. | Charlottesville, Va. | |
| 1. (4) Georgia Tech^* (ACC) | 1. (13) Virginia^ (ACC) | |
| 2. (29) Arizona State (Big 12) | 2. (19) Oklahoma (SEC) | |
| 3. UTSA (American) | 3. Connecticut* (Big East) | |
| 4. Saint Louis* (A10) | 4. Wright State* (Horizon) | |
| Auburn, Ala. | Conway, S.C. | |
| 1. (5) Auburn^ (SEC) | 1. (12) Coastal Carolina^* (Sun Belt) | |
| 2. (27) Arizona (Big 12) | 2. (24) Miami (ACC) | |
| 3. Mercer* (Southern) | 3. Nebraska (Big Ten) | |
| 4. Little Rock* (Ohio Valley) | 4. Bethune-Cookman* (SWAC) | |
| Athens, Ga. | Knoxville, Tenn. | |
| 1. (6) Georgia^ (SEC) | 1. (11) Tennessee^ (SEC) | |
| 2. (25) East Carolina* (American) | 2. (21) West Virginia (Big 12) | |
| 3. NC State (ACC) | 3. Cal Poly (Big West) | |
| 4. Central Connecticut* (Northeast) | 4. Murray State* (MVC) | |
| Chapel Hill, N.C. | Tallahassee, Fla. | |
| 1. (7) North Carolina^ (ACC) | 1. (10) Florida State^ (ACC) | |
| 2. (28) Texas A&M (SEC) | 2. (23) Southern Miss (Sun Belt) | |
| 3. Cincinnati (Big 12) | 3. Indiana (Big Ten) | |
| 4. High Point* (Big South) | 4. Bryant* (America East) | |
| Austin, Texas | Fort Worth, Texas | |
| 1. (8) Texas^ (SEC) | 1. (9) TCU^* (Big 12) | |
| 2. (26) Oregon (Big Ten) | 2. (22) Florida (SEC) | |
| 3. Oklahoma State (Big 12) | 3. Troy (Sun Belt) | |
| 4. Oral Roberts* (Summit) | 4. Lamar* (Southland) |
* denotes automatic bid
^ denotes regional host
Last Four In
- Indiana (Big Ten)
- Oklahoma State (Big 12)
- Troy (Sun Belt)
- UTSA (American)
First Four Out
- Alabama (SEC)
- Duke (ACC)
- Southern California (Big Ten)
- Creighton (Big East)
Next Four Out
- Kansas State (Big 12)
- Hawaii (Big West)
- Charlotte (American)
- Penn State (Big Ten)
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