Greg Sankey pushes back on expanding regional hosts to 32

Postseason expansion and format changes have been a topic across many different college sports over the last decade and college baseball has been no exception. The discussion hasn’t been around adding to the 64 teams but instead reformating the Regionals.

Instead of having a 16 four-team Regionals and then eight two-team Super Regionals, people are suggestion expanding the number of hosts in the first round of regionals to 32 with each one being a three-game series.

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey has some thoughts.

He joined Tom Hart, Chris Burke, Kyle Peterson on their broadcast of the SEC title game between Texas A&M and Vanderbilt on Sunday. Peterson asked Sankey if he had any thoughts about the idea.

“Yeah I do,” Sankey said. “We can spread this thing out as far as we want to. When you watch what happens here today with two teams not from the Birmingham area, when you watch what happens in Starkville, Mississippi, the last weekend of the season when they’re not in the mix for the postseason, people want to play in these venues. In fact, I’ve seen these transfers say we all heard about playing in the SEC. So if we want to diffuse the quality of the experience, we go with 32 and have two teams at each site. I think the 16 model again is drawing people in, is provided the kind of facility that rewards teams for what they’ve done during the season to be there. Whether its New Jersey Tech playing in Fayetteville, Arkansas and becoming local heroes. I think you want that for young people and their experience in the national championship (tournament).”

The current format of the NCAA Tournament has been in place since 2003, which is when the College World Series Finals became a three-game series.

The field expanded to 64 teams in 1999, which is also when Supers were added to the format.

The first NCAA Tournament was held in 1947 when the final games being played in Kalamazoo, Mich. The College World Series has been held in Omaha since 1950.

The 2023 NCAA Baseball Tournament field

Winston-Salem Regional

1. Wake Forest (No. 1 overall)
4. George Mason
2. Maryland
3. Northeastern

Gainesville Regional

1. Florida (No. 2 overall)
4. Florida A&M
2. UConn
3. Texas Tech

Fayetteville Regional

1. Arkansas (No. 3 overall)
4. Santa Clara
2. TCU
3. Arizona

Clemson Regional

1. Clemson (No. 4 overall)
4. Lipscomb
2. Tennessee
3. Charlotte

Baton Rouge Regional

1. LSU (No. 5 overall)
4. Tulane
2. Oregon State
3. Sam Houston

Nashville Regional

1. Vanderbilt (No. 6 overall)
4. Eastern Illinois
2. Oregon
3. Xavier

Charlottesville Regional

1. Virginia (No. 7 overall)
4. Army
2. East Carolina
3. Oklahoma

Stanford Regional

1. Stanford (No. 8 overall)
4. San Jose State
2. Texas A&M
3. Cal State Fullerton

Tuscaloosa Regional

1. Alabama (No. 16 overall)
4. Nicholls
2. Boston College
3. Troy

Columbia Regional

1. South Carolina (No. 15 overall)
4. Central Connecticut State
2. Campbell
3. NC State

Terre Haute Regional

1. Indiana State (No. 14 overall)
4. Wright State
2. Iowa
3. North Carolina

Auburn Regional

1. Auburn (No. 13 overall)
4. Penn
2. Southern Miss
3. Samford

Lexington Regional

1. Kentucky (No. 12 overall)
4. Ball State
2. West Virginia
3. Indiana

Stillwater Regional

1. Oklahoma State (No. 11 overall)
4. Oral Roberts
2. Dallas Baptist
3. Washington

Conway Regional

1. Coastal Carolina (No. 10 overall)
4. Rider
2. Duke
3. UNC Wilmington

Coral Gables Regional

1. Miami (No. 9 overall)
4. Maine
2. Texas
3. Louisiana

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