2021 NCAA baseball tournament bracket, regional matchups: SEC lands nine bids, three of top four overall seeds

The field this year includes 30 automatic bids via conference championships and 34 at-large entrants. The first round of play is known as the regional, and it’s a round-robin, double-elimination format. Each of the 16 No. 1 seeds hosts its respective regional, when possible. Each of the 16 regionals are seeded one through four. In each region, No. 1 faces No. 4, and No. 2 faces No. 3 on the first day of action. The winners of those two games then play each other, while the losers play an elimination game.

The winner of each regional advances to the super regional. The super regional is a best-of-three series format.

The winners of the super regionals—eight teams in all—advance to the College World Series in Omaha.

The College World Series is a double-elimination format until the final two teams are left standing. At that point, slates are wiped clean, and it’s a best-of-three series to determine the national champion.

The field of 64 also includes eight national seeds, which you may consider the pre-tourney favorites to reach Omaha. Here they are for this year, ranked in order with their regular-season record:

1.Arkansas, 46-10
2.Texas, 42-15
3.Tennessee, 45-16
4.Vanderbilt, 40-15
5.Arizona, 40-15
6.TCU, 40-17
7.Mississippi State, 40-15
8.Texas Tech, 36-15