It's a big day for winning championships. There will be 7 winner-take-all games, and potentially as many as 10 today.
First off, 6 teams are now in: #1 Oregon State (who won perhaps the easier regional ever in the history of tournaments), #4 LSU (2nd easiest regional ever), #7 Louisville (3rd easiest regional ever), 1-seed Wake Forest, 2-seed Cal St-Fullerton, and, surprise, surprise, 4-seed Davidson.
The seven for-sure championship games today include 3 SEC-ACC showdowns, a shoot out in Texas, another shoot out in California involving Texas (I sense a pattern here, Texans love their guns I suppose), a David-Goliath battle in the swamps of Florida, and a bitter feud in the Ozarks.
So here's my thinking on the SEC-ACC games.
The SEC has 1 already in, the ACC 2. These are the 2 strongest conferences without a doubt. I suspect both conferences end up with an equal number of teams in the Supers. That means the ACC wins 2 of the 3 showdowns today because that's their last shots at making the Supers while the SEC has 3 other opportunities besides these 3.. So here's how those games go down:
visitor NC State beats Kentucky
host Florida St beats Auburn
visitor Vandy beats Clemson.
You like my logic there?
Moving along to the other match-ups. Texas plays at Long Beach St. I know little about these two teams so I think the winner comes down to who has the best nickname. There is no better nickname IMHO than "Dirtbags", something I've been called many times. So I'll go with LBSU here.
Florida entertains Bethune-Cookman. How in the world is this game even happening? I'll tell you how. Kevin O'Sullivan. Great recruiter, not a great in-game coach. He'll likely win this game due to superior pitching but once again Kevin has shown his flair for blowing games in the post-season. This one is too close to call but Florida has the edge.
Arkansas and Missouri State are likely to have weapons arsenal hidden away in each dugout should they become necessary during the game today. These 2 teams despise each other and after last night's game it's very likely we'll see some fisticuffs of some type (most likely between the coaches and umpires more so than the players.) Arkansas is the home team and that's the slightest of edges so I'll say Arkansas wins in a game with lots of runs scored.
Sam Houston takes on Texas Tech. Sam was a Tennessean, served as governor, married a Cherokee Indian, resigned as governor, and went west to pursue something that I forget. Given this Tennessee connection I think it portends an upset and Texas Tech becomes the 3rd National Seed to bite the dust. Go Sam!!!
The 3 remaining regionals have dealt with a lot of rain and are behind the others so there's a lot of unknown here. What we do know is that TCU, Southern Miss, and Texas A&M all have to lose twice in order to get eliminated. One of those will get eliminated and my best guess is Southern Miss. This will result in championship games between:
a. Virginia and TCU
b. Mississippi State and Southern Miss
c. Houston and Texas A&M.
TCU, Mississippi State, and A&M will be victorious I think.
So, here's my line-up for the Super Regionals:
Vanderbilt at #1 Oregon State
Mississippi State at #4 LSU
Sam Houston at Florida St.
Cal St-Fullerton at Long Beach St
Davidson at Texas A&M
Wake Forest at #3 Florida
Arkansas at #6 TCU
North Carolina St at #7 Louisville
5 National Seeds will be left and 2 of them will lose their Super Regional.
I've secretly encoded in that list who I think goes to Omaha. Can you decipher my code?
First off, 6 teams are now in: #1 Oregon State (who won perhaps the easier regional ever in the history of tournaments), #4 LSU (2nd easiest regional ever), #7 Louisville (3rd easiest regional ever), 1-seed Wake Forest, 2-seed Cal St-Fullerton, and, surprise, surprise, 4-seed Davidson.
The seven for-sure championship games today include 3 SEC-ACC showdowns, a shoot out in Texas, another shoot out in California involving Texas (I sense a pattern here, Texans love their guns I suppose), a David-Goliath battle in the swamps of Florida, and a bitter feud in the Ozarks.
So here's my thinking on the SEC-ACC games.
The SEC has 1 already in, the ACC 2. These are the 2 strongest conferences without a doubt. I suspect both conferences end up with an equal number of teams in the Supers. That means the ACC wins 2 of the 3 showdowns today because that's their last shots at making the Supers while the SEC has 3 other opportunities besides these 3.. So here's how those games go down:
visitor NC State beats Kentucky
host Florida St beats Auburn
visitor Vandy beats Clemson.
You like my logic there?
Moving along to the other match-ups. Texas plays at Long Beach St. I know little about these two teams so I think the winner comes down to who has the best nickname. There is no better nickname IMHO than "Dirtbags", something I've been called many times. So I'll go with LBSU here.
Florida entertains Bethune-Cookman. How in the world is this game even happening? I'll tell you how. Kevin O'Sullivan. Great recruiter, not a great in-game coach. He'll likely win this game due to superior pitching but once again Kevin has shown his flair for blowing games in the post-season. This one is too close to call but Florida has the edge.
Arkansas and Missouri State are likely to have weapons arsenal hidden away in each dugout should they become necessary during the game today. These 2 teams despise each other and after last night's game it's very likely we'll see some fisticuffs of some type (most likely between the coaches and umpires more so than the players.) Arkansas is the home team and that's the slightest of edges so I'll say Arkansas wins in a game with lots of runs scored.
Sam Houston takes on Texas Tech. Sam was a Tennessean, served as governor, married a Cherokee Indian, resigned as governor, and went west to pursue something that I forget. Given this Tennessee connection I think it portends an upset and Texas Tech becomes the 3rd National Seed to bite the dust. Go Sam!!!
The 3 remaining regionals have dealt with a lot of rain and are behind the others so there's a lot of unknown here. What we do know is that TCU, Southern Miss, and Texas A&M all have to lose twice in order to get eliminated. One of those will get eliminated and my best guess is Southern Miss. This will result in championship games between:
a. Virginia and TCU
b. Mississippi State and Southern Miss
c. Houston and Texas A&M.
TCU, Mississippi State, and A&M will be victorious I think.
So, here's my line-up for the Super Regionals:
Vanderbilt at #1 Oregon State
Mississippi State at #4 LSU
Sam Houston at Florida St.
Cal St-Fullerton at Long Beach St
Davidson at Texas A&M
Wake Forest at #3 Florida
Arkansas at #6 TCU
North Carolina St at #7 Louisville
5 National Seeds will be left and 2 of them will lose their Super Regional.
I've secretly encoded in that list who I think goes to Omaha. Can you decipher my code?
