2008 NCAA Baseball Tournament Bracket (top)

Many of you may not know this but the field of 64 for the NCAA Baseball Tournament was announced yesterday at 12:30. And, many of you really could care less until the field gets narrowed down to 16 or even the 8 that make it to Omaha for the College World Series. Here at The Nutz we will give you a little preview all day of who got in and who we might think will move on, just so you will have a better understanding of how the tournament works and how the teams get to Omaha. My first blog today, I will give you the top of the bracket for the Regionals with my predictions in color according to the next region, and later on today I will post the bottom, that will eventually get down to the final 8 that moves on to the CWS. The field of 64 is just like in basketball with top seeds making up the balance of each side of the bracket (top and bottom). The Regionals is a double elimination tournament between the 4 teams in that regional and the winner moves on to the Super Regional against the team that moved on in the other regional according to their position in the bracket. The top 4 seeds in the top of the bracket are (1) Miami, (2) Florida State, (3) Cal State Fullerton, and (4) Georgia. If you have any questions on how the tournament goes don't be afraid to ask. Here are the top brackets and my predictions.

REGIONALS ------SUPER REGIONALS -----CWS

(1) Miami

(4) Bethune-Cookman

(3) Mississippi ------- MIAMI

(2) Missouri

--------------------------------------------------MIAMI

(1) Arizona

(4) Eastern Michigan

(3) Kentucky -------- MICHIGAN

(2) Michigan

(1) N.C. State

(4) James Madison

(3) Charlotte --------SOUTH CAROLINA

(2) South Carolina

-----------------------------------------------SO. CAROLINA

(1) Georgia

(4) Lipscomb

(3) Louisville ------------ GEORGIA

(2) Georgia Tech

(1) Cal St Fullerton

(4) Rider

(3) Virginia --------- CAL ST FULLERTON

(2) UCLA

------------------------------------------CAL ST FULLERTON

(1) Stanford

(4) UC Davis

(3) Arkansas ------------STANFORD

(2) Pepperdine

(1) Oklahoma

(4) Western Kentucky

(3) TCU ----------------WICHITA ST

(2) Wichita St.

------------------------------------------------FLORIDA ST

(1) Florida State

(4) Bucknell

(3) Tulane ------------- FLORIDA ST

(2) Florida

I have had a chance this year to see three of the teams in this top half of the bracket live this year (Missouri, Florida, and Eastern Michigan). Miami has been the class of college baseball all year and are heavy favorites to get to the championship game. Florida State which has possibly the number 1 pick in the MLB Draft next month in Catcher Buster Posey looks to erase past fallouts in Regional and Super Regional play. As much as I like Michigan and their 1/2 punch with pitchers Zach Putnam and Chris Fetter, they won't have much of a chance against Miami's highly talented offense. Cal St Fullerton should have no problem getting to the CWS this year with the only challenge I see for them would be Stanford in the Supers. My sleeper team in the top portion of the bracket are the Gamecocks from South Carolina. USC had a tough time in the heavy SEC this year but were 9-5 verses the nation's top 25.