No Way Around It, Alabama Baseball's NCAA Seeding Was Beyond Bad: All Things CW

The Crimson Tide survived what may have been the toughest regional in the NCAA Tournament.

Now that Alabama baseball has successfully hosted its first regional since 2006, and will play in a Super Regional for the first time since 2010, we can safely call the Crimson Tide's tournament seeding for what it was without looking petty or reactionary.

It was absolutely terrible, and not just because some of the better mock drafts out there thought Alabama was worthy of being around No. 11 in seeding, maybe even close to No. 8 had it pulled out at least one more win at the SEC Tournament. 

We'll also ignore (for now) that No. 11 Oklahoma State and No. 13 Auburn (which Alabama beat in a weekend series and again in the SEC Tournament) have already been eliminated along with No. 4 Clemson, No. 6 Vanderbilt and No. 9 Miami. 

The Crimson Tide had the toughest regional in the tournament, and arguably the worst seeding of anyone. Granted, it's kind of supposed to be that way for the No. 16 team in the brackets, but the way the tournament has gone so far has only confirmed how lousy that placement was. 

First, Boston College was the second team in Tuscaloosa, so it's pretty much a given that the committee viewed the Golden Eagles as the best team not to host. A lot of critics thought BC was more than deserving, and it arrived with a pretty impressive resume and 35-18 record. 

Boston College finished third in the ACC's Atlantic Division, and No. 18 RPI. The key stretch for the Eagles included six straight wins against ranked opponents, then-No. 2 Tennessee, No. 10 Virginia Tech, No. 20 UConn, No. 21 Florida State and No. 24 North Carolina State. At one point, BC hit No. 9 in the national polls, the program's highest ever. 

It would have been interesting to see Alabama and Boston College match up in a winner's bracket game, but when BC opened with a shootout loss to Troy (and had to use six pitchers), the Eagles were in a hole the rest of the way. 

Everyone in college baseball knew that Troy was underrated as a regional three-seed. The Trojans came in 39-20, No. 38 RPI and finished third in the Sun Belt. Before you scoff at that, the SBC got more teams into the NCAA Tournament than the Big Ten and American conferences, and had just one fewer invitation than the Pac-12.  

Moreover, Troy had the 15^th strongest non-conference schedule in the nation. It was used to matching up against big-name opponents, and notched a win against Auburn this season (how again did the Tigers have a better seeding?). Had the Trojans played defense a little better against the Crimson Tide the regional could have had a very different outcome or at least gone to the if-necessary game.

Finally, what Nicholls lacked as a legitimate contender it more than made up for with starter Jacob Mayers, who had an eye-opening 1.93 ERA on the season. He showed why during the regional opener, too, impressing those who were watching or at Sewell-Thomas Stadium, and still ended up voted to the All-Regional Team. 

Because Alabama got past him, survived Troy, and showed patience in the batter's box against Boston College, the Crimson Tide moved forward. 

All it has to do now is beat the No. 1 team in the nation on its home field in a three-game series to reach the College World Series. Wake Forest won the Winston-Salem Regional by scores of 12-0, 21-6 and 15-1, while beating Maryland (No. 35 RPI) once, and George Mason (No. 176) twice. 

The hosting aside, Alabama's seeding was nothing short of brutal. 

Christopher Walsh's notes column All Things CW appears regularly on BamaCentral 

SEE ALSO: Alabama Baseball Rolls Over Boston College, Advances to Super Regional for First Time Since 2010