Random Notes: NCAA College Baseball Regionals

Arkansas by the numbers, fun quips, Camels gonna fight, westward contraction, and more

Author:
Kent Smith
Publish date:
May 30, 2023 8:55 AM EDT

In this story:

Arkansas Razorbacks

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – It's the day after the selection of the NCAA college baseball regionals, which means there's been time to digest everything that went down.

For Arkansas, the initial reaction is that it's a bit of a tough draw, especially after accounting for how the teams heading to Fayetteville this weekend did against Arkansas and national seed Stanford in the regular season. However, a more in-depth look at the numbers brings into perspective how much of a juggernaut the Razorbacks are in the world of college baseball.

In addition to several interesting numerical facts, there were quite a few tid-bits that popped up in relation to Selection Monday. So, without further ado, let's take what will be the first of many dives into the NCAA tournament field.

By the numbers

14

The number of teams in the tournament that Arkansas has played this season.

35

How many of the Razorbacks' games came against teams currently in an NCAA regional. That means 69% of their schedule came against regional qualifiers. Also, all but 10 of the Hogs' 51 games came against either teams in this year's field or the last two national champions. That's a quality schedule right there.

25

The total wins Arkansas has over teams in the field. This includes 11 wins over teams that will host a regional this weekend. The Hogs are 11-5 against teams that are the top seed in their regional.

2

The number of teams in the tournament Arkansas hasn't beaten. The Razorbacks got drubbed by TCU in the College Baseball Showdown in the second game of the season and then dropped a stunner to Lipscomb in 11 innings in Little Rock at the home of the Arkansas Travelers.

Arkansas vs. the field

TEXAS (1-0)
3-2
TCU (0-1)
6-18
Oklahoma St. (1-0)
18-1
EASTERN ILLINOIS (2-1)
13-2, 10-3, 3-12
WRIGHT ST. (3-0)
12-2, 12-6, 6-2
ARMY (1-0)
7-5
AUBURN (3-0)
7-2, 9-3, 5-0
LSU (2-2)
9-3. 2-12, 5-14, 5-4
ALABAMA (2-1)
1-12, 9-6, 5-4
TENNESSEE (3-0)
5-2, 6-3, 7-2
TEXAS A&M (4-1)
7-5, 10-4, 8-7, 6-5, 4-5
LIPSCOMB (1-0)
6-8
South Carolina (2-1)
4-1, 1-3, 5-1
Vanderbilt (1-2)
8-2, 8-10, 6-7

Earlier this week there was a post put out by a lady on social media ranting about how men only want one thing. Never one to miss an opportunity, a member of the Razorback Twitterverse wasted no time in responding with this gem of a quip."Regional with Oregon St as 2 seed and alignment with Stillwater regional."

This year's Dave Van Horn jersey story

It seems ESPN has settled on this year's version of how Jalen Battles agreed to stay one more year if Van Horn would give him his jersey and it's a stretch. For those who are new to Arkansas postseason baseball, the announcers lock onto one tid-bit of information and drive it into the ground every game. Sometimes it comes up multiples times per game.
However, this year's focal point isn't even accurate. The running line is how perplexing it is that Arkansas is good at baseball because the Razorbacks have a few good players, but no one who is great. It's just a team that somehow, against all odds, figures out a way to win.
Not having a single player on the SEC All-Tournament team is going to add to this narrative even more. Teams don't spend a good chunk of the year at No. 2 in the country and piece together the type of record Arkansas has against the tournament field without having great players. This won't be like the Battles story that just got annoying. This one is going to get under the skin of Arkansas fans.

What's going on out west?

Baseball used to be such a big deal out on the West Coast that not only did teams fear the major programs like Oregon State, but smaller programs like Cal St. Fullerton, Cal State Northridge and UC Santa Barbara used to make teams nervous. Fullerton even won a few national championships back when West Coast baseball dominated the college scene.
However, the mighty Pac 12 has half as many teams as the SEC, and its champion, Stanford, won the conference by five games and still became the most controversial national seed. There's a strong argument that the Cardinal only got the nod because there was a need to potentially have a presence in the Pacific time zone throughout the regionals and super regionals for the purpose of television schedules.
Stanford only played one team that finished in the Top 25 and didn't exactly blow the doors off when it came to teams that made the NCAA tournament. The Cardinal went 14-11 and narrowly avoided getting swept as it split two games with Santa Clara, the No. 4 seed in the Fayetteville regional. To put things in perspective, Arkansas played eight Top 25 teams while amassing a 15-6 record.

Campbell Think It Got Hosed

Anyone who has ever had the pleasure of coming into contact with the Campbell fan base knows this is a feisty bunch. If you've seen the old Looney Tunes cartoon with the the highly confident, fearless chicken hawk that keeps wanting to take on prey 10 times its size while characters such as Foghorn Leghorn try to steer it out of trouble, then you've got an idea what this group is like. There may not be another fan base on this planet that so few people know about that carries such a large chip on its shoulder. If the Fighting Camels, and for the sake of your sanity make sure you include the Fighting part of their nickname because simply calling them Camels is treated with much vitriol, could schedule the entire SEC in football, they not only would, but their fans would find it offensive if someone picked them to lose to Georgia.
That's why it was no surprise that the second it came out that a committee led by Auburn athletics director John Cohen awarded the Tigers a chance to host over Campbell that Fighting Camels fans got upset.

Cohen was asked to explain why Auburn got to host over Campbell on ESPN's selection show and did a wonderful job of being politically correct. So, unlike Cohen, let's set the sparing of feelings aside and address this honestly. Campbell deserved to host, but is not capable of hosting.
Buies Creek, North Carolina is by all accounts a wonderful place. However, it is tiny and quite a ways from an area large enough to accommodate fans who might travel to the game. The entire town is essentially the university and there aren't enough hotels rooms to house teams and fans. Expedia and Hotels.com, two sites most commonly used by the college baseball fandom to book these travels, indicates there are basically no hotels in Buies Creek. The closest thing that could be found was a Country Inn 11 miles away.
The food at Pizza Provisions is probably wonderful, but it can't feed the incoming crowd that would far surpass the 3,000+ residents of Buies Creek, and people can only eat so much pizza. At best, if Campbell were chosen to host, games would have to be played at North Carolina State, nearly an hour's drive to the north. If that's going to happen, then it's best to seed a school that has the staff and infrastructure needed to host such an event. Hence why an Auburn team that got swept by Arkansas got the nod over the more deserving Fighting Camels.