Can Indiana Baseball Get An NCAA Tournament At-Large Bid? It’s Not Impossible

As of Monday, Indiana’s RPI is too low historically to get an at-large bid, but there are opportunities still left on the schedule to lift their ranking.

Indiana's Hogan Denny rounds third base as head coach Jeff Mercer keeps an eye on the relay throws during the Hoosiers' 8-0 win over Purdue on May 9, 2025. / Indiana athletics

(updated Monday, May 12 at 9:58 p.m. ET)

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – The last week of the regular season is upon us and it’s an important one for Indiana baseball.

The Hoosiers come off a weekend in which they took two of three from Purdue. Indiana won 8-0 on Friday and 14-4 in seven innings on Sunday. Purdue won Saturday’s game 5-1.

Winning the series was important for the Hoosiers, though it likely wasn’t enough to help put Indiana in contention for an at-large bid in the NCAA Tournament.

Indiana’s current RPI is 69. To have a chance to make the tournament, Indiana would need to get their RPI into the 50s. Since 2017, the highest RPI for an at-large team was 59 when TCU made the tournament in 2019.

The Hoosiers (29-22, 14-13) had the highest RPI of an at-large team in 2024 when Indiana went to the Knoxville Regional with a RPI at 55.

This week does present an opportunity for Indiana to improve its RPI.

All four of Indiana’s remaining games are on the road. Games away from home carry more value in RPI calculations.

Indiana plays at Cincinnati at 6 p.m. on Tuesday. The Bearcats (29-22) are in position to possibly get an at-large bid out of the Big 12. Cincinnati’s RPI is 35, so an Indiana victory would do its own RPI a lot of good.

Indiana finishes the regular season with a three-game series starting at Michigan on Thursday. The Wolverines (32-19, 15-12) are on the bubble with a RPI of 55. If the Hoosiers could pull off a sweep, they might swap places with Michigan on the bubble and they would trade places in the Big Ten standings.

That would leave the Big Ten Tournament for Indiana to continue to build its resume.

The Hoosiers have not quite clinched a berth in the conference tournament yet. The top 12 teams make the field at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Neb. Indiana has a two-game cushion between themselves and three teams tied for 11th – Illinois, Michigan State and Northwestern – one of which would be left out.

Indiana just needs to win one game and one of that trio needs to lose one game this weekend for the Hoosiers to punch their ticket to the conference tournament.

Indiana continues to ride its offense to success. The Hoosiers are batting .301 – tied with Iowa for the best in the Big Ten.

The Hoosiers overwhelmed Purdue with a 10-hit attack on Sunday – including home runs by Korbyn Dickerson and Andrew Wiggins. Dickerson is third in the Big Ten with 19 home runs.

UPDATE: On Monday night, after the original story was published, the Indiana-Cincinnati game was canceled due to expected inclement weather. The game will not be replayed.

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