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OU Baseball: NCAA Announces Field for Norman Regional

The Sooners fell painfully short of being one of eight top national seeds and after playing this weekend in Norman, might have to travel back to Florida next weekend.
John Hoover|
Oklahoma outfielder John Spikerman
Oklahoma outfielder John Spikerman | NATHAN J. FISH/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY

Oklahoma came close. But a home regional will have to suffice.

The Sooners are the No. 9 national seed in the 2024 NCAA Baseball Championship — just outside the prestigious top eight — as the field of 64 was announced Monday morning on ESPN.

As announced Sunday, OU will host the Norman Regional this weekend at L. Dale Mitchell Park. It’s the fourth time in program history the Sooners have hosted at Mitchell Park and the first since 2010.

OU (37-19) will play in-state rival Oral Roberts (27-30-1) when the tournament gets underway Friday at 6 p.m. The Golden Eagles finished fourth in the Summit League, but won the conference tournament.

Connecticut (32-23) and Duke (39-18) are on the other side of the bracket in Norman and square off at noon Friday. UConn won the Big East regular season, while Duke finished third in the Coastal Division standings before winning the ACC Tournament.

READ MORE: NCAA Baseball dates, start times, TV

The winner of the Norman Regional will be matched up in the next round with the winner of the Tallahassee Regional. If Florida State prevails, the Seminoles will host the Tallahassee Super Regional because they — not the Sooners — drew the No. 8 national seed.

Oklahoma drew the No. 9 national seed, illustrating how close they came to possibly hosting a super regional beyond this weekend.

Skip Johnson’s Sooners won the Big 12 Conference regular season for the first time in program history and finished runner-up to Oklahoma State in the conference tournament last weekend. OU set a record with 23 Big 12 wins and ran away with the league title and top seed in Arlington.

The 9-3 loss to OSU — the Cowboys beat the Sooners four times in their five meetings this season — may have proved critical. OU had been widely projected as the nation’s No. 7 national seed going into the championship game, and was forecast at No. 8 even after the latest setback.

OU can still host a super regional — first, by winning next weekend, then by hoping the Seminoles don’t emerge from this week’s Tallahassee Regional. The Seminoles open with Stetson, then face either Big 12 upstart Central Florida and traditional SEC powerhouse Alabama.

Keep up with the whole NCAA Tournament bracket here:

Published | Modified
John E. Hoover
JOHN HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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