• Assembling the top eight national seeds can be a daunting task, but it wasn't overly difficult this week. As a matter of fact, this week's national seeds resemble the top eight from last week with some order changes. For instance, Texas dropped a couple of spots after getting swept at home by TCU last weekend, while Virginia, the nation's top-ranked team in the Perfect Game College Top 25, and the top ACC team, took over the No. 1 spot. The Cavaliers, though, don't have a significantly better resume than anyone else in the top eight, and there are a couple of other teams, such as Florida, who could stake claim for the top spot. The Cavaliers have an RPI of 3 with a 34-7 overall record, 1-1 mark vs. RPI Top 25, 8-4 mark vs. RPI Top 50 and 18-6 record vs. RPI Top 100. By comparison, Florida, the nation's No. 2 national seed, is 11-4 vs. RPI Top 25, 18-7 vs. RPI Top 50 and 21-11 vs. RPI Top 100. Both teams did some impressive things in non-conference, with the Cavaliers having a non-conference RPI of 2, the Gators at 4.





• The race for the No. 8 national seed was a close one with Washington leading the way. The Huskies have a top 18 RPI and lead the Pac-12 Conference. Meanwhile, other teams we considered include Alabama, Oregon State, LSU and Indiana. Breaking down the resumes, Alabama has an RPI of 19, which is a tough number to achieve a top eight national seed. The Crimson Tide is 6-3 vs. RPI Top 25, 10-6 vs. RPI Top 50 and 16-11 vs. RPI Top 100. LSU has some work to do beyond its solid conference record. The Tigers are 3-7 vs. RPI Top 25, 10-8 vs. RPI Top 50 and 11-8 vs. RPI Top 100. The Tigers are in the discussion right now because of their conference record and RPI of 14, but it's obvious they need a very strong finish to be heavily considered in late May. Indiana could be the interesting club to watch out of these teams. The Hoosiers aren't going to get a lot of help from their Big Ten counterparts from an RPI standpoint the rest of the way, but that also means they likely won't lose many games the rest of the season, too. IU is 25-11 overall, 11-1 in the Big Ten and has an RPI of 5. Furthermore, while IU's resume isn't wonderful, it's solid. The Hoosiers are 6-5 vs. RPI Top 25 and 50 teams, while they're 11-7 vs. RPI Top 100 with a non-conference RPI of 31. Lastly, there's also the Beavers. The Beavers need to get their RPI up, as it's currently 23, but they have plenty of chances the rest of the way, including a series against Washington. The Beavers are 2-0 vs. RPI Top 25, 6-2 vs. RPI Top 50 and 8-3 vs. RPI Top 100. In other words, the Beavers still have some tough teams to play with Oregon and Washington still left on the schedule.





• There weren't several changes to the NCAA Regional host sites this week, but there was one, and it was an SEC flip with Kentucky taking a host site from Ole Miss. The Rebels still are very much in the mix for a host site, but the Wildcats got the edge after an RPI-friendly week that included a midweek win over Louisville and weekend series win over Texas A&M. The Wildcats' RPI rose to 6 with a 10-7 record vs. RPI Top 25 and 50 teams, while they're also 15-9 vs. RPI Top 100. By comparison, the Rebels have an RPI of 10 with a 2-7 mark vs. RPI Top 25, 7-9 record vs. RPI Top 50 and 12-11 record vs. RPI Top 100. The good news? These two teams meet in Lexington, Ky., this weekend for a three-game series.





• Other teams in the mix for an NCAA Regional host this week included TCU, Liberty, Oregon, Louisville and Vanderbilt. Liberty is the most intriguing team out of the bunch, as it's a Big South program with a fantastic RPI of 17 and a premier, new, facility that holds approximately 2,500 with room for more spectators. The Flames are 32-9 with a 1-2 mark vs. RPI Top 25, 5-2 record vs. RPI Top 50 and 14-4 mark vs. RPI Top 100. The Division I Baseball Committee loves to award host sites to “new” teams on the college baseball landscape, and Liberty would fit that billing.





• As for some other nuggets from this week's projections, Arizona State, Cal State Fullerton, UNLV and Georgia Tech were in the mix for the final No. 2 seed, with the Yellow Jackets getting the nod with a 4-3 mark vs. RPI Top 25, 9-8 record vs. RPI Top 50 and 14-10 record vs. RPI Top 100. Meanwhile, San Diego State and North Carolina were the final two teams in the field of 64, with some other teams to watch including West Virginia, Illinois State, High Point, Texas A&M, Auburn, Kansas, Georgia, Southern Miss, UC Irvine, East Carolina and Sam Houston State, among others.