Weather forecast hints at potential rain delays for Gainesville Regional

Florida baseball is set to host an NCAA Baseball Tournament Regional in Gainesville this weekend, but the weather could cause some issues. According to the forecast, there is more than a 50% chance of rain every day from Friday through Monday, the exact dates set for Regional play.

Things look especially bleak for Friday, as the forecast predicts there to be a 91% chance of rain with heavy thunderstorms in the area. Then there is a 60% likelihood of precipitation for both Saturday and Sunday as well as a 55% chance on Monday.

Lol of course. #RainsvilleRegional pic.twitter.com/eXsQe2K70H

— Nick de la Torre (@delatorre) May 29, 2023

All that hints at the possibility of a lot of delays that will make it difficult for the Gainesville Regional to finish according to schedule. It is not yet known what other teams will compete with the Gators, as the full field of 64 is set to be announced at noon ET on Monday.

Florida is one of 16 Regional hosts for the NCAA Baseball Tournament, which were announced Sunday evening. The Gators are coming off of a 44-14 finish to the regular season and advanced to the semifinals in the SEC Tournament before losing to eventual champion Vanderbilt.

Other than Florida, seven other SEC teams were named Regional hosts for the NCAA Tournament. That number is at least double what every other conference produced, and led to some backlash from both fans and media on Sunday evening.

D1Baseball reporter heavily criticizes committee after eight SEC teams named as regional hosts

The number of SEC Regional hosts had D1Baseball’s Shotgun Spratling up in arms following the announcement. He made the point that giving that many SEC teams a home-field advantage in the postseason doesn’t seem fair, especially considering how little they travel during the season and how poorly they combined to do whenever they did.

8 for SEC.

SEC gets half the host sites. They barely travel in the non-conference and now barely have to travel in the postseason. https://t.co/DhezK0ZwIo

— Shotgun Spratling (@ShotgunSprD1) May 29, 2023

Good thing the SEC got those eight hosts since those eight teams were a combined 77-70 (52.4%) on the road.

The other eight hosts were a combined 116-50 (69.9%) in road games. https://t.co/Vmayufc4es

— Shotgun Spratling (@ShotgunSprD1) May 29, 2023

The eight SEC teams given the privilege of hosting a regional were Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Kentucky, LSU, South Carolina, and Vanderbilt. In comparison, the next closest league was the ACC with only four selections. After that, the Big-12, Pac-12, Sun Belt, and Missouri Valley each got one apiece.

To be fair, the SEC boasted some of the nation’s top teams all season long, regardless of record at home or away. Once you take Spratling’s stats into consideration, though, you start to wonder if maybe the conference should have fewer official hosts and just more postseason participants in general.