NCAA committee chair, Auburn AD John Cohen explains South Carolina's seeding, how Campbell missed out on hosting

South Carolina’s gain was Campbell’s loss in the region, since Campbell earned the No. 2 seed in the Columbia Regional.

The Gamecocks earned the No. 15 overall seed in the 2023 NCAA Baseball Tournament and were No. 1 in their region, earning hosting duties. NCAA committee chair and Auburn AD John Cohen had to explain why those two schools ended up with those respective seeds.

The Gamecocks will play Central Connecticut while Campbell takes on NC State.

“Yeah, I think you have to look at the full body of work and that’s what our committee did,” Cohen said on ESPN2’s reveal show. You mentioned being 30-4, eight wins against those top eight seeds is pretty good work. So the end of the season is important. It’s something we definitely look at, but the full body of work is something that’s extremely important as well.”

South Carolina started the season 30-4 before finishing 39-19 prior to the NCAA Tournament. Campbell meanwhile finished 44-13, was consistent all year and won the Big South Tournament title.

Cohen reasoned why the Fighting Camels finished behind the Gamecocks.

“Well, Campbell is one of the elite teams in the country,” Cohen said. “There’s no question about it. I’ve seen them play several times. What an incredible job they do. That he got a ton of consideration. Went around the room a whole bunch. Now when Auburn is being grouped with any of these schools, I have to leave the room and recuse myself, and I know that there was great conversation. I think Campbell is one of those really elite teams.” 

Cohen also detailed Campbell’s schedule affected the team more so than South Carolina based on the body of work. Hence why South Carolina went above Campbell.

“Just to pick a little bit, you know, probably if you look at the amount of 150 and below, they might have played and again some of that, maybe a majority that, are scheduling that they don’t do and is maybe done by the conference,” Cohen said. “And that’s the case with many of the schools.

“You look at the scheduling and you ask yourself, what can the school control? What can the coach control from a scheduling standpoint in what is given to them in terms of a league schedule? So all of that if it creates imbalance in the room and all that’s (a factor).”