NC State baseball stunningly left out of NCAA Tournament
In a stunning development, NC State baseball has been left out of the NCAA Tournament field. This comes after the Wolfpack’s run to the ACC Tournament championship game, which left NC State with an aggregate 17-16 record in the league and a No. 33 RPI.
NCAA Tournament committee selection chair Mike Buddie suggested that the final two spots for the field came down to NC State and Ole Miss.
“That was a brutal one,” Buddie said about the omission of NC State. “When it comes down to those last three or four teams you are looking to for those last three or four spots, you really have to split hairs.”
Buddie suggested a couple of reasons for why the Wolfpack was not picked in favor of Ole Miss, including non-conference strength of schedule (SOS). According to the RPI rankings on D1Baseball.com, the non-conference SOS for NC State baseball was No. 189 while Ole Miss’ was No. 38.
Buddie also explained that NC State won four of the Pack’s 10 ACC series, but the only one of the four over a NCAA Tournament team was against Georgia Tech. Meanwhile, Ole Miss, who also won four of 10 conference series, prevailed against a pair of NCAA Tournament at-larges in Auburn and LSU.
The last 10 games for each were also noted, with Ole Miss going 7-3 and NC State 5-5.
“Miniscule differences, but when it gets down to that time of the selection, miniscule differences can sometimes make a difference,” Buddie, a former Wake Forest pitcher, explained.
However, NC State won 10 games against RPI top 25 teams compared to Ole Miss’ seven. (The Pack went 10-12 while Ole Miss went 7-8). NC State also had a higher RPI, 33, than the Rebels, 38.
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NC State additionally had a significantly better won-loss record against RPI top 50 teams than Ole Miss, 13-15 (.464) compared to 8-13 (.381). If expanded to include top 100 teams, the Wolfpack was 22-18 (.550) and the Rebels 18-18 (.500).
Against teams beyond 100 in the RPI, NC State went 14-3 and Ole Miss was 14-4.
The Wolfpack also had more wins against teams in the NCAA Tournament (13) than Ole Miss (10), although the Rebels had a better W-L record: 10-10 compared to 13-15 for NC State. Ole Miss lost a pair of series to teams that did not make the field compared to just one for the Wolfpack.
Perhaps a more glaring inclusion over NC State baseball was Grand Canyon, who had a No. 54 RPI but may have been rewarded for a non-conference SOS that was No. 6. Grand Canyon lost nine games to teams outside the top 100 in the RPI and was 11-11 against top 100 opponents. Grand Canyon did go 7-5 against teams in the field but also did not win the WAC Tournament, losing twice to Abilene Christian, who had a RPI of 154.
Reaction was swift. D1Baseball’s Kendall Rogers called NC State’s exclusion “an absolute joke.” His counterpart Aaron Fitt said he was “utterly stunned.” Fitt also noted that the lack of ACC representation on the tournament selection committee was evident.
“The conference has gotten hosed repeatedly over the last two years,” Fitt tweeted.
The official reaction from NC State baseball was one word:
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