Boyd's World-> Breadcrumbs Back to Omaha-> Denial Week -- My 2006 Field

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Denial Week -- My 2006 Field

There's comfort in routine, but I'm thinking of sticking with this week for longer than usual this year, since this is the one where the world looks the way I want it to. If I close my eyes and cover my ears, the conference tournaments won't happen and the selection committee will keep their mouths shut, right? Here's my field:

  1 Cal State Fullerton               16 North Carolina
 32 Florida State                     14 Stanford
 33 Winthrop                          58 Wichita State
249 Vermont                           59 Texas Christian

  2 Rice                              17 Oklahoma State
 31 Elon                              19 Hawaii
 34 Southern California               53 Oral Roberts
256 Mississippi Valley State          64 Kent State

  3 Texas                             15 Alabama
 30 Miami, Florida                    18 Georgia Tech
 35 Tulane                            55 Jacksonville
228 Princeton                         65 Notre Dame

  4 Clemson                           13 UCLA
 29 Washington                        20 Fresno State
 36 Mississippi                       49 Louisiana State
224 Lehigh                            67 McNeese State

  5 Oregon State                      12 Arkansas
 26 Houston                           21 San Francisco
 37 Cal Poly                          45 Cal State Northridge
147 Bethune-Cookman                   69 Michigan

  6 Nebraska                          11 UC Irvine
 27 Long Beach State                  22 Virginia
 40 Troy                              44 South Carolina
207 Monmouth                          76 Old Dominion

  7 Pepperdine                        10 Oklahoma
 28 UC Riverside                      23 Kentucky
 39 North Carolina State              42 Wake Forest
120 Rhode Island                     113 Illinois-Chicago

  8 Georgia                            9 Arizona State
 25 San Diego                         24 Baylor
 38 Pacific                           41 College of Charleston
131 Samford                          117 LeMoyne

• The places where I went against the ISR's? I'm projecting a bit, since I believe that LSU will be ahead of current #43 Mississippi State by the end of the weekend, given the quality of opposition they're facing. Even if they don't quite pass them, the lack of a chance for MSU to play again after Sunday will almost certainly cause them to be passed before selection Sunday. I bumped Stanford down to a #2 because of the overall record, although I think there is a chance that they are actually one of the sixteen best teams in the country. If they're actually omitted (aaaah, my peril-sensitive glasses are slipping), that'll probably be the biggest tragedy; if they make it in, it could be San Diego that's most unfairly left home.

• The more balanced supers look really great here -- Irvine is probably the biggest secret in the country, and Pepperdine-Oklahoma and Georgia-ASU would both be tight matchups between teams with vastly different playing styles.

• Georgia Tech at Alabama looks like a great matchup between two schools who seem to have trouble acknowledging each other's existence.

• You still get eight each from the ACC and the SEC this way, although that requires that Wake hangs in there and either MSU or LSU deserves it in the end, but they're seeded much lower than they will be in real life, which would make for some more interesting (and potentially revealing) matchups, like FSU-Winthrop. You don't get those when they get a bye by facing a #4 seed while someone who deserves better (probably like Pepperdine) gets thrown into tougher competition.

This means absolutely nothing, ignore it.

This is one generic layman's predictions for who gets in the tournament. I'm not going to bother picking a team from the one-bid conferences, since the conference tournament will just be a crapshoot, but if I only list one team from a conference, they'll get an at large bid if they don't get the automatic bid.

America East   Notre Dame            Kansas                South Carolina
Atlantic 10    Winthrop              Baylor                Arkansas
Big Ten        Old Dominion          Cal State Fullerton   Mississippi State
Horizon        Jacksonville          UC Irvine             Mississippi
Princeton      Clemson               Long Beach State      Louisiana State
MAAC           Georgia Tech          Cal Poly              Kentucky
MAC            North Carolina        Rice                  Vanderbilt
MEAC           North Carolina State  Houston               College of Charleston
Mid-Continent  Florida State         Southern Mississippi  Elon
Mountain West  Wake Forest           Tulane                Troy
MVC            Virginia              Arizona State         South Alabama
NEC            Miami, Florida        UCLA                  Hawaii
OVC            Nebraska              Oregon State          Fresno State
Lehigh         Texas                 Washington            Pepperdine
Southland      Oklahoma              Alabama               San Francisco
SWAC           Oklahoma State        Georgia               San Diego

Rather than keep returning to the subject of pitch counts and pitcher usage in general too often for my main theme, I'm just going to run a standard feature down here where I point out potential problems; feel free to stop reading above this if the subject doesn't interest you. This will just be a quick listing of questionable starts that have caught my eye -- the general threshold for listing is 120 actual pitches or 130 estimated, although short rest will also get a pitcher listed if I catch it. Don't blame me; I'm just the messenger.

The Benton and Hensley counts are corrections based on actual counts.

(*) Pitch count is estimated. As always, I welcome actual pitch count corrections.

Boyd's World-> Breadcrumbs Back to Omaha-> Denial Week -- My 2006 Field

About the author, Boyd Nation