Iowa Hawkeyes earn No. 3 seed in Baseball America’s latest 2022 NCAA Tournament field
With selection Monday for the 2022 NCAA Baseball Tournament less than three weeks away, Iowa is squarely on the bubble. At least one projection paints an optimistic picture.
Baseball America’s Teddy Cahill has the Hawkeyes as his second-to-last team in his projected field of 64. Iowa checks in as the No. 63 team according to Cahill’s projection and would earn the No. 3 seed in the South Bend, Ind., regional.
Naturally, Notre Dame would host that regional as the No. 10 overall seed. Joining the Fighting Irish and Hawkeyes in Cahill’s projected South Bend Regional are No. 2 seed Texas State and No. 4 seed Ball State.
At this point, the Hawkeyes would gladly sign up in an NCAA Tournament regional anywhere. In D1Baseball’s latest field of 64 projection, Iowa was noticeably absent.
In fact, the Hawkeyes weren’t even among the D1Baseball staff’s first four out. Instead, D1Baseball’s last four in included San Diego, Louisiana Tech, Louisiana and North Caroline and its first four out were UTSA, Clemson, Pittsburgh and Old Dominion.
Wake Forest, UCLA and Louisiana Tech joined Iowa as the last four in according to Baseball America and Pittsburgh, Louisiana, North Carolina and Kentucky were the first four out. The next four out according to Baseball America included Kennesaw State, Texas-San Antonio, Alabama and Clemson.
Maryland and Rutgers were the only other Big Ten teams that made the cut in either of the two 2022 NCAA Baseball Tournament projections. Maryland was the No. 12 overall seed according to D1Baseball and the No. 15 overall seed according to Baseball America. Meanwhile, Rutgers was a No. 3 seed in both projections.
With the Hawkeyes’ RPI at No. 64 entering this weekend’s slate against Michigan State, it’s likely that Iowa needs to win out over the remainder of the regular season in order to keep an at-large berth in play. Iowa’s remaining regular season opponents can really only hurt the Hawkeyes’ RPI standing.
Michigan State checks in as the No. 160 team in the RPI, Illinois Chicago is No. 177 and Indiana is No. 103.
Contact/Follow us @HawkeyesWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Iowa news, notes, and opinions.
Follow Josh on Twitter: @JoshOnREF
Let us know your thoughts, comment on this story below. Join the conversation today.
