How does NCAA baseball tournament work? Explaining regionals, supers, CWS format
The field for the 2025 NCAA baseball tournament is officially set, as the entire 64-team bracket was revealed on Monday.
Vanderbilt was tabbed as the No. 1 overall seed in the country for the first time since 2007, while 12 additional SEC teams heard their names called during the bracket reveal show — the most bids by a conference in a single NCAA baseball tournament.
Speaking of the SEC, seven teams from the conference were given home-field advantage in the opening round by hosting a regional to open the postseason. The last five national champions from the College World Series have been from the SEC. Does that trend continue this year? Time will only tell come late June in Omaha, Nebraska at Charles Schwab Field.
Regional play starts on May 30 with four noon ET first pitches at the Chapel Hill Regional (UNC vs. Holy Cross), Conway Regional (East Carolina vs. Florida), Athens Regional (Georgia vs. Binghamton) and Clemson Regional (Kentucky vs. West Virginia).
As the 2025 NCAA baseball tournament begins and progresses through the CWS, fans who watch the action unfold for the first time may wonder how the tournament format actually works. Here's what you need to know about the format of the NCAA baseball tournament:
How many teams make the NCAA baseball tournament?
A total of 64 teams make the NCAA baseball tournament, beginning with the regional round. The field is cut by 48 teams heading into the super regional round, at which point 16 teams remain.
After the super regional round, the field will be reduced to eight teams, each of which travel to Omaha for the College World Series. Two teams — one from each side of the CWS bracket — will advance to the finals, with one team left standing after one final best-of-three series.
How many rounds are there in the NCAA baseball tournament?
The NCAA baseball tournament is comprised of three rounds: the regionals, the super regionals and the College World Series.
NCAA baseball tournament format explained
The NCAA baseball tournament is comprised of 64 teams: 35 at-large bids and 29 automatic qualifiers in 2025.
Just like March Madness, the opening weekend of the NCAA baseball tournament is scattered throughout the country at 16 different regional site locations, which are awarded to the top 16 seeds in the bracket. The regional sites consist of a four-team bracket, or pod, and are generally geographically structured. As for the round itself, the format of the regionals is a double-elimination style.
To make it out of the regional round, a team can win three straight games or four games, the latter of which consists of making it out of the "elimination bracket" and beating the representative of the "winner's bracket" twice in the regional championship game.
Those who win their respective regional round will advance to the best-of-three super regional weekend. The super regionals are traditionally held at the home ballpark of the top eight seeds unless, of course, one of those respective teams is eliminated in the regional round.
From there, the final eight teams (i.e., those that win a super regional series), advance to the coveted College World Series.
College World Series format
Similarly to the regional round of the NCAA baseball tournament, the College World Series begins with a double-elimination style format comprised of two four-team brackets. In other words, the four teams in their respective bracket will clash against each other until there is a winner crowned in each bracket.
Those who lose their opening game in Omaha will fall into the "elimination bracket" with an 0-1 record. It's self-explanatory from there: survive and advance.
Those that win their opening game in Omaha will advance further in the "winner's bracket" with a 1-0 record. If a team starts the CWS with a 2-0 record, they will need just one additional win in the semifinals to advance into the CWS championship series. Meanwhile, those that lose a "winner's bracket" game will drop into the "elimination bracket" and look to come out of it by winning out.
The CWS championship series is a best-of-three format and features the winner of each side of the bracket. The minimum number of games a team can play in Omaha and win the CWS is five games, while the most would be seven games.
NCAA baseball tournament regional host sites 2025
Here's a full breakdown of the regional site location for the NCAA baseball tournament, the full ordering of which was announced Monday during the NCAA baseball selection show.
- Nashville Regional (Vanderbilt)
- Austin Regional (Texas)
- Fayetteville Regional (Arkansas)
- Auburn Regional (Auburn)
- Chapel Hill Regional (North Carolina)
- Baton Rouge Regional (LSU)
- Athens Regional (Georgia)
- Corvallis Regional (Oregon State)
- Tallahassee Regional (Florida State)
- Oxford Regional (Ole Miss)
- Clemson Regional (Clemson)
- Eugene Regional (Oregon)
- Conway Regional (Coastal Carolina)
- Knoxville Regional (Tennessee)
- Los Angeles Regional (UCLA)
- Hattiesburg Regional (Southern Miss)
NCAA baseball tournament schedule 2025
Here's a breakdown of the key dates for the NCAA baseball tournament schedule:
- College World Series: June 13-22/23
- Regionals: May 30-June 2
- Super Regionals: June 6-9