You know what, I've been a Beta male my whole life. Always playing 2nd fiddle to others. A real people pleaser.
Before posting this, I had full intentions on doing what I always do... Trying to be peace maker and say some shit like "this was impossible to do" and "I did it for fun so please be nice".
Screw that.
You clicked this blog because Ben Upton moves the college baseball needle and willing to risk looking dumb in order to stir up conversations.
Whether you love me or hate me, when I blog, YOU read. I can see the webpage numbers, they are crazy.
(Hold up)
Okay now that my toddler son went to bed, I can stop acting tough. I'm still not sure if he can read yet so I had to play it safe and make that first paragraph look like I'm the King of College Baseball. Hopefully he goes into daycare tomorrow morning proud of his bracketologist father.
Alright so let's dive into this.
Of course it's impossible to please every fan base. I totally agree that some of these rankings/seeds don't match what your opinions are, what D1 Baseball's opinions are, or any other opinions you might see on the internet.
This Field of 64 is based solely on my opinions of how I think the season will play out as of January 28th, 2024.
I will explain a lot of this on our next podcast Sunday, but I'll hit on some points here that stand out. It would simply be a waste of my time and your time if I explained why all 64 teams are in the place that they are in.
MY HOT TAKES THIS YEAR
-Georgia will be good this year.
-UNC will not be in the top half of the ACC and miss the tournament
-Iowa will disappoint all of the preseason hype
-UCSB and Dallas Baptist will be the 2 best mid-majors
-ECU will have RPI trouble which will likely cause them not to host
-Arkansas and Tennessee will be the 2 best SEC teams. Florida will take a step back.
-Texas Tech is a dark horse. A lot of talent on that team, and will win the Big 12
-The SunBelt is going to eat itself alive and not have any hosts, but they will get 4-5 teams in the tournament. ODU and Louisiana barely missed the cut.
-Indiana is the most complete team in the Big10. Studs on the mound and in the lineup.
-Miami and NC State could be great or could be bad. Way too many new faces.
-I'm a believer in Mercer again
-Clemson and South Carolina will (hopefully) match up in a Super Regional this year
-Texas A&M is exciting and built to win SEC series.
-FSU is going to take a huge step forward this year.
-Either Auburn, Kentucky, or Ole Miss will grab the last SEC spot. Could make a case for any of them.
-Kentucky won't be able to rely on pitching and defense again this year, they will take a big step back from last year as they have a "must win this series" target on their back for opposing teams. Idk if this makes sense to y'all but it makes sense in my head.
-Big believer in what Duke has been building the last few years. This could be their year.
You know what, I've been a Beta male my whole life. Always playing 2nd fiddle to others. A real people pleaser.
Before posting this, I had full intentions on doing what I always do... Trying to be peace maker and say some shit like "this was impossible to do" and "I did it for fun so please be nice".
Screw that.
You clicked this blog because Ben Upton moves the college baseball needle and willing to risk looking dumb in order to stir up conversations.
Whether you love me or hate me, when I blog, YOU read. I can see the webpage numbers, they are crazy.
(Hold up)
Okay now that my toddler son went to bed, I can stop acting tough. I'm still not sure if he can read yet so I had to play it safe and make that first paragraph look like I'm the King of College Baseball. Hopefully he goes into daycare tomorrow morning proud of his bracketologist father.
Alright so let's dive into this.
Of course it's impossible to please every fan base. I totally agree that some of these rankings/seeds don't match what your opinions are, what D1 Baseball's opinions are, or any other opinions you might see on the internet.
This Field of 64 is based solely on my opinions of how I think the season will play out as of January 28th, 2024.
I will explain a lot of this on our next podcast Sunday, but I'll hit on some points here that stand out. It would simply be a waste of my time and your time if I explained why all 64 teams are in the place that they are in.
MY HOT TAKES THIS YEAR
-Georgia will be good this year.
-UNC will not be in the top half of the ACC and miss the tournament
-Iowa will disappoint all of the preseason hype
-UCSB and Dallas Baptist will be the 2 best mid-majors
-ECU will have RPI trouble which will likely cause them not to host
-Arkansas and Tennessee will be the 2 best SEC teams. Florida will take a step back.
-Texas Tech is a dark horse. A lot of talent on that team, and will win the Big 12
-The SunBelt is going to eat itself alive and not have any hosts, but they will get 4-5 teams in the tournament. ODU and Louisiana barely missed the cut.
-Indiana is the most complete team in the Big10. Studs on the mound and in the lineup.
-Miami and NC State could be great or could be bad. Way too many new faces.
-I'm a believer in Mercer again
-Clemson and South Carolina will (hopefully) match up in a Super Regional this year
-Texas A&M is exciting and built to win SEC series.
-FSU is going to take a huge step forward this year.
-Either Auburn, Kentucky, or Ole Miss will grab the last SEC spot. Could make a case for any of them.
-Kentucky won't be able to rely on pitching and defense again this year, they will take a big step back from last year as they have a "must win this series" target on their back for opposing teams. Idk if this makes sense to y'all but it makes sense in my head.
-Big believer in what Duke has been building the last few years. This could be their year.
