While the Notre Dame baseball team might be an extreme long shot to make the field, it’s that time of year again where fans start to ask, How many teams are in the NCAA baseball tournament? It feels like the answer to that question is always a bit of a surprise.
The NCAA baseball tournament is actually almost as big as the NCAA Basketball Tournament with 64 teams that will eventually compete. One reason why people are surprised by how many teams are in the NCAA baseball tournament is because baseball does a kind of phased workin that doesn’t feel like there’s as many teams in the first round.
How many teams are in the NCAA baseball tournament?
The NCAA baseball tournament is a 64-team tournament that starts in late May. After two rounds of play (which each consist of multiple games), there are just eight teams left. These eight teams then head to Omaha, NE. for the College World Series.
The first round is called the Regionals and separates each regional into four teams with the No. 1 seed in the regional hosting. The winner of the regional then goes to the Super Regionals, which is essentially the Sweet 16.
The winners of those Super Regionals then head to the College World Series to determine the National Champion.
Because the first round is in little four-team pods, people don’t really see how many teams are in the NCAA baseball tournament but it really is quite the field of 29 auto bids from conference champions and then 35 at-large teams.