Sun Belt Baseball Tournament Preview

[Appmountaineers19]

Baseball America listed the top 8 hosts as underdogs as hosts, and both Coastal and So Miss were on the list.

If i wasn't going on a golf trip Monday I'd be down in MB. It's a great regional team wise.

[Stonewall]

I can see Florida being a favorite, as well as Alabama. Home field should help the Sunbelt teams and perhaps give them the edge?

[Appmountaineers19]

It's going to be fun. Coastal has played the big boys all year and played well. Don't think the stage will be too big. Why do I feel ECU might be getting hot at the right time?

[Saint3333]

If the one seed has three good pitchers it's tough to unseat them in a format in which #2 and #3 are high quality teams.

The one seed gets to save their best pitcher for the second game making it very tough to overcome them for the weekend.

Florida takes down ECU then CCU beats FL, forcing them to play each other again and needing to win twice vs. CCU.

CCU and USM do not have an easy bracket that's for sure.

Feels like Clemson, Ole Miss, FSU, and UNCCH got favorable draws.

[DomCrosetto]

This isn’t Sun Belt related, but Mid major related…and it’s probably happened a couple times in the SBC too.
Northeastern probably should be hosting a regional, but does not have the infrastructure or size stadium to host a regional. They didn’t submit a bid to host due to this fact.

With that in mind, would App even be able to host a regional if we were a top 16 seed? (I know, we haven’t been to the tourney in 12 years, this is a dumb question). What is the criteria to be able to host a regional in terms of stadium and infrastructure?

No, we wouldn't be allowed to host a regional, we would have to be a #1 seed that plays on the road. It happened to ODU 3 years ago I believe. They were the #1 seed, but had to play at South Carolina. That is why they didn't have a home field this year, they are remodeling so they can host in the future.

And where in the heck does Old Dominion get enough money to renovate their baseball stadium? I get Marshall and money, I know some of the funds behind that facility and it’s backed by some big time donors.

We are probably one of the few SBC’s that couldn’t host. Ark State has a pretty crappy field, JMU? Feel like everyone else could host.

From this guy...but ODU is finding money quite well. Their area is wealthy, they only need a little success and they could see quite the jump in fans and dollars coming in.

https://www.odu.edu/article/odu-breaks- ... ll-complex