The Miami baseball team’s 44-year streak in the NCAA tournament has come to an end.
The Hurricanes were not among the 64 teams selected to play for the national title when the NCAA bracket was released Monday afternoon. The 44-year tournament streak was the longest in any sport in NCAA history.
Miami (31-27) hasn’t sat out of the tournament since 1972, winning four national titles in that span.
“First of all, it’s an honor and a privilege to be part of the 44,” Hurricanes coach Jim Morris said, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. “It’s a streak that’s unmatched in any sport in NCAA history, so to be part of that and be part of that with coach [Ron] Fraser is an honor.”
ACC rival Florida State takes over with the longest active tournament streak at 40 years. The Seminoles were chosen to host a regional but did not receive a national seed after winning the ACC tournament Sunday.
Pac-12 champion Oregon State is the No. 1 overall seed. The Beavers (49-4) set a conference record with 27 league wins and were the nation’s most dominant team all season.
“I can’t tell you that I’d ever think that anybody should be 49-4,” Oregon State coach Pat Casey said. “Forty-nine and four is pretty special, we get that, and we’re aware of that and it’s impressive. But it means nothing from here forward.”
North Carolina (47-12), which missed the national tournament the past two years, is No. 2 after winning 18 of its past 22 games. Florida (42-16), the top seed in 2016, is No. 3 and is followed by LSU (43-17).
The rest of the national seeds, in order, are Texas Tech (43-15), TCU (42-16), Louisville (47-10) and Stanford (40-14).
Coastal Carolina (37-19-1) will not be able to defend its 2016 national championship. The Chanticleers won the Sun Belt Conference regular-season title in their first year in the league, but they lost in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament.
Selection committee chairman Scott Sidwell, the athletic director at San Francisco, said Miami, Connecticut (33-25), Old Dominion (37-21) and South Carolina (35-25) were the first four teams held out of the tournament.
The Hurricanes were hit hard by the major league draft last year and beset by injuries. They won six of seven to end the season.
“Looking at their resume, they had some metrics that were very good,” Sidwell said. “At the end of the day, for our group, they had 30 Division I wins. One was against a non-Division I team. For us, it was the number of wins they had, and it didn’t stack up for an at-large.”
The last four in were Auburn (35-24), Texas A&M (36-21), UCLA (30-25) and Michigan (42-15).
The SEC led the nation with eight teams selected. The ACC and Big 12 each had seven teams picked, and the Big Ten tied the conference record it set two years ago with five teams in the field.
Surprise automatic bids went to Rice (31-29) from Conference USA, Xavier (32-25) from the Big East, Iowa (37-20) from the Big Ten and Oklahoma State (30-25) in the Big 12. All four of those teams got in by winning their conference tournaments.
Atlantic Sun champion Florida Gulf Coast (42-18) and Atlantic 10 champ Davidson (32-24) are each making their first appearances. Patriot League member Holy Cross (23-27) is in for the first time since 1978; Ivy League champ Yale (32-16) for the first time since 1993; and at-large pick West Virginia (34-24) for the first time since 1996.
The reward for Holy Cross is a first-round game at Oregon State on Friday.
Play begins Friday in 16 regionals, with seven conferences represented among the host schools. Winners advance to eight best-of-three super regionals. Those winners move on to the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
