The NCAA baseball bracket, by the numbers

The GIST: The national tournament’s 64-team field is officially set, with plenty of controversy following Monday’s selection show. Here’s the bracket by the numbers before Friday’s regional kick-off.

No. 1: The Tennessee Volunteers, who bagged the tourney’s top seed for the second time in program history. Whether it’s a good thing remains to be seen — fans are fairly certain there’s a curse, as no No. 1–seed has won the ’ship this century. They’re not superstitious…but they are a little stitious.

2: 2023 Men’s College World Series contenders who failed to make this year’s bracket. TCU came this close as one of the “first four out,” while Stanford was always a long shot after an abysmal finish in the Pac-12.

3: National tourney first-timers. High Point, Niagara, and Northern Kentucky are the new kids on the block. Catch them in the Clemson, Stillwater, and Knoxville Regionals, respectively.

8: Schools from mid-major conferences who earned at-large berths (aka they didn’t win their conference tournaments). The division between Power Five and mid-major schools is less stark in baseball than in some other sports, but the Power Five still claimed 31 of the 64 bids.

11: SEC teams in the bracket, the most any conference has ever sent to the natty. This feat comes just a few weeks after the SEC sent all 13 member teams to softball’s national bracket. Guess it does just mean more.

• Even more impressive, four of the top five seeds — No. 1 Tennessee, No. 2 Kentucky, No. 3 Texas A&M, and No. 5 Arkansas — hail from this powerhouse group. SEC teams have also won four of the last six national titles. The Southeast’s favorite pastime.

18: Vanderbilt’s consecutive national tournament appearances, the sport’s longest active streak. Impressive to say the least.