The full bracket is due out as part of the NCAA selection show on Monday at 11 a.m., but the Kansas baseball team will learn even sooner whether it will host NCAA Tournament games at Hoglund Ballpark for the first time.
The NCAA is set to announce the 16 regional hosts at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, and the Jayhawks are highly likely to be among them in the wake of Friday night’s 9-2 win over Oklahoma State.
With that in mind, here’s a look at how some bracket projections chose to lay out a first-ever Lawrence Regional on Saturday morning.
BASEBALL AMERICA
Jacob Rudner’s bracket had KU as the No. 13 overall seed, with No. 19 Ole Miss as its No. 2 seed (an at-large team out of the SEC), Campbell as the No. 3 (an automatic bid out of the CAA) and Milwaukee as the No. 4 (an automatic bid out of the Horizon League). The Jayhawks have never faced Ole Miss or Campbell in baseball but saw Milwaukee not all that long ago when KU swept the Panthers in four games in 2025 (three in Lawrence, one in Wichita).
Ole Miss finished ninth in the fearsome SEC and suffered an upset loss in the first round of its conference tournament to No. 16 seed Missouri. That followed a somewhat sluggish conclusion to the regular season in which the Rebels lost three of their final four SEC series, albeit all against ranked teams. They do feature plenty of top talent, however, headlined by a pair of sophomore pitchers in starter Cade Townsend and reliever Walker Hooks.
Campbell dominated the CAA and won its regular-season title with a 26-4 league record. Redshirt senior starter David Rossow, the league’s pitcher of the year, entered Saturday 10-1 with a 2.50 ERA and 100 strikeouts.
Milwaukee knocked out top-seeded Wright State from the Horizon League tournament on Friday on the strength of a high-level pitching performance from starter Riley Peterson and relievers Mason Weckler and Camden Kuhnke. Kuhnke is the league’s top reliever and in 23 appearances as of Saturday had a 2.90 ERA with six saves.
KU’s regional would be paired with that of No. 4 overall seed North Carolina for super regional matchups.
D1BASEBALL
The D1Baseball staff members who compiled Saturday’s projections wrote that they “feel very comfortable” with KU as a host. They moved the Jayhawks up to No. 14 overall, paired with No. 3 Georgia’s regional.
The rest of the teams assigned to Lawrence include, in order, USC, Missouri State and Eastern Illinois.
KU and USC have met once, a 10-1 victory for the Trojans in Los Angeles in 2006. This year’s USC squad at one point equaled a program record for the longest-ever win streak by opening 19-0. The Trojans were at one point 24-1 but closed the regular season a somewhat less impressive 18-13. They ultimately went 20-10 in Big Ten play, finishing in a tie for third in the league.
USC has an elite pair of all-league pitchers in junior lefty Mason Edwards (1.43 ERA, 0.95 WHIP, 160 strikeouts to 39 walks) and sophomore righty Grant Govel (2.79 ERA, 0.83 WHIP, 85 strikeouts to 11 walks).
Missouri State and KU are tied 32-32 in the all-time series, with the Jayhawks pulling out an extra-innings victory in head coach Dan Fitzgerald’s first year at the helm. The Bears have a well-regarded program now playing in the C-USA, where they too finished 20-10 in league play for third place in the conference. They have victories over teams like Arkansas and Oklahoma State this season with top players including two-way standout Curry Sutherland and shortstop Logan Fyffe (.363, 1.032 OPS, nine home runs, 43 RBIs).
Eastern Illinois tied for second in the OVC, a game and a half back of regular-season champion SIUE. Bryce Riggs became the second Panther ever to receive the OVC’s pitcher of the year award. The junior righty was 8-2 as of Saturday with a 3.30 ERA.
ON3
For On3, Jonathan Wagner also projected KU as the No. 13 seed with Ole Miss as the No. 2 seed at No. 20, noting that the Rebels had been slated to host before their one-and-done showing in the SEC tournament.
Wagner provided different Nos. 3 and 4 seeds with UTSA and Yale. KU leads the all-time series against UTSA 3-1 but hasn’t faced the Roadrunners under Fitzgerald.
UTSA is looking for a second straight postseason appearance after it stunned Texas in regional play and advanced to the super regionals last spring. The Roadrunners shared the regular-season title in the American with East Carolina but claimed the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament. UTSA’s headliner is Drew Detlefsen, a senior outfielder from Dodge City Community College who came into Saturday batting .387 with 13 home runs and 68 RBIs.
Yale, which had already locked up a postseason bid as early as May 17 with consecutive victories over Brown, had two unanimous selections to the Ivy League’s first team with right-handed pitcher Tate Evans (2.72 ERA, 1.01 WHIP, 78 strikeouts to 14 walks) and left fielder Garrett Larsen (.374 average, .972 OPS).
KU’s regional would be paired, as in the Baseball America projection, with UNC’s.
