Breakdown of the NCAA postseason

Just like the NCAA Tournament in basketball, the NCAA Tournament in baseball has 64 teams in the first round.

Basketball has added a few more teams through the years, but its base bracket still consists of 64 teams.

That’s where the similarities end between the two sports’ postseasons.

IU was selected to the No. 4 national seed during Monday’s NCAA Tournament selection show.

But the NCAA baseball postseason can be tough to understand for first-time college baseball fans.

There are two weekends of postseason play in college baseball and then the College World Series in Omaha, Neb.

IU looks to return to the College World Series for the second consecutive year, as the team fell short of winning a national title in Omaha, Neb., last year.

That journey begins this weekend with regional play at IU. All games will be played at Bart Kaufman Field.

There are three other teams in the regional, ranked from seeds two-to-four. IU is the No. 1 seed in the regional.

It is joined by No. 2 seed Indiana State (35-16), No. 3 seed Stanford (30-23) and No. 4 seed Youngstown State (16-36).

IU and Youngstown State received automatic bids into the NCAA Tournament by winning their respective leagues. If a team wins its conference, it is automatically granted entry into the NCAA Tournament. Stanford and Indiana State were at-large bids.

Regional play is a double-elimination tournament. The winner of the four-team tournament moves on to super regionals.

If IU sweeps the regional and wins all its games, the team will play three games — at 7 p.m. Friday, at 6 p.m. Saturday and at 6 p.m. Sunday.

However, if IU wins its first two games against Youngstown State and the winner of the Stanford–Indiana State game but loses Sunday, a different situation will ensue.

The Hoosiers won’t be out of the tournament, since it’s a double-elimination format.
In that case, there will be another game at 5:30 p.m. Monday with a “winner take all” feel.

To recap, if IU takes care of business and wins all of its games, the team will be done by Sunday with a regional crown.

If the Hoosiers have several hiccups, the team could be out of the regional by Sunday.

And, if necessary, there will be another game Monday.

If IU makes it out of the regional, the Hoosiers will move on to the super regionals.

This is where the importance of being a national seed comes in.

The top eight teams in the nation are named national seeds, and each will be a host to a super regional.

Whichever team comes out of the Nashville, Tenn., regional will play IU in the super regional.

Vanderbilt, Oregon, Clemson and Xavier are the potential teams.

The super regional format is much easier to digest. It’s simply a best-of-three series between the two teams.

If IU wins the super regional, the Hoosiers will move on to the College World Series in Omaha, Neb., where the top eight teams in the nation take part in a double-elimination tournament to determine the national champion.

Last season IU defeated Valparasio, Austin Peay and Austin Peay again to sweep its regional.

The team traveled to Tallahassee, Fla., and took two games from national seed Florida State to move on to Omaha, Neb.

The Hoosiers beat Louisville and then lost to Mississippi State and Oregon State — both in one-run games — and were knocked out of the NCAA Tournament.

The road back to Omaha, Neb., starts 7 p.m. Friday for the Hoosiers.