Has Florida Baseball Done Enough to Host a Regional?

The regular season has concluded for the Florida Gators, and with a 9-3 win over Alabama, the Gators have ended the regular season with six straight SEC series wins to finish 15-15 in SEC play and 37-19 overall.

There are pros and cons working for Florida in terms of whether or not they have done enough to host the opening Regional round of the NCAA Tournament. They also may need to host if they intend to make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament in 2025.

Florida Gators Stay Hot After Beating Alabama

After starting SEC play 1-11, the fact that we are even discussing the idea of hosting a Regional is amazing. Working against the Gators is the fact that their sweep at the hands of Tennessee has not held up well, as the Volunteers have fallen apart down the stretch. Their mid-week loss to UCF has not held up, and their loss to USF wasn't great. It also serves as Florida's lone Quad 3 loss in the season.

However, Florida is 13th in overall RPI, and as we saw from the NCAA Softball Tournament, the committee seems to value RPI way more than human polls. Gator Softball, for example, was 3rd in RPI and got the No. 3 seed despite human polls having them lower.

And when you look at the teams around Florida in RPI the Gators have a good case:

• Oregon has nine Quad 3 losses and three Quad 4 losses
• UCLA went 3-7 against Quad 1 opponents compared to Florida going 11-16. UCLA also had five Quad 3 losses
• The Gators beat FSU two out of three times
• TCU has a near identical record to Florida (37-17), but Florida has the 3rd best strength of schedule compared to the 20th for TCU
• West Virginia seems to be a trendy pick to host a Regional, but they are 28th in RPI and 104th in strength of schedule

The Need To Host

Hosting for Florida isn't just a matter of getting to stay home; it could also dictate their entire NCAA Tournament run.

When one thinks about the Gators in their current state, Liam Peterson and Aidan King can power the Gators past anyone in a best-of-three series.

And while Pierce Coppola is working his way back, he still requires a conga line of bullpen arms to support him, and as we saw against Alabama in game two, that is still a work in progress.

So the difference between getting to open against a four seed like Bethune-Cookman at home compared to a three seed like potentially Arizona, Iowa, or Virginia could be massive if Florida wants to go 3-0 in Regionals.

Because Florida has been as hot as Florida, there is concern about whether or not they have enough arms to power through Regionals if they are forced to play four or five games to get out.

First things first is the SEC Tournament and a date with South Carolina on Tuesday. The winner of that will play Ole Miss, which is another team in the running as a potential host site.