The short ends of the stick
Do North Carolina and Virginia have a beef with their seedings in the NCAA baseball tournament? Without question.
The Heels and 'Hoos were locks for top-eight seeds in the tourney - until their early exits from the ACC baseball tournament last week.
Which means a couple of days in late May means more than the entirety of a season.
Makes sense, eh?
UNC was 45-13 overall and 22-10 in the Atlantic Coast Conference (including the tournament). Virginia was 46-13 and 22-11.
Georgia Tech, for its part, ended up 45-16 and 22-13 - good enough for third in the ACC's Coastal Division.
But hey, the Yellow Jackets were 3-2 in Jacksonville last week - which is how they ended up getting the eighth seed nationally, one would have to suppose.
Because it wasn't on the merits of the whole of the 2006 season.
The same could be said for the placement in the top eight of teams like Nebraska (10th in the CollegeBaseballInsider.com composite poll) and Georgia (11th in the CBI poll) - but enough with the quibbling.
Carolina and Virginia - ranked seventh and second nationally in team earned-run average, which would seem to be important as the postseason gets under way - are headed to Omaha whether the tournament-selection committee wants them there or not.
- Chris Graham