Projected Field Of 64: Feb. 24

PROJECTED FIELD OF 64
Gainesville, FL	Lafayette, LA
1. (1) Florida^*	1. Louisiana-Lafayette^*
2. Tulane	2. Mississippi
3. Washington	3. Maryland
4. Penn*	4. Mercer*
Louisville, KY	Berkeley, CA
1. (2) Louisville^*	1. California^
2. UNC Wilmington*	2. Oklahoma
3. Indiana	3. Cal State Fullerton*
4. Quinnipiac*	4. Cal State Bakersfield*
College Station, TX	Stillwater, OK
1. (3) Texas A&M^	1. Oklahoma State^*
2. North Carolina	2. Dallas Baptist*
3. Arizona State	3. South Carolina
4. Navy*	4. Wright State*
Charlottesville, VA	Ann Arbor, MI
1. (4) Virginia^	1. Michigan^*
2. Kentucky	2. North Carolina State
3. Winthrop	3. Texas
4. Bryant*	4. Kent State*
Corvallis, OR	Tallahassee, FL
1. (5) Oregon State^*	1. Florida State^
2. Mississippi State	2. Coastal Carolina*
3. San Diego*	3. Florida Atlantic
4. Southeast Missouri State*	4. Florida Gulf Coast*
Coral Gables, FL	Houston
1. (6) Miami^	1. Houston^*
2. Rice*	2. Texas Christian
3. South Florida	3. Southern Mississippi
4. Florida A&M*	4. Oral Roberts*
Nashville	Los Angeles
1. (7) Vanderbilt^	1. UCLA^
2. College of Charleston	2. Arkansas
3. Notre Dame	3. San Diego State*
4. Saint Louis*	4. Creighton*
Eugene, OR	Baton Rouge, LA
1. (8) Oregon^	1. Louisiana State^
2. Georgia Tech	2. Southern California
3. UC Irvine	3. Southeastern Louisiana*
4. Stony Brook*	4. Alabama State*
*-Automatic qualifier ^-Regional host

Field Of 64 Thoughts

• Welcome to our first in-season Field of 64 projection. Yes, we’ll be doing them every week throughout the 2016 season. At this point, of course, about 95 percent of it is still purely based on projections of which teams we think will be good, so there aren’t any drastic overhauls from our preseason field. One weekend isn’t going to significantly alter what we expect these teams to be. That being said, there are some changes.

• Oregon replaces California as the eighth national seed, in light of the Ducks sweeping a series on the road against a respectable opponent (San Diego State) on opening weekend, while the Bears dropped two of three at Duke. Louisiana State—which did move up to No. 8 in our Top 25 this week—was the other team we considered, but that would’ve given us four SEC teams among the national seeds (along with three from the ACC), and that’s a bridge we’re not ready to cross.

• Some other shuffling included Southern California dropping out of the hosting ranks after that disastrous home series loss to North Dakota. Florida State replaces them. Elsewhere in the Sunshine State, Florida Atlantic, a team on the cusp in the preseason, joins the field after posting a 4-0 opening weekend that included a pair of what should be quality wins against Mississippi State. Auburn, which lost a home series to Sacramento State, gets squeezed out.

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SEE ALSO: Top 25

SEE ALSO: Top 25 Podcast