Record-tying 9 SEC teams in field of 64

Following an underdog run to the championship game in last week's SEC tournament, the Ole Miss Rebels received an at-large bid to the NCAA baseball tournament Monday.

Their reward? A trip to the Miami Regional, hosted by the Atlantic Coast Conference champion Hurricanes (47-8), the nation's top team and the tournament's overall top seed.

Ole Miss (37-24) is the third seed and will take on Missouri in Friday's tournament opener. Bethune-Cookman rounds out the regional field.

The Hurricanes, who won the ACC tournament for the first time, are making their 36th straight tournament appearance to extend their NCAA record.

"There was a lot of discussion about who the No. 1 seed should be, and quite frankly, North Carolina and Arizona State all got a strong look at that position," selection committee chairman and former Mississippi State athletic director Larry Templeton said. "At the end of the night, Miami's play toward the end of the season, particularly winning the tournament -- and we were watching that tournament as the selection process was going through -- probably convinced the committee."

Arkansas also received an at-large bid and will head to Palo Alto, Calif., for the Stanford regional. The Razorbacks (34-22) are the third seed and will take on Pepperdine at 3 p.m. CDT Friday.

Vanderbilt is the second seed in the Arizona State regional in Tucson and will open against Oklahoma.

A year after getting only five berths, the Southeastern Conference led the tournament field with nine, tying the record it set in 2004 and matched in 2005. Arkansas didn't make it into the eight-team SEC tournament, but the committee was impressed by how competitive the teams were.

"I think the thing about the SEC this year that impressed the committee is their strength of schedule had improved over last year," Templeton said. "It was the work of the whole year in that conference."

The other national seeds, in order, are: North Carolina (46-12), Arizona State (45-11), Florida State (48-10), Cal State Fullerton (37-19), Rice (42-13), LSU (43-16-1) and Georgia (35-21-1).

The winners of each regional will advance to the super regionals, played June 6-9. The eight winners of the super regionals will play in the College World Series, which starts June 14 in Omaha, Neb.

Being the top seed hasn't necessarily guaranteed tournament success. The only No. 1 overall seed to win the College World Series since the field was expanded to 64 teams was Miami in 1999 and no top-eight seed has won it all since Rice in 2003.

Defending national champion Oregon State (28-24) did not receive an at-large bid, despite having five series wins against teams in the 64-team field, including Arizona, Arizona State and Georgia. The Beavers, the first defending champ to not make the tournament since Georgia in 1991, will not have a chance to join Southern California (1970-74) as the only school to win three straight titles.

"The committee struggled long and hard and, quite frankly, probably wouldn't have struggled as long if Oregon State had not been the two-time defending national champion," said Templeton. "The thing that probably was the determining factor was their 24 losses and who some of those losses were against. It was a tough call, but we felt that there were a couple of other teams that were more deserving."

LSU enters the tournament as the hottest team in the country, riding a 20-game winning streak into their first-round matchup against Texas Southern (16-32).