By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay
The UTSA Roadrunners on Monday became the first regular season champion or co-champion from the American Conference to be left out of the NCAA tournament.
Meanwhile, the Texas State Bobcats of the Sun Belt Conference received one of 35 at-large bids into the 64-team NCAA field. The Bobcats will play in the College Station Regional hosted by Texas A&M.
Regional play opens on Friday nationwide, with Texas State paired against Southern Cal and national No. 12 seed A&M hosting Lamar.
In addition, the Texas Longhorns were named as a No. 6 national seed, meaning they would host a super regional if they can win the Austin Regional.
The Longhorns will play Holy Cross on opening day, while first-time tournament entry Tarleton State will meet UC Santa Barbara in the Capital City.
UTSA’s season ends with a 38-20 record.
The 36-22-1 East Carolina Pirates, who tied for first in the American and then won the postseason title with a 1-0 victory over the Roadrunners, earned the conference’s automatic bid.
They’ll play in the Chapel Hill regional, matched up on the first day against the Tennessee Volunteers.
The Roadrunners started fast this season, opening at 13-1 and playing to a 20-9 mark in February and March. Beyond that, they won their first seven weekend series in conference.
From there, they faltered a bit, losing five of eight overall and two of three in its last two conference series, including at Memphis and at home against the UAB Blazers.
East Carolina trailed by two games going into the last series of the regular season and promptly swept three at Florida Atlantic to tie UTSA for first in the American at 17-10.
In the conference tournament, both received double byes into the quarterfinals and won their first games.
In the semifinals, the Roadrunners qualified for the finals by beating the Pirates 4-2.
The Pirates, from the losers bracket, won two straight to claim their second straight American postseason crown.
They defeated the Wichita State Shockers in an elimination game Saturday night and then knocked off the Roadrunners 1-0 in Sunday’s finals at Clearwater, Fla.
According to the NCAA baseball rules, 29 teams received automatic bids for winning their conference tournaments, while the remaining 35 were selected at large.
NCAA baseball committee members “leaned on” strength of schedule to separate at-large bid contenders, said Michael Alford, the committee chairman.
Alford said strength of schedule within conferences also was a factor.
According to the committee, the last four at-large teams to receive bids were Liberty, Kentucky, Texas State and Troy.
The first four teams outside the final selections were Mercer, Michigan, Pitt and TCU.
In the end, the committee decided that UTSA’s record just wasn’t good enough.
Hurting the Roadrunners’ cause were losses to lower-rated teams including UT Arlington (twice), Houston Christian and Incarnate Word.
Also, unlike last season, UTSA didn’t have a signature win over either Texas or Texas A&M. The Roadrunners beat both of those Power Four teams last year en route to an at-large bid.
This year, they lost to Texas 11-8 and had a game at Texas A&M canceled because of weather considerations.
UTSA, on the flip side, had some valid arguments in its favor for inclusion in the field.
The Roadrunners beat six teams that made the NCAA tournament, including East Carolina, Coastal Carolina, Texas State, Tarleton State, UIC and South Dakota State.
They recorded a 3-2 record against East Carolina, 1-1 against Texas State and 1-0 against Coastal Carolina, Tarleton State, South Dakota State and UIC (Illinois-Chicago).
Moreover, in the history of the American since 2014, all of its regular-season champions had earned an NCAA bid, and now UTSA is the first to be on the outside looking in.
Here is the list:
American Conference
Regular season champions/postseason
2026 – East Carolina/NCAA regional
UTSA/conference tournament finals
2025 – UTSA/NCAA super regional
2024 – East Carolina/NCAA regional
2023 – East Carolina/NCAA regional
2022 – East Carolina/NCAA super regional
2021 – East Carolina/NCAA super regional
2020 – no tournament
2019 – East Carolina/NCAA super regional
2018 – Houston/NCAA regional
2017 – UCF/NCAA regional
Houston/NCAA regional
2016 – Tulane/NCAA regional
2015 – Houston/NCAA regional
2014 – Louisville/College World Series