The NCAA plans to double the number of teams it seeds in its Division I baseball tournament to 16, hoping to provide a more equitable competitive balance.
The organization announced the move Friday and it will take effect for the 2018 tournament. The change will allow the baseball tournament to follow the same seeding principles used by other sports that have at least 64 postseason participants.
The NCAA says that under the current format, with only eight seeded teams, the ninth-best could be paired against the No. 1 seed in the super regional round. With the change, a top seed will face the No. 16 seed.
The change was approved last week at a meeting of the Division I Competition Oversight Committee in Indianapolis.