Columbia named one of 16 regional host sites

South Carolina will serve as
an NCAA baseball regional host
 for the 18th time.

In a move that was the subject of speculation - but by no means certain - South Carolina's Founder's Park was named Sunday as site of one of the 16 regionals in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.

The Gamecocks (33-21) were one of seven SEC teams selected to be hosts. Carolina was one of 20 schools pre-selected by the NCAA for host consideration earlier this month.

USC was believed to be in contention for one of the 16 No. 1 seeds if it fared well in the Southeastern Conference Tournament, or at least did better than Florida, a team the Gamecocks swept in the regular season. Instead, USC was bounced by Alabama in its only game in Hoover and Florida reached the semifinals.

Later in the week, writers on college baseball sites began speculating that USC might still get to host as a No. 2 seed because some of the teams expected to be No. 1's either did not submit a bid or did not submit an attractive enough bid. My guess is that's what happened

Old Dominion was not on the original list of 20. Charlotte, which had submitted a bid to play at a new park in Gastonia, was on the list but eliminated early in the Conference USA Tournament. The other three teams to not be selected hosts were Gonzaga, Pitt and Southern Mississippi.

Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Tennessee and Vanderbilt also will represent the SEC as hosts. Notre Dame was the only ACC team to receive a host designation.

The other eight hosts are Arizona, East Carolina, Louisiana Tech, Oregon, Stanford, Texas, Texas Christian and Texas Tech.

Games begin next weekend.

The top eight national seeds, at-large team selections, seedings and regional assignments/pairings will be announced on the selection show at noon Monday on ESPN2.

Big South Tournament champion Presbyterian is likely to be the only other South Carolina school named to the 64-team field.

The 16 regional winners advance to eight best-of-three super regionals the following weekend. The top eight seeds will host the super regionals if they advance. The field will not be reseeded after the regionals.

NCAA regional sites