NCAA urges coaches to not cancel games to protect position for tournament

The NCAA has issued what's becoming an annual appeal to Division I baseball coaches to not cancel nonconference midweek games to protect their teams' positioning for the national tournament. Scheduling hijinks allow teams to avoid no-win situations this time of year, so games against mid- or low-major opponents sometimes are called off because a win wouldn't help the RPI and a loss would hurt it, perhaps badly. In a memo sent to coaches last week, the Division I Baseball Oversight Subcommittee said it was concerned with the practice of canceling games for reasons other than inclement weather. "It is not the intent or spirit of the game to adjust scheduled games in an attempt to strategically impact selection data or metrics," the memo said. The subcommittee warned it would track cancellations and that games called off to avoid the impact on metrics "will be discussed and could have a negative impact on the subcommittee's evaluation of a team." Oregon, No. 19 in the RPI, canceled two games against No. 212 Grand Canyon last week with no reason given. No. 42 North Carolina State announced it canceled a game against No. 279 North Carolina A&T by mutual agreement. No. 34 Miami said it canceled a game against No. 219 Florida International "due to overnight conditions" that made its field unplayable, but no details were given about the nature of those conditions. No. 12 Mississippi State went ahead with its midweek game against No. 141 Nicholls and won 21-6. "A lot has been made of teams this time of year canceling games because it's not in their best RPI interest," MSU coach Brian O'Connor said. "I don't believe in it. I believe in karma, and I'm not judging anybody that does. We control our own program and the right thing to do is play the games." In the polls UCLA (46-5), North Carolina (40-9) and Georgia Tech (42-8) were the consensus top three teams Monday in the D1Baseball.com and Baseball America rankings. The Bruins, who won their first 25 Big Ten Conference games, won their series against Oregon on Sunday after Dean West's grand slam in the eighth inning completed their comeback from five runs down for a 9-6 victory. The Tar Heels swept Pittsburgh to reach 40 wins for the fourth time in six seasons under Scott Forbes. Georgia Tech outscored Duke 39-12, including 29-3 over the second and third games. The Yellow Jackets, at 10.3 runs per game, are the only Division I team averaging 10 runs. Bulldogs' title first since 2008 Georgia (41-11, 21-6) clinched its first Southeastern Conference regular-season championship since 2008 with its 13-8 win over LSU on Saturday, then punctuated the weekend with a 12-1 victory to sweep the series. "It's massive," coach Wes Johnson said. "It's so hard to win this league, and then win it outright. It's something that you want to check off on your list of things that you've ever accomplished. It's right up there. It's hard to do. It's 10 weekends of just meat-house grinding." Daniel Jackson hit his 25th homer of the season on Sunday and needs one stolen base to make him the first 25-25 player since North Carolina's Vance Honeycutt had 28 homers and 28 steals in 2024. Trojans having a blast Southern California homered four times in an eight-run seventh inning to break open a 12-4 win over Nevada on Sunday. Jack Basseer and Walter Urbon hit two-run homers, Adrian Lopez hit a solo shot and Kevin Takeuchi connected for two more runs. The win gave USC a 32-1 record at Dedeaux Field, the best mark in the storied program's history. Cleanup spot Vanderbilt's 19-year NCAA Tournament streak is in jeopardy after it lost two of three at Missouri. The Tigers (23-27, 6-21 SEC) hadn't won a conference series at home since April 2024. The Commodores (29-24, 11-16) close the regular season at home with three games against 15th-place South Carolina. ... Wake Forest's sweep of Western Carolina improved the Demon Deacons to 90-2 in nonconference home games since 2022. ... Florida State's series win at Clemson was its first on the Tigers' field since 2015. ... Tague Davis set single-season records for home runs (ACC) and RBIs (school) in a 16-9, 11-inning win at Miami on Friday. He enters the week with 33 homers and 91 RBIs. ... Old Dominion took two of three at Coastal Carolina, ending the Chanticleers' streak of 16 Sun Belt Conference series wins. ___ AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports