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By beating Wake Forest last weekend in two out of three games, Boston College enhanced their postseason resume. They moved into tenth place in the ACC, which would qualify them for the league championship in Durham, North Carolina, and they picked up another key series victory over a team with an impressive tournament resume of their own.
According to most projections, Boston College is now on the inside of the bubble heading into this week's penultimate weekend of games. Though BC will be off this week with other games going on around them, they're 42nd in the national RPI rating thanks to series victories over Louisville, Virginia, NC State, and Wake.
Those projections now include two of the top national baseball publications - D1Baseball.com and Baseball America.
According to D1Baseball's field of 64, BC is the last team in the field, giving the ACC 10 teams in the tournament. As an at-large, they would play in a regional hosted by Michigan in Ann Arbor as the third seed. There, they would draw second-seeded Texas Christian. The host Wolverines, as the top seed and regional host opposite the #1 national seed Florida, would play Kent State.
The Eagles' Super Regional bracket would contain Georgia Tech, who as the second seed would play Michigan State while Florida plays Monmouth. Florida is the projected #1 overall seed.
Baseball America tells a different story, though. Their projection also has the Eagles as the last team in, the #3 seed in the regional opposite the #1 national seed's regional. But the regional would be in the south in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, the home of the Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles. BC would draw LSU with the Tigers as the second seed in that regional while USM would play Bryant.
The BA projection makes the most sense. If the top seeds all hold for victories, they potentially set up two games rife with storylines. LSU and USM would provide a game with local interest since the two locations are less than three hours away from one another, and LSU carries the reputation of having the best fan support in the nation.
A BC-Bryant elimination game would set up local interest up here, especially given their burgeoning regional rivalry after the Bulldogs thumped the Eagles in a midweek game. Pitting weekend starters against one another from both schools would add another layer to it, and it would provide the familiarity that would tell an amazing tale as the game played out.
At the same time, though, BC isn't assured of giving the ACC ten teams in the tournament. This is all contingent on the Eagles taking two out of three from Georgia Tech or having a good showing in the ACC Championship. The Eagles conceivably can clinch a slot in Durham with one win and some help, but their current, 11-14 conference record is a knock against them. Helping the cause are their wins over better league teams, but they'll need another one to assure themselves of a trip to the dance.
If BC does not win two games in Atlanta, they're likely to fall to the wrong side of the bubble. At the same time, they're not assured of a lock if the wrong teams go down swinging in conference championships.
So while the Eagles have done a great job to get to this point, there's still plenty left to happen and an incredibly long road before this slot is safe and secure.