Boston College Baseball: Eagles Enter Weekend Inside The Bubble

Every week, Baseball America and D1Baseball.com release an updated field of 64 or NCAA Tournament prediction, giving us an idea of where teams may land and fall. Heading into the ACC Tournament, it appeared that Boston College found themselves on the correct side of the bubble, thanks in part to their doubleheader sweep and series victory over Georgia Tech.

Following BC's loss to the Yellow Jackets in the ACC Tournament, it appears as though they're still very much in the hunt for the NCAA Tournament. Both publications have updated their bubble watch or brackets, and the Eagles are still well ahead of some of the teams in the ACC in the conversation.

We start with D1Baseball.com, which places the Eagles in a regional in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. In this bracket, New England would take on the state of Louisiana, with Rhode Island drawing the #4 seed after winning the Atlantic-10, against host and #8 national seed LSU. BC, meanwhile, would play Tulane, who enters the weekend with a loss absorbed in the AAC Tournament.

This regional is very much a compromise between the Mississippi State and Ole Miss regionals highlighted earlier in the week. When BC was going to play Mississippi State, they drew a bracket with the #5 national seed. The Bulldogs remain in that spot, but Georgia Tech replaces the Eagles as the third seed in that bracket. This means that, among #3 seeds in the tournament, BC is being given a better draw, since LSU is ranked three spots below the Bulldogs.

It would also send BC to the same stadium where they played three games last season. The Eagles went to Baton Rouge for non-conference games in 2015. The Tigers enjoy arguably the best home field advantage in the nation, routinely drawing approximately 10,000 fans per game.

Baseball America didn't release a new bracket, but their latest "Bubble Wrap" segment talks mostly about the precarious position of the Yellow Jackets. They discuss Georgia Tech as the team that would deal with potentially being left out in favor of North Carolina, especially since the Yellow Jackets lost their first two pool games by a combined score of 10-1. Even though they defeated BC, it stands likely that Georgia Tech was actually hurt by advancing to pool play because they've had a lack of competitiveness there.

Georgia Tech is also being pushed back on the bubble because Wake Forest scored a huge victory this week. The Deacons went bombs away against Virginia, hitting five homers, justifying their win over Duke and putting themselves in position to seal up a national tournament bid. Duke remains a curious case because the Blue Devils have five series victories in the ACC but didn't advance past the first round. More than likely, this, too, would put them behind the Eagles.

Outside of the ACC, Connecticut continues to roll in one of the brackets in their conference tournament. Where Tulane slipped, the Huskies pounded South Florida, 9-1, after the Bulls upset East Carolina. ECU, the #2 seed in the tournament, went down in two straight, losing their second game to Memphis. This is opening the door for the Huskies to make the conference finals as long as they defeat the Tigers, who they beat 6-2 to start the tournament, in the semifinals. If Tulane loses, this could throw caution to the wind in seeding.

As for some of the other leagues, Coastal Carolina, Bryant, Dallas Baptist, and UNC-Wilmington are all in their conference finals, playing on Saturday. These are all teams potentially locked into the tournament even if they don't win their conference tournaments. If they all win today, the at-large bids would maximize since none of these teams would steal a bid from someone else. While that likely would concern North Carolina more than Boston College at this point, maximizing at-large bids is something that can only benefit the Eagles.

So as we enter the championship weekend and last drive to the tournament, BC remains very much right in the hunt for an at-large bid.