UK Earns NCAA Tourney Bid; Cats to Face Wake Forest on Friday

INDIANAPOLIS – The field of 64 teams competing for the 2026 NCAA Division I Baseball Championship was announced today by the NCAA Division I Baseball Championship Subcommittee.

The national top 16 seeds are UCLA (51-6), Georgia Tech (48-9), Georgia (46- 12), Auburn (38-19), North Carolina (45-11-1), Texas (40-13), Alabama (37-19), Florida (39-19), Southern Mississippi (44-15), Florida State (38-17), Oregon (40-16), Texas A&M (39-14), Nebraska (42-15), Mississippi State (40-17), Kansas (42-16), and West Virginia (39-14).

The Southeastern Conference (SEC) leads the way with 12 teams selected from the conference. The schools are Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi State, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, Tennessee, Texas, and Texas A&M.

For a school-record fourth consecutive season, Kentucky has earned a bid to the NCAA Tournament.  The Wildcats (31-21) earned a No. 3 seed in the Morgantown Regional in Morgantown, West Virginia and will face No. 2 Wake Forest (38-19) on Friday, May 29. The 12:00 noon game will be shown on ESPN2.

Florida has the longest active streak with its 18th straight appearance. Other notable consecutive streaks include Oklahoma State (13), Southern Mississippi (10), Arkansas (9) and East Carolina, North Carolina and Oregon State (8).

Selection of the eight super regional hosts will be announced on www.NCAA.com/mcws, Tuesday, June 2 by 10 a.m. (ET).

The Men’s College World Series begins play Friday, June 12, at Charles Schwab Field Omaha in Omaha, Nebraska.