No. 1 Florida Among Record 4 SEC Teams to Nab National Seeds

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Florida will have to break the curse of the No. 1 seed to win its first national championship in baseball.

The Gators were awarded the top seed in the NCAA baseball tournament Monday, leading a record four Southeastern Conference teams among the eight national seeds. Florida (47-13) was ranked No. 1 in the polls for most of the season and finished runner-up to Texas A&M in the SEC Tournament.

The Gators have been a national seed seven times under coach Kevin O'Sullivan, including No. 1 in 2012. No top seed has won the championship since Miami in 1999, the first year of the current tournament structure.

Washington made the tournament and will open play in Nashville Friday against UC-Santa Barbara. Gonzaga also is in and will play in Fort Worth against Arizona State. Oregon State nearly made the field but selection committee chair Joe Erdmann says it was the second team left out for at-large bids, behind North Carolina.

The 16 regionals are Friday to next Monday and include four teams playing a double-elimination format. Regional winners advance the next week to best-of-three super regionals, which will determine the eight teams moving on to the College World Series in Omaha beginning June 18.