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Arkansas will officially have to hit the road for the 2022 NCAA Tournament.
As expected, Fayetteville is not one of 16 locations that will host a regional, the NCAA announced Sunday. It will be the first time since 2015 that the Razorbacks made the tournament and didn’t play a regional at Baum-Walker Stadium.
Despite winning 38 games, including 18 in conference play, and finishing third overall in the SEC, Arkansas was not considered a possible host school because of its poor RPI ranking. Entering Sunday’s games, it was down to No. 41 in the RPI — well outside the usual range for regional hosts.
Among the schools selected as host sites, Oklahoma State is the closest in proximity to Arkansas, as Stillwater is just a 3-hour drive west from Fayetteville. That is the destination for the Razorbacks in the projections from Baseball America and D1Baseball that came out Sunday morning.
Four SEC teams — Tennessee, Texas A&M, Auburn and Florida — were selected as regional hosts. Arkansas will not be sent to any of those regionals, but the other 12 are all possibilities.
In addition to Oklahoma State, non-SEC teams selected as hosts include Texas, Virginia Tech, North Carolina, Maryland, Miami (Fla.), Oregon State, East Carolina, Southern Miss, Louisville, Stanford and Georgia Southern.
Despite its recent success leading to hosting regionals each of the last four NCAA Tournaments, hitting the road is nothing new for Arkansas and head coach Dave Van Horn.
In fact, the last time the Razorbacks played a regional outside of Fayetteville, they were the 2-seed in the 2015 Stillwater Regional and knocked off Oklahoma State to advance to the super regionals.
That year, Arkansas ended up hosting a super regional because Missouri State — the top-8 seed paired with Oklahoma State — was unable to host at its ballpark, which it shares with the Springfield Cardinals.
Hosting a super regional this year is still on the table, too, but it’d require an upset in the regional paired with Arkansas’ regional, on top of winning its own regional.
Since the NCAA Tournament went to its current format in 1999, the Razorbacks have won a road regional three other times. In Norm DeBriyn’s final season, they won the 2002 Wichita Regional before losing the Clemson Super Regional. Under Van Horn, Arkansas won the 2009 Norman Regional and 2012 Houston Regional on its way to the College World Series.
The entire field of 64, including where Arkansas will play, will be announced during the selection show at 11 a.m. CT Monday on ESPN2.
