The 1997 NCAA Division I baseball season, play of
college baseball
College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional pl ...
in the United States organized by the
National Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...
(NCAA) began in the spring of 1997. The season progressed through the regular season and concluded with the
1997 College World Series. The College World Series, held for the fifty first time in 1997, consisted of one team from each of eight regional competitions and was held in
Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest cit ...
, at
Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium
Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium was a baseball stadium in Omaha, Nebraska, the former home to the annual NCAA Division I College World Series and the minor league Omaha Royals, now known as the Omaha Storm Chasers. Rosenblatt Stadium was the largest m ...
as a double-elimination tournament.
LSU
Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 near ...
claimed the championship for the fourth time.
Realignment
*The Big Eight Conference merged with four members of the Southwest Conference, Baylor, Texas, Texas A&M, and Texas Tech to form the Big 12 Conference.
Format changes
*The Big West Conference divided into two divisions of four, called Northern and Southern.
Conference winners
This is a partial list of conference champions from the 1997 season. The NCAA sponsored regional competitions to determine the College World Series participants. Each of the eight regionals consisted of six teams competing in double-elimination tournaments, with the winners advancing to Omaha. In order to provide all conference champions with an automatic bid, 10 conference champions participated in a play-in round. The five winners joined the other 19 conference champions with automatic bids, 24 teams earned at-large selections.
Conference standings
The following is an incomplete list of conference standings:
College World Series
The 1997 season marked the fifty first NCAA Baseball Tournament, which culminated with the eight team
College World Series
The College World Series (CWS), officially the NCAA Men's College World Series (MCWS), is an annual baseball tournament held in June in Omaha, Nebraska. The MCWS is the culmination of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Divisi ...
. The College World Series was held in
Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest cit ...
. The eight teams played a double-elimination format, with LSU claiming their fourth championship with a 13–6 win over Alabama in the final.
Bracket
Award winners
All-America team
References
{{NCAA Division I baseball season navbox