The 2018 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) at the Division I level, began in February 2018. The season progressed through the regular season, many conference tournaments and championship series, and concluded with the

2018 NCAA Division I baseball tournament Eighteen or 18 may refer to: * 18 (number), the natural number following 17 and preceding 19 * one of the years 18 BC, AD 18, 1918, 2018 Film, television and entertainment * ''18'' (film), a 1993 Taiwanese experimental film based on the short ...

and

2018 College World Series Eighteen or 18 may refer to: * 18 (number), the natural number following 17 and preceding 19 * one of the years 18 BC, AD 18, 1918, 2018 Film, television and entertainment * ''18'' (film), a 1993 Taiwanese experimental film based on the short s ...

. The College World Series, consisting of the eight remaining teams in the NCAA tournament and held annually 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

TD Ameritrade Park Omaha Charles Schwab Field Omaha (formerly TD Ameritrade Park Omaha) is a baseball park in Omaha, Nebraska. Opened in 2011, the stadium serves as a replacement for historic Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium. Charles Schwab Field has a seating capacity of 24,0 ...

, ended on June 28, 2018.

Realignment and format changes

NYIT The New York Institute of Technology (NYIT or New York Tech) is a private research university founded in 1955. It has two main campuses in New York—one in Old Westbury, on Long Island, and one in Manhattan. Additionally, it has a cybersecur ...

, previously the last remaining Division I independent, moved its baseball program to its full-time home of the Division II

East Coast Conference The East Coast Conference (ECC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. Member institutions are located in the northeastern United States in the states of C ...

. * Buffalo dropped their baseball program at the end of the 2017 season, leaving the Mid-American Conference with 10 teams. As a result, the MAC dissolved its divisions. * The

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight schools ...

dissolved its divisions, playing in a single league table for the first time since 1992. The top two finishers will meet in the Championship Series. *

Wichita State Wichita State University (WSU) is a public research university in Wichita, Kansas, United States. It is governed by the Kansas Board of Regents. The university offers more than 60 undergraduate degree programs in more than 200 areas of study in ...

left the

Missouri Valley Conference The Missouri Valley Conference (also called MVC or simply "The Valley") is the third-oldest collegiate athletic conference in the United States. The conference's members are primarily located in the midwest. History The MVC was established ...

for the

American Athletic Conference The American Athletic Conference (The American or AAC) is an American collegiate athletic conference, featuring 11 member universities and five affiliate member universities that compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) ...

. * Valparaiso left the

Horizon League The Horizon League is an 11-school collegiate athletic conference in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I, whose members are located in and near the Great Lakes region. The Horizon League founded in 1979 as the Midw ...

for the

. The 2018 season was also the last for two other teams in their then-current conferences. Both teams moved between the same two conferences, but in opposite directions. *

Liberty Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom. In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society fr ...

, after 27 seasons in the

Big South Conference The Big South Conference is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I. Originally a non-football conference, the Big South began sponsoring football in 2002 as part of the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). Th ...

, joined the

Atlantic Sun Conference The ASUN Conference, formerly the Atlantic Sun Conference, is a collegiate athletic conference operating mostly in the Southeastern United States. The league participates at the NCAA Division I level, and began sponsoring football at the Divisi ...

(ASUN) on July 1, 2018. *

USC Upstate USC most often refers to: * University of South Carolina, a public research university ** University of South Carolina System, the main university and its satellite campuses **South Carolina Gamecocks, the school athletic program * University of S ...

, after 11 years in the ASUN, moved to the Big South. Finally, one other Division I team changed its institutional and athletic identities immediately after the 2017–18 season.

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universit ...

and

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and money ...

dissolved

Indiana University – Purdue University Fort Wayne Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

(IPFW) on July 1, 2018. IPFW's academic programs in health sciences transferred to the IU system as

Indiana University Fort Wayne Indiana University Fort Wayne is a public university in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It is a regional campus of Indiana University founded on July 1, 2018, when its predecessor university, Indiana University–Purdue University Fort Wayne, split into t ...

; all remaining academic programs were transferred to the Purdue system as

Purdue University Fort Wayne Purdue University Fort Wayne (PFW) is a public university in Fort Wayne, Indiana, United States. A campus of Purdue University, Purdue Fort Wayne was founded on July 1, 2018, when its predecessor university, Indiana University–Purdue University ...

(PFW). From 2018 to 2019, the former IPFW athletic program represents only PFW, and its

Summit League The Summit League, or The Summit, is an NCAA Division I intercollegiate athletic conference with its membership mostly located in the Midwestern United States from Illinois on the East of the Mississippi River to the Dakotas and Nebraska on the W ...

membership was assumed by PFW. Shortly before the dissolution took effect, but after the school's baseball season had finished, the athletic program announced that it would henceforth be known as the

Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons The Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons, formerly known as the IPFW Mastodons and Fort Wayne Mastodons, are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Purdue University Fort Wayne (PFW). The school's athletic program includes 16 varsity sports t ...

NCAA tournament

For the first time, the

seeded the top 16 teams, rather than only the top 8 teams as had been the practice since 1999. This ensures that the regional featuring the top-seeded team is paired with the regional hosted by the 16th-seeded team, where in the past Super Regionals were paired generally along geographical lines.

Ballpark changes

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1863, the university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate students. Although Boston College is classifie ...

opened the new 1,000-seat

Brighton Field The Harrington Athletics Village is a sports complex located on the Brighton Campus at Boston College in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. The complex currently consists of the Eddie Pellagrini Diamond, which is home to the Boston Colleg ...

on their Brighton campus. The Eagles left their home of 57 years,

Eddie Pellagrini Diamond at John Shea Field Eddie Pellagrini Diamond at John Shea Field was a baseball stadium in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. It was the home field of the Boston College Eagles baseball team from 1961 to 2017. The stadium held 1,000 people and was named after Commander J ...

to create room for a new athletics field house. * The 2018 season was the last for

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

Cliff Hagan Stadium Cliff Hagan Stadium (Officially named Shively Field at Cliff Hagan Stadium) is a baseball stadium located in Lexington, Kentucky, United States. Cliff Hagan Stadium or better known to Kentucky Wildcat baseball fans as “The Cliff” is on the So ...

. The Wildcats moved into the new

Kentucky Proud Park Kentucky Proud Park is a baseball stadium in Lexington, Kentucky. It is the home field of the University of Kentucky Wildcats college baseball team. Opened in 2018, with the Wildcats playing their first season in the stadium in 2019, it has a pe ...

for the 2019 season. * The 2018 season was also the last for

UConn The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from Ha ...

J. O. Christian Field J. O. Christian Field was a baseball stadium in Storrs, Connecticut, United States. It was the home field of the Connecticut Huskies baseball team of the NCAA Division I's American Athletic Conference (The American) from 1968 through 2019. The ...

. The Huskies will play elsewhere for 2019 while a new stadium is built.

Season outlook

Conference standings

Conference winners and tournaments

Of the 31 Division I

athletic conferences An athletic conference is a collection of sports teams, playing competitively against each other in a sports league. In many cases conferences are subdivided into smaller divisions, with the best teams competing at successively higher levels. Conf ...

that sponsor baseball, 29 end their

regular season In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of Se ...

s with a

single-elimination tournament A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

or a

double elimination tournament A double-elimination tournament is a type of elimination tournament competition in which a participant ceases to be eligible to win the tournament's championship upon having lost ''two'' games or matches. It stands in contrast to a single-elimina ...

. The teams in each conference that win their regular season title are given the number one seed in each tournament. Two conferences, the Big West and Pac-12, do not hold a conference tournament. The winners of these tournaments, plus the Big West and Pac-12 regular-season champions, receive automatic invitations to the

College World Series

The 2018 College World Series began on June 16 in

Coaching changes

This table lists programs that changed head coaches at any point from the first day of the 2018 season until the day before the first day of the 2019 season.

References

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