2008 NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament
The 2008 NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament was held from May 30 through June 25, 2008 and was part of the 2008 NCAA Division I baseball season. The 64 NCAA Division I college baseball teams were selected out of an eligible 286 teams on May 26, 2008. Thirty teams were awarded an automatic bid as champions of their conference, and 34 teams were selected at-large by the NCAA Division I Baseball Committee. Thirty-eight of the 64 selected teams participated in the 2007 tournament.
The 2008 tournament culminated with 8 teams advancing to the College World Series at historic Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Nebraska on June 14.
The Fresno State Bulldogs beat the Georgia Bulldogs in the best-of-three championship series to win the NCAA Men's Division I Baseball Championship. Fresno State became the lowest seeded team to win the National Championship in NCAA history, and the fifth consecutive baseball team to win the title that was not one of the eight national seeds. They were considered a "Cinderella" team throughout the tournament. This was only the third national championship of any kind in school history, following the 1968 NCAA Men's Tennis Tournament and the 1998 NCAA Division I Softball National Champions.
Fresno State sophomore third baseman Tommy Mendonca won the Most Outstanding Player Award. Tommy hit four home runs and had 11 RBIs and also made a number of spectacular plays in the field.
The first day of the 2008 CWS was moved to Saturday from the traditional Friday. Also, if all games were needed in the first double-elimination round, it would take eight days to complete rather than seven. The NCAA cited the need to be more flexible in the super-regional round in case of inclement weather. It also allowed for greater potential ticket revenue, in part because the extra "if-necessary" day would now be ticketed separately if both games are played.
Bids
Automatic bids
Conference champions from 30 Division I conferences earned automatic bids to regionals. The remaining 34 spots were awarded to schools as at-large invitees.| School | Conference | Record | Berth | Last NCAA Appearance |
| Pacific-10 | 45-11 | Won Pac-10 | 2007 | |
| MEAC | 36-20 | Won MEAC tourney | 2007 | |
| Patriot League | 29-22 | Won Patriot playoff | 2003 | |
| Atlantic 10 | 43-14 | Won A-10 tournament | 2007 | |
| Big South | 47-12 | Won Big South tourney | 2007 | |
| Ivy League | 22-28 | Won Ivy playoff | 1976 | |
| Ohio Valley | 27-28 | Won OVC tournament | 1999 | |
| Mid-American | 25-32 | Won MAC tournament | 2003 | |
| SoCon | 43-16 | Won SoCon tourney | 2006 | |
| Fresno State | WAC | 37-27 | Won WAC tourney | 2007 |
| C-USA | 39-22 | Won C-USA tourney | 2006 | |
| Horizon | 34-20 | Won Horizon tourney | 2007 | |
| Colonial Athletic | 38-17 | Won CAA tourney | 2002 | |
| A-Sun | 32-28 | Won A-Sun tourney | First appearance | |
| Big West | 37-19 | Won Big West | 2007 | |
| Big East | 41-19 | Won Big East tourney | 2007 | |
| LSU | SEC | 43-16 | Won SEC Tournament | 2005 |
| ACC | 47-8 | Won ACC tourney | 2007 | |
| Big Ten | 45-12 | Won Big Ten tourney | 2007 | |
| NEC | 21-32 | Won NEC tourney | First appearance | |
| Summit | 46-12 | Won Summit tourney | 2007 | |
| Metro Atlantic | 29-25 | Won MAAC tourney | 1994 | |
| Southland | 37-23 | Won Southland tourney | 2007 | |
| WCC | 41-15 | Won WCC playoff | 2007 | |
| America East | 34-24 | Won AmEast tourney | 2004 | |
| Big 12 | 37-20 | Won Big 12 tourney | 2007 | |
| MWC | 43-17 | Won MWC tourney | 2007 | |
| SWAC | 16-32 | Won SWAC tourney | 2004 | |
| Sun Belt | 33-25 | Won SBC tourney | 2004 | |
| Wichita State | Missouri Valley | 44-15 | Won MVC tourney | 2007 |
Bids by conference
National seeds
Bold indicates CWS participant.- '
- '
- '
- '
- LSU
- Georgia
Regionals and Super Regionals
Regional schedule
Regional rounds were held Friday, May 30 through Monday, June 2. Each regional followed a similar format, with 2 games played on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and one on Monday if needed.Best-of-three super regionals were held Friday, June 6 through Monday, June 9. Four series were played Friday-Sunday and four series were played Saturday-Monday.
Brackets
Bold indicates winner. * indicates extra innings.Coral Gables Super Regional
Hosted by Miami at Mark Light FieldAthens Super Regional
Hosted by Georgia at Foley FieldFullerton Super Regional
Hosted by Cal State Fullerton at Goodwin FieldTallahassee Super Regional
Hosted by Florida State at Dick Howser StadiumCary Super Regional
Hosted by North Carolina at USA Baseball National Training ComplexBaton Rouge Super Regional
Hosted by LSU at Alex Box StadiumHouston Super Regional
Hosted by Rice at Reckling ParkTempe Super Regional
Hosted by Arizona State at Packard StadiumCollege World Series
Participants
Bracket
Championship series
Monday, June 23
Game 14, 6:00 PM
Tuesday, June 24
Game 15, 6:35 PM
Wednesday, June 25
Game 16, 6:00 PM
All Tournament Team
The following players were members of the All-Tournament Team.Record by conference
| Conference | # of Bids | Record | Win % | RF | SR | WS | NS | CS | NC |
| WAC | 1 | 10–4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| SEC | 9 | 24–21 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||
| ACC | 6 | 27–15 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 1 | |||
| Pac-10 | 5 | 18–11 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Conference USA | 5 | 14–10 | 5 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Big West | 4 | 10–9 | 2 | 2 | |||||
| Big 12 | 6 | 11–13 | 4 | 1 | |||||
| MVC | 1 | 4–2 | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Big South | 1 | 3–2 | 1 | 1 | |||||
| WCC | 2 | 5–4 | 2 | ||||||
| Colonial | 2 | 3–4 | 1 | ||||||
| Big East | 2 | 1–4 | |||||||
| Sun Belt | 2 | 1–4 | |||||||
| 8–36 | 1 |
The columns RF, SR, WS, NS, CS, and NC respectively stand for the Regional Finals, Super Regionals, College World Series Teams, National Semifinals, Championship Series, and National Champion.
Tournament notes
- Oregon State was not invited to the NCAA tournament, marking the first time since 1991 that the defending champion did not return to the following year's tourney.
- Clemson was not invited to the NCAA tournament, breaking a streak of consecutive appearances for the Tigers that dated back to the 1987 season.
- Dallas Baptist made its first appearance. DBU was the first independent institution to qualify for the Division I tourney since Cal State Northridge did so in 1992.
- Michigan was the only non-#1-seed selected to host a regional, forcing #1 seed Arizona to play an away regional, as the NCAA organizing committee said it was trying to maintain geographical balance with the host sites.
Round 1
- Four No. 1 seeded regional host schools, out of 16 total, lost first-round games to No. 4 seeds:
- *Georgia 7, Lipscomb 10
- *Stanford 2, UC Davis 4
- *Florida St. 0, Bucknell 7
- *Long Beach St. 3, Fresno State 7
- Five No. 3 seeds upset No. 2 seeds in the opening round.
Round 2
- Fresno State was the only #4 seed to register wins in the first two rounds of the tournament.
- Tulane was the only #3 seed to register wins in the first two rounds of the tournament.
- 9 of the 16 #1 seeds registered wins in the first two rounds of the tournament.
Super Regionals
- Six of the eight national seeds advanced to the College World Series. Only #3 seed Arizona State and #5 seed Cal State Fullerton were unable to make it past Super Regionals.
- Fresno State became the first team in the history of the NCAA Tournament to make it to the College World Series as a #4 regional seed.
CWS records tied or broken
- Most runs scored in an inning: 11
- Most runners left on base in a nine-inning game: 17
- Most doubles hit by a player: 3 by Rich Poythress Georgia against Stanford, Game 11.
- Most losses by a team who won the College World Series: 31
- Lowest seed to win the College World Series: #4 regional seed, #89 RPI
Television/radio/online coverage
Regionals
- During the regionals, ESPNU showed games from Coral Gables and Fullerton, with Mike Gleason and Will Kimmey in the Charlotte ESPNU studios.
- CBS College Sports Network was not originally scheduled to show any games, as in years past. However, it aired Nebraska's Friday and Saturday games through a simulcast with Nebraska Educational Telecommunications.
- The Baton Rouge regional was shown regionally on Cox Sports Television, the Athens regional on Comcast Sports Southeast/Charter Sports Southeast, and the final two days of the Tallahassee regional aired on Sun Sports.
Super Regionals
- All super-regional games were shown on ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU on television and ESPN360 through online streaming video. Announcers included Karl Ravech, Pam Ward, Dave Ryan, Brian Jordan, Robin Ventura, and Kyle Peterson.
College World Series
- All College World Series games were shown on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, or ESPN Classic on television and ESPN360 through online streaming video.
- Westwood One broadcast all CWS championship series games on radio. Participating institutions were allowed local broadcast rights in the earlier rounds, and games were also available on XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio.