It was an up-and-down first season as head coach of Tennessee baseball for Josh Elander. Nonetheless, the result is entering the NCAA Tournament as a two-seed in the Chapel Hill Regional, falling outside of the top-16 overall teams in the country.
Baseball America is throwing out the results of the regular season, though. Instead, they’re focused on how well they think each team in the bracket can perform in the tournament and how suited they are to succeed in the regional and super regional formats.
For the Vols, this has catapulted them into a top-10 spot. UT clocks in at No. 10 exactly, good for the seventh-best mark in the SEC. This is behind No. 2 Georgia, No. 5 Mississippi State, No. 6 Texas, No. 7 Auburn, No. 8 Texas A&M and No. 9 Florida.
We ranked every team in the NCAA Tournament field.
Here’s the breakdown: https://t.co/NW0GSsdT7W pic.twitter.com/yjOWlwwEW3
— Baseball America (@BaseballAmerica) May 26, 2026
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However, North Carolina, the host of Tennessee’s regional site, is well up the list itself. The Tarheels are all the way up at No. 4, creating a tough matchup for the Vols if they get that far.
Tennessee will open the tournament on Friday at noon ET against ECU, though. The Pirates are a formidable opponent themselves, clocking in at No. 18 in the Baseball America rankings. The other team in the regional, VCU, is at No. 46.
This projects the Chapel Hill Regional as the toughest in the country. Between UNC’s spot up at four, Tennessee and ECU both outperforming their seeds by a lot and VCU being placed as one of the best automatic bids, it looks like it’ll be a battle to go to supers.
Whoever does advance will get the winner of the College Station Regional, which will likely be either Texas A&M or USC.
