Clemson didn't land national seed. NCAA chair Ray Tanner explains; Monte Lee responds
It appeared that Clemson was going to be right on the bubble to earn a top eight national seed in the NCAA Tournament entering selection Monday as D1Baseball had the Tigers as one of the top eight seeds, while Baseball America did not.
Clemson ended up being on the outside looking in as the Tigers were seeded No. 10 overall behind Florida, Stanford, Oregon State, Ole Miss, Arkansas, North Carolina, Florida State, Georgia and Texas Tech.
South Carolina Athletics Director Ray Tanner, who was also the chair of the NCAA selection committee, explained how the group ended up seeding the top 11 teams where it did, particularly putting fellow ACC schools UNC and Florida State ahead of Clemson.
“Well, a lot of conversations between if you go back to No. 6 to No. 11. We spent so much time trying to sort out from where we start at 6 and all the way to 11. Clemson was very much in the conversation,” Tanner said. “Top 50 they were a little bit light, but it was so close. It was razor-thin throughout the process. And we landed with Clemson being slightly outside the first eight that went in.”
Clemson has an RPI of 11, while FSU is No. 5 and North Carolina is No. 8. The Tigers have a strength of schedule of 34. Florida State and UNC are both in the top five.
As for the top 50 wins, the Seminoles were 21-11 against the top 50, UNC was 10-12, while Clemson was 10-10. Florida State was 16-11 against the RPI top 25, UNC was 9-11 and Clemson was 5-9.
“It was almost like you could make an argument for 11 to 6 and 6 to 11. There were factors that came into play but none of them were major … It was really, really, really close. You know, somebody might have had more Top-50 wins and somebody's strength of schedule might have been different. It wasn't clear-cut,” Tanner said. “There were some factors that were so close, and the committee ended up, the final hour, we ended up making a decision to vote a particular way; and like I said, there's nine other votes besides mine and that's the way it shook out.”
Tigers coach Monte Lee made it clear leading up to Monday that he believed that Clemson deserved a national seed. He reiterated that stance Monday afternoon.
Still, Lee added that Tanner and the selection committee have a tough job to do.
“It’s like splitting hairs … I don’t know exactly what the metrics are that they value, but I do know what I know about our club. Forty-five wins was the most in Power Five schools. And 22 wins tied for the lead in the regular season in the ACC with North Carolina, so we’ve had a good year,” Lee said. “Now, whether our resume was light in some areas, that’s up to them.”
Out of the other top three teams in the ACC, Clemson faced only N.C. State. With the way the schedule worked out, the Tigers did not face UNC or Duke. Clemson was swept at home by N.C. State early in the ACC season.
Still, the Tigers went on to finish 22-8 in the league, a number Lee believes should have led to Clemson getting a top-eight seed.
“All I know is that the schedule the ACC gave us, we played it and we won 22 of 30 games. So we did very, very well, and I’m proud of our club. I feel like we can compete with anybody,” Lee said. “There’s been a lot of teams that have won regionals, there have been a lot of teams that have won Super Regionals that were not national seeds. So we’ve been on all ends of it. The bottom-line is none of that matters. What matters is how we play this weekend against this field, and hopefully as the head coach, I can put our team in the position to play our best baseball this weekend.”
Friday Clemson Regional schedule
No. 2 Vanderbilt vs. No. 3 St. John’s, noon (SEC Network)
No. 1 Clemson vs. No. 4 Morehead State, 6 p.m. (WatchESPN)
This story was originally published May 28, 2018 at 6:51 PM with the headline "Clemson didn't land national seed. NCAA chair Ray Tanner explains; Monte Lee responds."