The Ole Miss-as-a-regional-host conversation seemed obsolete a week ago, as the Rebels lost five in a row and only salvaged a series finale at Tennessee to achieve a winning league record.
But after four wins in five days at the SEC Tournament, Ole Miss has re-entered the mix, and the defending champions get the chance at one more strong resume line when the Rebels and top-seed Vanderbilt meet in the championship game at 2 p.m.
Ole Miss knocked off Georgia, 5-3, on Saturday to stay alive for the third day in a row. The Bulldogs are No. 3 in the RPI ranking, so the Rebels inched up to No. 22 following the win. Vanderbilt is No. 2, and Ole Miss could move back into the teens with a win on Sunday.
Regional host spots will be announced on Sunday night. The entire NCAA Tournament bracket will be released on Monday.
Ole Miss' pursuit of a regional host site in Oxford for the third time in five years is built on a few strong metrics and also has to overcome negative history with some of the numbers attached to its season.
An SEC team hasn't hosted a regional with worse than the No. 14 RPI since 2010 and only two SEC teams have ever hosted a regional with 16 regular season conference wins -- 2007 Ole Miss and 2013 Mississippi State. Since 2002 only three SEC teams have hosted with an RPI ranking in the 20s or worse.
But the selection committee includes the SEC Tournament in conference win totals, so the Rebels are currently at 20 total wins. That's a bit of an important number, as only five SEC teams have not hosted with exactly 20 total SEC wins.
RPI issues are usually the reason. Mississippi State in 2014 is the only 21-win SEC team to not host a regional after the Bulldogs went 18-12 in the regular season, 2-2 in Hoover and won the Governor's Cup.MSU's RPI that season was outside the top 25.
Ole Miss also has quality wins in its favor, as the Rebels are fourth nationally in quadrant one wins with 20. Ole Miss has 12 wins against the top 25. On the other side, the Rebels have nine nonconference losses and are one of six top 25 teams to have multiple losses to quadrant four opponents.
The SEC has gotten as many as seven host sites in a given year, so it's not crucial to look at the Rebel against other fringe SEC host teams. However, LSU and Texas A&M have been mentioned as bubble in hosts in recent days, and Ole Miss went 6-1 against those two teams.
Texas A&M went 16-13-1 in the SEC and 1-2 in Hoover. The Aggies' 17 total SEC wins would set a new low number for a regional host should College Station be picked on Sunday. D1Baseball.com had Texas A&M as the No. 16 national seed in its Saturday projections.
Ole Miss' fate will depend a great deal on the committee's decision on how to use RPI. And it may also depend on Sunday's SEC Tournament final. No one knows for sure how close the Rebels are, but a win over Vanderbilt would be quite the final page to a complicated resume.
