NCAA baseball regionals: Toughest MCWS paths, top players and bold predictions - ESPN

A group of death in regionals? Top seeds in danger? The men's college baseball tournament begins Friday, and there is sure to be plenty of impressive play and, of course, drama.

Even though regional hosts advance to supers 67% of the time, our experts are predicting that because there is so much parity across the sport, we're going to seem some real upsets — upsets that might not really qualify as such if you look at seeding alone. Of the top eight national seeds (Tennessee, Kentucky, Texas A&M, North Carolina, Arkansas, Clemson, Georgia, Florida State), only UGA has won a national title (1990).

Additionally, there are many top prospects playing across the board and record-breakers, such as new NCAA home run leader Charlie Condon, in the mix.

So which regionals offer the toughest road to Omaha? And which potential super regional matchups are we crossing our fingers we get? Our experts break down the 2024 field.

Jump to: Toughest road | Players and teams to watch
Underdogs | Potential supers matchups | Bold predictions

Chris Burke: Tucson. The depth in this regional is sure to give us some memorable moments. Arizona is the host and has put together a regular-season and postseason Pac 12 title, but it welcomes three teams that all present problems. Dallas Baptist is the 2-seed, coming off a 44-win season and playing in its 10th straight regional. West Virginia, the 3-seed, has one of the best players in the country in JJ Wetherholt. To round it out, Grand Canyon is the 4-seed, and it beat Arizona two out of three times this year, including a 24-8 blowout. This regional is going to be juicy.

Ryan McGee: There are a LOT of stacked regionals, which I think is a testament to the parity we see across college baseball that we