Coming off their 24th comeback win of 2024, third-ranked Clemson knows it will be one of the 16 regional hosts sites announced tonight and barring a surprise will be one of the all-important top-eight national seeds. However, just because Clemson is comfortably in the top 16 does not mean that all the spots are locked up so there is some intrigue in tonight’s announcement.

While it appears the top eight national seeds seem to be pretty locked in, the committee will occasionally throw a surprise in. Tennessee (RPI 1) will be the #1 overall seed followed by a combination of Kentucky (RPI 3) and North Carolina (RPI 4). Texas A&M (RPI 2) and Arkansas (RPI 5) should be the next two national seeds followed by Clemson (RPI 7) as the sixth seed. We anticipate that Florida State (RPUI 8) will come in as the seven seed and Oklahoma (RPI 14) is expected to wrap up the top eight national seeds. If all of those teams advance, they would earn the right to host a Super Regional as well.

Other teams that could be considered for the top eight seeds but will certainly be regional hosts are Georgia (RPI 6) and Oklahoma State (RPI 11). Other teams that have solidified their hosting spots are Virginia (RPI 12), NC State (RPI 15), UC Santa Barbara (RPI 13), and most likely Indiana State (RPI 9). This only leaves two hosting spots left and that is where tonight’s announcement could get interesting! We currently project that the last two host sites will go to Oregon State and Mississippi State. Other candidates in the running for those spots would be Duke, Dallas Baptist, and East Carolina while San Diego or Arizona could come into play as a surprise West Coast host.

In the chart below, we take a look at hosting bubble teams (based on Warren Nolan’s Live RPI):

Tonight’s announcement will give an initial insight into how the committee is using the various metrics leading up to tomorrow’s full bracket announcement. TCI will release our projected tournament field Monday morning before the field is announced at noon.