NC Continues Prominent Presence In NCAA Baseball Championship

Golden Era For College Baseball In North Carolina:

For Third Consecutive NCAA Tournament,
NC Boasts Prominent Postseason Presence

By David Glenn
North Carolina Sports Network
(last updated June 3, 2025)

Over the past three seasons, North Carolina has had more teams (20) participate in the NCAA Baseball Championship than any other state.

Now the Old North State has a chance to have one or more of its schools advance to the eight-team College World Series for the third year in a row.

This year’s 64-team NCAA field, which was announced Monday and began play Friday, includes five schools from North Carolina: Duke, East Carolina, NC State, UNC and Wake Forest.

The Tar Heels and Pirates earned automatic bids to the NCAA Tournament on Saturday by winning the Atlantic Coast Conference and American Athletic Conference tournaments, respectively. The Blue Devils, Wolfpack and Demon Deacons received at-large bids to the event.

UNC (42-12), the #5 national seed, is the only North Carolina-based team that will host a regional this year. The Tar Heels are the #1 seed in the Chapel Hill Regional, which also includes Oklahoma, Nebraska and Holy Cross.

As one of the top eight seeds in the tournament, Carolina also would be guaranteed to host a Super Regional next week if it wins its four-team bracket this week.

Duke (at #7 Georgia), NC State (at #4 Auburn) and Wake Forest (at #14 Tennessee) are #2 regional seeds behind their respective host schools. ECU is a #3 regional seed at #13 Coastal Carolina.

(The full Friday-through-Monday schedules — including matchups, broadcast times, television/streaming options and game results — for all NCAA regionals involving Atlantic Coast Conference and/or North Carolina-based teams can be found HERE).

Only four states — California (six), North Carolina (five), Florida (five) and Texas (five) — placed more than four teams in this year’s NCAA Baseball Championship. California, Texas and Florida are the three most populous states in America, each with a population more than twice that of North Carolina.

Immediately below is a complete breakdown of the 20 states that have multiple teams in this year’s NCAA Tournament.

2025 NCAA Baseball Championship
(States With Multiple Bids)

6—California (Cal-Irvine, Cal Poly, Fresno State, Saint Mary’s, Southern Cal, UCLA)
5—North Carolina (Duke, East Carolina, NC State, UNC, Wake Forest)
5—Florida (Bethune-Cookman, Florida, Florida State, Miami, Stetson)
5—Texas (Dallas Baptist, Houston Baptist, TCU, Texas, UTSA)
4—Kentucky (Kentucky, Louisville, Murray State, Western Kentucky)
3—Mississippi (Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Southern Miss)
3—Ohio (Cincinnati, Miami-Ohio, Wright State)
3—South Carolina (Clemson, Coastal Carolina, USC Upstate)
3—Tennessee (ETSU, Tennessee, Vanderbilt)
2—Alabama (Alabama, Auburn)
2—Arizona (Arizona, Arizona State)
2—Arkansas (Arkansas, Arkansas-Little Rock)
2—Connecticut (Central Connecticut State, Fairfield)
2—Georgia (Georgia, Georgia Tech)
2—Kansas (Kansas, Kansas State)
2—Massachusetts (Holy Cross, Northeastern)
2—Nebraska (Creighton, Nebraska)
2—New York (Binghamton, Columbia)
2—Oklahoma (Oklahoma, Oklahoma State)
2—Oregon (Oregon, Oregon State)

The in-state head coaches who have most consistently led their teams into the NCAA Tournament are UNC’s Scott Forbes (five trips in five seasons), ECU’s Cliff Godwin (9-for-10), NC State’s Elliott Avent (22-for-28) and Duke’s Chris Pollard (7-for-12). Those numbers exclude the truncated 2019-20 season, when the entire postseason was cancelled for COVID-related reasons.

Avent led the Wolfpack to the College World Series in 2013, 2021 and 2024. Forbes led the Tar Heels to the CWS in 2024. Wake Forest coach Tom Walter led the Demon Deacons to the CWS in 2023.

All-Time NCAA Baseball Championship Bids
(NC Division One Programs Only)
Bids — School, Conference (Most Recent)

37 — North Carolina, Atlantic Coast Conference (2025)
35 — East Carolina, American Athletic Conference (2025)
35 — NC State, Atlantic Coast Conference (2025)
17 — Wake Forest, Atlantic Coast Conference (2025)
12 — Duke, Atlantic Coast Conference (2025)
12 — UNC Wilmington, Coastal Athletic Association (2024)
12 — Western Carolina, Southern Conference (2016)
7 — Campbell, Coastal Athletic Association (2023)
7 — Charlotte, American Athletic Conference (2023)
6 — Elon, Coastal Athletic Association (2013)
4 — Appalachian State, Sun Belt Conference (2012)
4 — UNC Greensboro, Southern Conference (2022)
2 — North Carolina A&T, Coastal Athletic Association (2018)
1 — Davidson, Atlantic-10 Conference (2017)
1 — High Point, Big South Conference (2024)
1 — UNC Asheville, Big South Conference (2006)
0 — Gardner-Webb, Big South Conference (D1 since 1990)
0 — Queens, Atlantic Sun Conference (D1 since 2022-23)