The Gators now know what their path to Omaha will look like, as the 64-team field for the NCAA Tournament was revealed on Monday afternoon.
UF was awarded the No. 15 national seed and will host Miami, South Alabama and South Florida in a regional at Florida Ballpark this weekend. UF will open the tournament on Friday at noon by taking on South Florida, while Miami and South Alabama will square off at 5.
This will be the 36th NCAA Tournament appearance in school history for the Gators, including the 17th time that they’ve hosted a regional.
This will be the seventh time this century that Florida and Miami have been placed in the same regional but the first time since 2011. The Gators and Hurricanes have also met twice in a super regional and twice in the College World Series during that span.
The Gators (38-20, 17-13 SEC) will be looking for revenge against the Hurricanes (32-19, 20-15 ACC), should the two meet at some point in the regional. Florida beat Miami in the first game of the 2021 season 7-5. However, Miami rallied from a five-run deficit late to win game two. The Hurricanes then spoiled the debut of Florida Ballpark by dominating game three to win their first series in Gainesville since 2009.
Miami leads the all-time series with Florida, 130-127-1. The Hurricanes finished with the third-best record in the ACC to earn an at-large bid to the tournament.
The Gators hold a 2-1 all-time record against South Alabama, but their last meeting was in 1991. The Gators dropped their only prior postseason meeting with the Jaguars in the 1984 Tallahassee Regional.
The Jaguars (33-20, 15-9 Sun Belt) won the regular season conference championship and followed up by going undefeated in the Sun Belt Tournament to earn an automatic postseason bid.
Florida holds a 65-26 advantage in the all-time series with South Florida, including a 3-1 mark in postseason play. However, the two teams did not play this season.
The Bulls (28-27, 14-14 American Athletic) entered their conference tournament as the No. 6 seed but defeated fifth-seeded UCF on Sunday to earn the automatic bid.
The winner of the double-elimination Gainesville Regional will be paired up with the winner of the Austin Regional for the super regional round. That regional consists of No. 2 Texas, Arizona State, Fairfield and Southern. The winner of that best-of-three series will advance to the College World Series in Omaha, which begins on June 19.