If Wichita State gets in, it will be a surprise to the people who do the bracket projections.
Baseball America’s Aaron Fitt has his here. Perfect Game’s Kendall Rogers lists WSU as one of the first 10 out.
As with any sport, all the teams in the last group at at-large candidates are weighed down by negative baggage. WSU will hope people on the selection committee use the RPI or strength of schedule as a tie-breaker. Every team in that predicament will look back on the season and find two or three close losses that might have made a difference.
It will be particularly interesting if the Southland Conference, ranked No. 14, is powerful enough to generate three teams, the same as the fifth-ranked MVC.
Upsets in conference tournaments will also play a large role. It appears Creighton in the MVC, Missouri in the Big 12 and Texas-Arlington in the Southland may be the ones to cost WSU (and other schools in that group) an at-large bid.