The 2002 NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament was held from May 31 through June 22, 2002. 64 NCAA Division I college baseball teams met after having played their way through a regular season, and for some, a conference tournament, to play in the NCAA Tournament. The tournament culminated with eight teams competing in the 2002 College World Series at historic Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Nebraska.
Due to fears over terrorism and travel security in the wake of the September 11 attacks, the Division I Baseball Committee, which selects the 64-team field and places the teams on the bracket, was ordered by the NCAA to keep regional pairings as localized as possible, in order to minimize the number of plane trips utilized. Due to these travel constraints, teams from the same conference were allowed to play in the same regional for the first time. The worst example of the travel restrictions came from the regional in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, featuring four schools from the Bayou State which are located a total of 130 miles apart along Interstate 10, the first time (and to date, last) a regional has been entirely an in-state affair outside of California, Florida and Texas. The travel restrictions were eased in 2003, and the ban on conference teams facing each other in regional play was reinstated.
Read more about 2002 NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament: National Seeds, Notes On Tournament Field, College World Series
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