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2015 NCAA Division I baseball season

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Preseason #1
  
Vanderbilt (Unanimous)

Most conference bids
  
ACC and SEC (7)

Runners-up
  
Vanderbilt

Number of teams
  
301

Duration
  
May 29–June 24, 2015

Champions
  
Virginia

MOP
  
Josh Sborz (Virginia)

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2014 NCAA Division I baseball season

The 2015 NCAA Division I baseball season, play of college baseball in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division I level, began in February 2015. The season progressed through the regular season, many conference tournaments and championship series, and concluded with the 2015 NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament and 2015 College World Series. The College World Series, consisting of the eight remaining teams in the NCAA Tournament and held annually in Omaha, Nebraska at TD Ameritrade Park Omaha, ended on June 24, 2015 with the final game of the best-of-three championship series between Vanderbilt and Virginia, won by Virginia.

Contents

Realignment

There were many significant conference changes that took effect prior to the season.

  • Maryland left the ACC for the Big Ten.
  • Louisville and Rutgers left The American, joining the ACC and Big Ten respectively.
  • A third team from The American, Temple, dropped baseball.
  • East Carolina and Tulane left Conference USA for The American.
  • WKU left the Sun Belt for Conference USA.
  • Appalachian State, Davidson, Georgia Southern, and Elon all left the Southern Conference (SoCon). Appalachian State and Georgia Southern joined the Sun Belt, Davidson the Atlantic 10, and Elon the CAA.
  • East Tennessee State and Mercer left the Atlantic Sun for the SoCon. ETSU returned to the SoCon after a nine-year absence.
  • VMI left the Big South and returned to the SoCon after an 11-year absence.
  • Oral Roberts returned to The Summit League after two seasons in the Southland.

    • In addition, the 2015 season was the last for Northern Kentucky in the Atlantic Sun and for NJIT as an independent. In July 2015, Northern Kentucky joined the Horizon League, and the Atlantic Sun replaced the Norse with NJIT. It was also the last for Texas–Pan American (UTPA) as an institution. UTPA merged with the University of Texas at Brownsville in July 2015 to form the new University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV). The UTPA athletic program was inherited by UTRGV, with the nickname of Vaqueros, and UTRGV maintains UTPA's membership in the Western Athletic Conference.

    Format changes

  • The Big South Conference dropped its divisional format.

    • New stadiums

  • West Virginia opened the new Monongalia County Ballpark, with a fixed capacity of 2,500 plus extra hillside seating. The venue replaced Hawley Field, which closed for conference games after the 2012 season because it did not meet standards of the Big 12 Conference, which WVU joined in 2012. The Mountaineers played their 2013 and 2014 home conference games at several venues around the state, while Hawley Field remained in use for non-conference games. Once the college baseball season is over, the ballpark will be used by the West Virginia Black Bears, a Class A Short Season affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

    • Season outlook

    For the full rankings, see 2015 NCAA Division I baseball rankings

    Conference winners and tournaments

    Twenty-nine athletic conferences each end their regular seasons with a single-elimination tournament or a double-elimination tournament. The teams in each conference that win their regular season title are given the number one seed in each tournament. The winners of these tournaments receive automatic invitations to the 2015 NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament.

    College World Series

    The 2015 College World Series will begin on June 13 in Omaha, Nebraska.

    Coaching changes

    This table lists programs that changed head coaches at any point from the first day of the 2015 season until the day before the first day of the 2016 season.

    References

    2015 NCAA Division I baseball season Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA