College World Series 2022: TV Schedule and Predictions from Omaha

The eight-team field for the 2022 College World Series looks significantly different from what was expected when the NCAA baseball tournament began.

The top-seeded Tennessee Volunteers were upended in the super regional round by the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, which are one of four unseeded teams to make it all the way to Omaha, Nebraska.

Two seeds from each side of the bracket advanced to the double-elimination tournament that begins on Friday at Charles Schwab Field.

The Stanford Cardinal are the highest remaining seed, and they are one of two teams left, along with Notre Dame, that have no connection to the SEC.

The SEC is sending four teams to Omaha while two future members, Oklahoma and Texas, also emerged from the super regional round.

Notre Dame, Texas, Texas A&M and Oklahoma make up the top half of the bracket, while Stanford, Arkansas, Ole Miss and Auburn reside on the bottom half.

Oklahoma and Texas A&M kick off the opening slate of games on Friday afternoon, and the full College World Series schedule can be found at NCAA.com.

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Notre Dame Continues String Of Upsets

Notre Dame entered the tournament as a team that was snubbed for one of the 16 regional hosting sites.

That did not deter the Fighting Irish, though, as they went 5-1 against mostly power-conference opposition to reach Omaha.

Notre Dame beat Texas Tech twice and defeated Georgia Southern once to get through the Statesboro regional.

The Irish stunned Tennessee in Game 1 of the Knoxville super regional and then won the deciding Game 3 by four runs.

Notre Dame will face one of the toughest opening matchups in Omaha against Texas ace Pete Hansen, who has 11 wins and 115 strikeouts this season.

The Irish will be considered an underdog against one of the best aces in the country, but they can draw on their recent experience to move into the winners' bracket.

Link Jarrett's team tagged Tennessee's Blade Tidwell for five earned runs in seven hits over the first three innings of the Knoxville super regional.

Notre Dame used six home runs in its two victories over Tennessee, and it could utilize the long ball against Hansen to knock the left-handed pitcher out of the game early.

Hansen gave up five earned runs on seven hits and an additional unearned run over four innings in his Game 1 start of the Greenville super regional against East Carolina.

The Pirates used the long ball to their advantage in the fourth and fifth innings of Game 1 to open up a five-run advantage.

Notre Dame might need to use home runs to chase Hansen and keep pace with whatever the Texas offense produces. The Longhorns have the NCAA home run leader, Ivan Melendez, on their roster.

If Notre Dame is able to get to Hansen early, it could level out the matchup on the mound and push the team into the winners' bracket on Friday night.

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Stanford Survives SEC Teams In Bracket

Stanford has to go through an SEC gauntlet to reach the championship series.

The Cardinal are paired with Arkansas, Ole Miss and Auburn in the bottom half of the bracket and will need their bats to step up to match up with each opponent.

Stanford posted 30 runs over three games against UConn at home in the super regional round and scored 20 runs over a three-game stretch in the regional round to advance after an opening loss to Texas State.

The Pac-12 side has the bats to keep pace with the three SEC sides, and an argument can be made that it has the best collection of offensive talent left in the tournament.

Outfielder Brock Jones is a projected first-round pick, with Jim Callis of MLB.com having him go at No. 26 in his latest mock draft.

The 21-year-old headlines a lineup that has four players who bat over .300 and four players with 18 or more home runs.

The other teams in the bottom part of the bracket have impressive individual talent at the plate, such as Ole Miss' Tim Elko and Auburn's Sonny DiChiara, but those offenses are not as well-rounded as the others.

Stanford could use its bats to power past Arkansas in the opening round and the Ole Miss-Auburn winner in the second round.

The Cardinal need to avoid an early loss, like they had in the first two rounds of the tournament. And as long as they get off to a strong start, they should make a deep run in Omaha.