Selection committee does Southern Miss no favors, as Eagles draw tournament’s No. 1 seed

Southern Miss is fresh off a dramatic win over Georgia Southern in the Sun Belt final and enters the NCAA postseason as back-to-back conference champs.

Next up for the Golden Eagles is the program’s eighth-consecutive trip to regionals and the first under head coach Christian Ostrander.

Announced Monday, USM will be traveling to Tennessee to battle in the Knoxville regional. The Volunteers are the No. 1 overall seed and will be hosting the Golden Eagles a year after USM hosted the Vols in Hattiesburg in the 2023 super regional.

Tennessee dispatched LSU on Sunday to win the SEC championship and enters the postseason with a 50-11 record.

Southern Miss will be the 2-seed in the regional and open with No. 3 Indiana. Rounding out the group is first-time Horizon League champion Northern Kentucky.

The Knoxville regional is matched up with the Greenville regional hosted by No. 16 overall seed East Carolina.

Mississippi State — which played its way onto the hosting bubble late in the year — drew the No. 12 Charlottesville regional, hosted by Virginia.

The Bulldogs are the 2-seed and will get 3-seed St. John’s in the first round. Virginia will be matched with Ivy champion Penn.

The Charlottesville regional is matched with the No. 5 Fayetteville regional hosted by Arkansas.

Regionals begin Friday, May 31 and run through Monday, June 1.