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The Mercer Bears will not have the opportunity to play for a national title in the NCAA Baseball Tournament. The program was the first team left out of the field.
Athletic Director Jim Cole opened up on the snub this week. He believes the committee conspired to keep the Bears out in order to boost ratings and appease the big boys.
Cole has been in the selection room before. He knows what happens behind closed doors. He says the opinion of his team’s postseason outlook shifted dramatically in a matter of days.
Mercer baseball was snubbed.
Last 4 in. First 4 out. pic.twitter.com/UobZmowRvP
— 11Point7 College Baseball (@11point7) May 25, 2026
The Bears had the metrics to get into the field. In fact, many believed they’d do so rather easily.
Mercer ranked 28th in RPI after winning 44 games. The team ranked third in the nation in home runs. It won the SoCon regular season crown.
Unfortunately, it fell to The Citadel in the conference tournament. The Bulldogs swiped the automatic bid. Mercer was left to rely on an at-large invite.
It didn’t happen. Despite the respectable numbers, the Bears were omitted on selection Monday. Committee chair Michael Alford cited the strength of schedule, which ranked 118th.
Committee Michael Alford on why Mercer was left out. pic.twitter.com/M5AUEkpNfp
— 11Point7 College Baseball (@11point7) May 25, 2026
Mercer became the first program to ever be left out of the field after posting a winning conference record and Top 30 RPI. The snub was historic. Jim Cole believes it was calculated.
Why were the Bears left out?
Alford referenced strength of schedule. Cole, meanwhile, cited politics.
“I could feel the politics of big-school athletics all weekend. The messages from friends progressed from, ‘Mercer is good,’ to ‘I’ll put in a good word, but I’m only one vote,’ and, ultimately, to silence. To the committee: I have been in those rooms before, and I know what happened… This was Politics 101”
-Jim Cole
Cole says Mercer’s baseball snub was the result of a push to prioritize bigger schools. Those programs, like Kentucky and NC State, have stronger brands with national recognition, larger fanbases, and more money.
Fans will travel to purchase tickets. Those that don’t will watch on television.
That’s not to say Mercer’s fanbase wouldn’t do the same. Simply put, it’s a numbers game. Bigger schools will earn higher ratings, which will only benefit the NCAA.
The Bears did just about all they could for a mid-major team pushing to make an NCAA Tournament push. They still got left out.
Only eight mid-major programs landed at-large bids. Two of those went to recent PAC 12 members Washington State and Oregon State, who could be viewed as power schools. The other 27 invites went to the P4.
That means 83% of the teams the selection committee chose were, as Cole stated, big-time programs.
The opportunity for smaller schools is shrinking. That’s being seen across all major sports.
Is that a good or bad thing for college athletics? Mercer clearly views it as a negative.