2003 NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament
| Season | 2003 |
|---|---|
| Teams | 64 |
| Finals Site | |
| Champions | Rice (1st title) |
| Runner-Up | Stanford (15th CWS Appearance) |
| Winning coach | Wayne Graham (1st title) |
| MOP | John Hudgins Stanford |
The 2003 NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament was held May 30 through June 23, 2003. Sixty-four 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 8 teams in the College World Series at historic Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Nebraska.
ESPN, which held the rights to the College World Series, began televising super regional games in 2003. As part of the contract with ESPN, four super regionals would begin on Friday and run through Sunday, while the other four super regionals would begin Saturday and run through Monday.
The 2003 College World Series saw a format change and the championship was decided by a best-of-three series. From 1947 through 1988, the College World Series was a true double elimination tournament. From 1989 through 2002, there were two double elimination pools, but the two teams coming out of the pools played a single championship game and a champion was crowned regardless of whether the loser had two losses.
In the 2003 championship series, Rice defeated Stanford two games to one. John Hudgins became the 16th player to win the College World Series Most Outstanding Player Award from a losing team.
Conference champions from 30 Division I conferences earned automatic bids to regionals. The remaining 34 spots were awarded to schools as at-large invitees.
Bold indicates CWS participant.
Bold indicates winner.
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The Houston Super Regional was hosted by Rice at Reckling Park.
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