Ole Miss and Auburn survived a wild, upset-filled weekend of college baseball to reach the NCAA Super Regionals, but they got there in very different ways.
Ole Miss handled its business. Two wins over Arizona State, one over regional host Nebraska, and the Rebels were home by Sunday night with most of Monday to rest.
Auburn’s path looked nothing like that. The Tigers opened with a loss to Milwaukee, then had to survive a 17-13 extra-inning game against NC State, beat Central Florida 9-3 on Sunday afternoon, and turn around that night to beat Milwaukee 8-1. That forced a winner-take-all game Monday, which Auburn won 8-3.
That’s a lot of baseball in a short window, and Auburn coach Butch Thompson didn’t hide his frustration with how much his pitchers had to throw.
Is it time to change the regional format?
No coach loves burning through arms, but Thompson went a step further. To him, the regional format itself might be the problem.
“I’m getting really disappointed,” he said after Monday’s game. “But the regional format is really concerning me if we’re talking about what’s best for student-athletes.
“As I’m watching the TV and we’re not playing, I’ve got guys who are throwing 100-plus pitches in full starts and coming back and having to pitch because of the format. I don’t know what the answer is, but I hope people are looking at it.”
Thompson isn’t wrong about the workload. Auburn played 45 innings in five days and used 18 pitchers who combined for 826 pitches. Two of those outings crossed the 100-pitch mark. Ryan Hetzler threw the final three innings of the UCF win, took about an hour break, then started the night game against Milwaukee. He threw 104 pitches across the two appearances.
Thompson’s point is that the sport spends 14 weeks building teams around best-of-three series, then asks them to survive a format that doesn’t resemble anything they’ve done all year.
“I’m getting really disappointed… the regional format is – really concerning me if we’re talking about what’s best for student athletes.”
Auburn Coach Butch Thompson raises concern about the amount of starting pitchers that were coming back, throwing again, and totaling over… pic.twitter.com/vUYwaM0gEd
— Noah Bieniek (Bee-Nick) (@NoahB77_) June 2, 2026
But there are two problems with his argument.
First, what we saw across the country this weekend was great for the sport. Saint Mary’s knocking out wire-to-wire No. 1 UCLA. Little Rock winning the Hattiesburg Regional. Troy ending Florida’s season. One of Troy or Little Rock is going to Omaha. That’s the kind of chaos that makes this tournament special.
A best-of-three format would almost certainly reduce those moments.
Second, Auburn put itself in this position. Beat Milwaukee the first time and the Tigers don’t have to play four more games in three days. Winning teams get rewarded. Losing teams don’t. That’s how tournaments work.
Mike Bianco’s Opinion
Would Thompson be calling for change if Auburn had cruised through its own regional at 3-0? Hard to say. But we can ask a coach who did go 3-0.
Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco didn’t sound eager to overhaul anything. He didn’t take a hard stance, but he acknowledged the obvious: the format is tough, but it also produces the kind of weekend fans love.
“Not really,” Bianco said when asked if he had an opinion if the regional format should be changed. “I get it. I try to stay out of that too much. I understand it. But I also understand the other part of it, where it’s really hard to keep pushing the season back. There are a lot of these great ideas, but all of a sudden, when you start to get deeper into July, what about that? What about that length?”
Bianco took the diplomatic approach to answering the question, admitting he wouldn’t mind if the format changed or not.
“I’m probably somewhere in the middle. I get it. I wouldn’t mind it. I wouldn’t fight it. But it’s tougher when you do that,” Bianco said about a three-game series type of regional format. “I’ve heard so much about this weekend and how exciting the fans thought college baseball was this weekend. But I understand his point as well.”
Taylor’s Take
Leave the regional format alone.
This past weekend was so exciting that even people who don’t normally watch college baseball (or at least one I know of) have become invested in this tournament. Seeing teams like Troy, Little Rock, Cal Poly and St. John’s advance is the kind of underdog run that makes this tournament what it is.
A best-of-three setup would probably reduce those stories. Maybe not entirely, but enough to matter.
What we have right now isn’t broken. There’s no need to fix it.
