Home Team Determination

The highest-seeded teams advancing from super-regional tournaments shall be the home teams for the first-round contests. In the event of a match-up between equally seeded teams, a coin flip will determine the home team. One team will be designated as “heads”, the other team will be designated as “tails” and the coin will be flipped by the NCAA representative. Heads and tails designation will be determined by alphabetical order of the name of the institution (i.e., first alphabetically being heads, second alphabetically being tails).

In subsequent games, the home team shall be determined according to the following formula:

  1. The institution that has been the home team the fewer number of times shall be designated the home team.
  2. If the two teams are equal in this respect but unequal in the number of times they were the visitor, then the team that has been the visitor more often will be designated the home team.
  3. If the two teams are equal in the number of times that they have been home and visitor, the games committee or the NCAA site representative(s) shall observe the following procedures in the order stated:
    a. If the two teams have met previously in that particular tournament, the visitor in the previous game shall be the home team in the game in question.
    b. The team that was visitor in its preceding game shall be the home team, unless both teams were visitors in their preceding games.
    c. If the two teams are different seeds, the better seeded team will be designated as the home team.
    d. If the above procedures do not resolve the matter, the home team shall be determined by coin toss.
    – The coin toss will be held on the field immediately after the game that caused the situation to develop and both coaches are requested to be in attendance. The higher seeded team can determine whether it will call the coin toss, or defer the call to its opponent.
    – In the event of a match-up between equally seeded teams, one team will be designated as “heads”, the other team will be designated as “tails” and the coin will be flipped by the NCAA representative.
    – Heads and tails designation will be determined by alphabetical order of the name of the institution (i.e., first alphabetically being heads, second alphabetically being tails).

The Division I Baseball Committee has determined that for the MCWS Finals (championship series), the better seeded team will be the home team in MCWS Finals Games 1 and 3 (if necessary). The lesser seeded team will be the home team in MCWS Finals Game 2.

If both teams advancing to the MCWS Finals are equally seeded (e.g., both were number two regional seeds), then a coin flip will determine the home team for MCWS Finals Game 1, with the loser of the coin flip being the home team in MCWS Finals Game 2. An additional coin flip will take place to determine the home team for MCWS Finals Game 3 (if necessary).

Please note that for any required coin flip, the higher seeded team can determine whether it will call the coin flip, or defer the call to its opponent. In the event of a match-up between equally seeded teams, one team will be designated as “heads”, the other team will be designated as “tails” and the coin will be flipped by the NCAA representative. Heads and tails designation will be determined by alphabetical order of the name of the institution (i.e., first alphabetically being heads, second alphabetically being tails).