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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Rebels Place Competitive Bid, Await Regional Host Selections Sunday
5/23/2009 | Baseball
OXFORD, Miss. When the NCAA Baseball Tournament host site selections are announced on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. CDT, the Southeastern Conference regular season champion Ole Miss Rebels (40-17, 20-10 SEC) hope to hear their name called for the fifth time in the last six years as one of the 16 host sites.
Given the competitive nature of the bid placed with the NCAA a bid of more than $249,000 - as well as the program's place on the national stage over the last several years, Ole Miss administrators are confident the bid ranks among the best in the nation.
"When you look at the big picture, we are certainly competitive on a national scale," said Lynnette Johnson, Senior Associate AD and Senior Woman Administrator. "We are competitive with our facility which is one of the best in the nation. We are competitive with our team which is ranked among the top 10 nationally. We are also competitive with our fan base as we have had more than 200,000 fans in attendance this season.
"When you factor in all of those things along with a very competitive financial package, we feel our bid is very competitive when it comes to hosting a regional site this season."
The financial bid placed by Ole Miss is almost $100,000 more than the bid placed in 2007 that secured a regional host the fourth straight for the Rebels at the time.
The 16 regional host sites will be announced at 2:30 p.m. CDT on Sunday on the ESPN bottom line ticker. The final field of 64 for the 2009 NCAA Tournament will be announced at 11:30 a.m. on Monday on ESPN.
Ole Miss finished the 2009 regular season claiming a share of the Southeastern Conference Championship with a 20-10 conference record and is currently ranked seventh nationally. The 20 conference wins is a school record for the program, while the Rebels recorded 40 regular-season wins for only the second time in school history.
