2011 Conference USA Baseball Championship

Pod 1 (Seeds 1, 4, 5 and 8)	Pod 2 (Seeds 2, 3, 6 and 7)
1 vs. 4, 5 and 8	2 vs. 3, 6 and 7
4 vs. 1, 5 and 8	3 vs. 2, 6 and 7
5 vs. 1, 4 and 8	6 vs. 2, 3 and 7
8 vs. 1, 4 and 5	7 vs. 2, 3 and 6

New Championship Format

The 2011 Conference USA Championship will feature the top eight teams in regular-season league play. Those eight will be split into two four-team pools (or pods), with the winner of each pod playing in a single championship game. Teams will be assigned pods based on seed, which will be determined by the order of finish in regular-season conference play.

Each team will be guaranteed to play three games. Teams in each pod will play the other three teams in its pod. The team with the best composite record in each pod will advance to the championship game. Two-way ties in a pod will be broken by head-to-head play. In case of a three-way tie, the highest seed will advance. The higher seed will be the home team in games on Days 1 and 3 and in the Championship Game; teams that were the visitors on Day 1 will be the home team on Day 2.

Games are played at 9 am, 12:30 pm, 4 pm and 7:30 pm the first three days of the Championship, with the championship game Saturday at 7 pm. Pairings with game times are announced after seeds are determined following the final league series of the season.

For the potential for increased ticket sales as well as competitive balance, the sponsoring agency will work cooperatively with the Conference on sequence of games on days 1, 2 and 3 of the Championship.

Trustmark Park

The 2011 Conference USA Championship will be played at Trustmark Park in Pearl, Miss. The stadium in suburban Jackson is the home of the Mississippi Braves, the AA club of the Atlanta Braves. The ballpark, which opened April 18, 2005, has capacity for nearly 7,500 fans. There are 5,500 chair-back seats in the reserved seating areas. The grass berm beyond the outfield walls has room for an additional 2,000 general admission customers.

The Farm Bureau Grill, beyond the right-field wall, is a full-service restaurant and there are nine baseball-themed concession stands that offer a wide variety of ballpark treats. Twenty-two luxury suites that seat between 16 and 20 fans are equipped with hardwood floors, a bar, flat screen TVs, refrigerator and sliding doors that open up to two rows of seats. The ballpark also includes the picnic pavilion, 150 closed-circuit monitors positioned around the park televising the game, two merchandise shops and a kids play area beyond the center-field wall.

The field dimensions are 330 feet down the left-field line, 332 feet down the right-field line, and 400 feet to center-field.

Past C-USA Tournament Champions

2010	Southern Miss
2009	Rice
2008	Houston
2007	Rice
2006	Rice
2005	TCU/Tulane*
2004	TCU
2003	Southern Miss
2002	East Carolina
2001	Tulane
2000	Houston
1999	Tulane
1998	Tulane
1997	Houston
1996	Tulane

*declared co-champions after championship game was cancelled due to weather

2011 NCAA COLLEGE WORLD SERIES

The 64th Annual College World Series will take place June 18-28/29 at TD Ameritrade Stadium in Omaha, Neb. This is the 61st time that the CWS will be played in Omaha and the first year at the brand-new downtown stadium.

The field consists of 64 teams, with 29 conference champions being joined by 35 at-large selections. Sixteen double-elimination regionals consisting of four teams each will take place from Friday to Monday, June 3-6. The winners of those regionals advance to the Super Regionals, which will be a best of three format with two teams playing at eight different sites during June 10-13.

The eight winners will play in the 2011 College World Series, which will employ its familiar pair of four-team double-elimination brackets leading to a best-of-three championship series between the winners of the two brackets. The CWS will run from Saturday, June 18 - Tuesday, June 28 or Wednesday, June 29.

National television coverage of the 2011 College World Series will be provided by ESPN, including the championship series, June 27, 28 and 29.