Tennessee baseball to face Southern Miss in super regional. But which team will host?

Tennessee baseball will face Southern Miss for a spot in the College World Series.

The Vols (41-19) and Golden Eagles (45-18) won the Clemson Regional and Auburn Regional, respectively. USM escaped the regional after losing its opening game to Samford by rallying to win four straight, including Monday's 11-7 regional title win against Penn.

The NCAA committee will decide whether Tennessee or Southern Miss will host and announce the decision at 10 a.m. ET Tuesday. Both submitted bids to host prior to the postseason, which includes hosting a super regional. Neither team was a national seed, which means the decision is made by the NCAA committee. NCAA media representative Jeff Williams said in a statement prior to the onset of the tournament that the committee will weigh the “merits of the bids”

STAR:Christian Moore was at his best in the Clemson Regional. Naturally, so was Tennessee baseball.

Here is the case for each team:

Why Tennessee baseball should host

Simply, the numbers all say that Tennessee should.

The Vols have a higher RPI than Southern Miss, ranked No. 12 over the No. 18 Golden Eagles. They had a higher RPI at the end of the regular season, after the conference tournaments and following the regional. The SEC also had a higher league RPI than the Sun Belt. The committee leaned heavily into the RPI to make its national seed selections and the bracket.

Tennessee crushed a better regional than Southern Miss in terms of the RPI. The Vols beat Clemson, which is ranked No. 8, and twice topped Charlotte, the No. 67 team. Southern Miss lost to No. 62 Samford before beating No. 30 Auburn, the Bulldogs and getting a win against No. 102 Penn.

UT also had a better strength of schedule, ranking No. 19 compared to USM's No. 43. USM lost all three games it played against SEC schools and went 1-5 against power-conference opponents in the regular season.

Why Tennessee baseball might not host

Southern Miss holds a couple of edges on Tennessee: It won more games and it won its conference tournament. It also has a stadium that holds more fans − at least it was able to do so by adding seating to Pete Taylor Field in last year's Hattiesburg Super Regional. The Golden Eagles averaged 5,472 fans at their two super regional games. The Vols averaged 4,593 fans in the Knoxville Super Regional series against Notre Dame. 

Beyond that, the Golden Eagles have sentimental and intangible factors working for them where UT has the numbers advantage.

Longtime USM coach Scott Berry is retiring at the end of the season after 23 years. The super regional could mark the end of his retirement tour, which didn't begin until Berry announced his retirement in mid-May. Tennessee also is not exactly the golden child of college baseball, having earned a reputation with on-field antics in recent seasons.

Mike Wilson covers University of Tennessee athletics. Email him at michael.wilson@knoxnews.com and follow him on Twitter @ByMikeWilson. If you enjoy Mike’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that will allow you access to all of it