AAC, C-USA each get two NCAA bids

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The American Athletic Conference and Conference USA will each send a pair of teams to the NCAA's postseason playoffs.

Carrying the banner of the American, which East Carolina will officially join on July 1, will be league tournament champion and automatic qualifier Houston and regular season champion Louisville.

C-USA, the conference from which ECU is departing, will be represented in the regionals by perennial powerhouse Rice and first-year league member Old Dominion.

Houston will play in the Baton Rouge regional as the No. 2 seed. The Cougars (44-15) will join No. 1 seed Louisiana State, No. 3 seed Bryant, and No. 4 Southeast Louisiana. The Cougars' first game will be at 8 p.m. ET on Friday against Bryant. LSU is the No. 8 National Seed, while Bryant and Southeast Louisiana won conference tournaments to advance to the postseason. The winner of the Baton Rouge Regional will draw the winner of the Houston Regional, headlined by No.1 seed Rice, in the Super Regionals.

Louisville was selected as one of the 16 Regional hosts and earned a No. 1 seed. The Cardinals (45-15) will be joined by No. 2 seed Kentucky, No. 3 Kansas and No. 4 Kent State. Louisville's first game will be at 6 p.m. ET on Friday against Kent State. Louisville previously faced rival Kentucky twice this season, dropping both games. Louisville's Regional is paired with the Tallahassee Regional, which boasts No. 5 national seed Florida State, for the Super Regionals.

Rice (41-18) extended its streak of consecutive conference regular season and/or tournament titles to 19. The Owls will be making their 20th consecutive postseason appearance and are hosting a regional for the 11th time in the last 14 seasons. They are scheduled to meet George Mason (34-20) at 8 p.m. ET in the first round of regional play on Friday, May 30. No. 2 seed Texas (38-18) and No. 3 seed Texas A&M (33-24) complete the four-team Houston Regional field at Reckling Park.

Old Dominion (36-24) returns to NCAA regional play for the first time since the 2000 season and will open NCAA play against Maryland (36-21) on Friday in Columbia at 1 p.m. ET. The No. 3 seed Monarchs will be making their eighth all-time NCAA appearance. Other teams in the Columbia regional are No. 1 seed South Carolina (42-16) and No. 4 seed Columbia (41-19).

The national top eight seeds in the 64-team field in order are Oregon State (42-12), Florida (40-21), Virginia (44-13), Indiana (42-13), Florida State (43-15), Louisiana-Lafayette (53-7), Texas Christian (42-15) and LSU (44-14-1).

The NCAA Regionals will be double elimination and take place from May 30 through June 2. The Super Regionals take place between June 6-9, with the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska beginning on June 14.

Dispatches from TheAmerican.org and ConferenceUSA.com contributed to this story.

PAGE UPDATED 05/27/14 05:46 AM.

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