The NCAA made the controversial decision to hold the NCAA Baseball Tournament Super Regional between Tennessee and Southern Miss in Hattiesburg, Mississippi instead of Knoxville, Tennessee. Unfortunately, the decision seems to have blown up in their faces.
As of writing, the Tennessee-Southern Miss game has been moved into its second weather delay due to lightning in the area. The first weather delay lasted nearly two hours before teams were allowed to return.
Unfortunately, the two teams couldn’t even get an inning in before another weather delay was called. The game has not yet been called.
Meanwhile, fans have noted that the weather has been perfectly clear in Knoxville all day. As a result, many are taking not-so-subtle digs at the NCAA for rejecting Knoxville’s bid to host the Super Regional:
Weather sure is nice here in Knoxville, isn’t it?
Some might say it’d be a great day to play baseball.
— RockyTopTalk (@RockyTopTalk) June 10, 2023
How’s the weather in Knoxville? Asking for an entire fanbase.
— 🐝Santa Vol 🍊🎅🏈⚾️🏀🐝 (@Santa_Vol) June 10, 2023
Update from Knoxville. pic.twitter.com/1I5LJ0MbDt
— David Ubben (@davidubben) June 10, 2023
This is God’s way of saying this series should’ve been in Knoxville
— Nathanael Rutherford (@Mr_Rutherford) June 10, 2023
The system that the NCAA used to determine Hattiesburg as the Super Regional host was an odd one. They accepted Southern Miss’s bid to host of Knoxville for reasons that are not entirely clear.
Prior to the weather delay, Southern Miss led 5-0 in the bottom of the fifth with one out for the “home team” Tennessee Volunteers.
Had the game been played in Knoxville, it would have been long over by now.