Eight regional competitions were held to determine the participants in the final event.
[1] The forty-third tournament's champion was Wichita State, coached by Gene Stephenson.
The opening rounds of the tournament were played across eight regional sites across the country, each consisting of a six-team field.
at Tallahassee, FL[2][3] at Starkville, MS[4][5] at Waterbury, CT[6][7][8] at College Station, TX[9][10] at Tucson, AZ[11][12] at Fresno, CA[13][14] at Austin, TX[15][16] at Gainesville, FL[17][18] The teams in the CWS were divided into two pools of four, with each pool playing a double-elimination format.
Instead, the winners of the two pools met in a single National Championship game.