The Oregon State Beavers won’t be a three-peat this year in the College World Series, that’s because OSU was not selected for the tournament based upon there regular season record. The Beavers were the fifth school and the first in 10 years to repeat as national champions last year.

This year, there would no chance. As reported by ESPN:

Oregon State (28-24) did not receive an at-large bid, despite having five series wins against teams in the 64-team field, including Arizona, Arizona State and Georgia. The Beavers, the first defending champ not to make the tournament since Georgia in 1991, will not have a chance to join Southern California (1970-74) as the only schools to win three straight titles.

"The committee struggled long and hard and, quite frankly, probably wouldn't have struggled as long if Oregon State had not been the two-time defending national champion," said Templeton, also the athletic director at Mississippi State. "The thing that probably was the determining factor was their 24 losses and who some of those losses were against. It was a tough call, but we felt that there were a couple of other teams that were more deserving."

Who wound up with the #1 seed? The Miami Hurricanes who went 47-8.

"There was a lot of discussion about who the No. 1 seed should be, and quite frankly, North Carolina and Arizona State all got a strong look at that position," Division I selection committee chairman Larry Templeton said. "At the end of the night, Miami's play toward the end of the season, particularly winning the tournament -- and we were watching that tournament as the selection process was going through -- probably convinced the committee."

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Maury Brown is the Founder and President of the Business of Sports Network, which includes The Biz of Baseball, The Biz of Football, The Biz of Basketball and The Biz of Hockey. He is contributor to Baseball Prospectus, and is available as a freelance writer.

Brown's full bio is here. He looks forward to your comments via email and can be contacted through the Business of Sports Network.

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GM, coach, scout candidate
written by Paul M Weber, December 10, 2008

Congrats Oregon State Beavers win back to back and awesome NCAA Series win over NC Tar Heels World Series it makes you realize how challenging and difficult of a task it is to win back to back let alone three peat! Just making NCAA World Series is monumetal feat as quality of play is definately big time baseball. NCAA World Series Omaha 2009-2039:..fantastic!

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written by Paul M Weber, December 10, 2008

This year's 2008 World Series in Omaha was a great one too! Wow, Georgia Bulldogs and Fresno State really looked good in Championship Series and suprised the field and #1 Miami. A Great run of World Series in Omaha 2006, 2007, 2008. Good luck to all teams at NCAA Division 1, 2 and 3 levels. Tampa Spartans have have outstanding run in NCAA D-2 WS Champs too.

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