The 2003 NCAA Division I baseball season, play of

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played by Student athlete, student-athletes at institutions of higher education. In the United States, college baseball is sanctioned mainly by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA); in Japan, ...

in the United States organized by the

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

(NCAA) at the Division I level, began on January 16, 2003. The season progressed through the regular season, many conference tournaments and championship series, and concluded with the 2003 NCAA Division I baseball tournament and 2003 College World Series. The College World Series, which consisted of the eight remaining teams in the NCAA tournament, was held in its annual location of

Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( ) is the List of cities in Nebraska, most populous city in the U.S. state of Nebraska. It is located in the Midwestern United States along the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's List of United S ...

, at

Rosenblatt Stadium Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium was a baseball stadium in Omaha, Nebraska, the former home to the annual NCAA Division I College World Series and the Triple-A Omaha Royals (now Storm Chasers). It was the largest minor league ballpark in the Unit ...

. It concluded on June 23, 2003, with the final game of the best-of-three championship series, the first such championship series used at the College World Series.

Rice Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...

defeated

Stanford Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth governor of and th ...

two games to one to claim its first championship.

Realignment

New programs

Three programs joined Division I prior to the 2003 season– Gardner-Webb, which had been a provisional member; Savannah State, which had been a Division II independent; and IPFW, which had been a provisional member.

Dropped programs

Howard Howard is a masculine given name derived from the English surname Howard. ''The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names'' notes that "the use of this surname as a christian name is quite recent and there seems to be no particular reason for ...

dropped its baseball program following the 2002 season.

Conference changes

Sacramento State, which had been a member of the

Big West Conference The Big West Conference (BWC) is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose member institutions participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's NCAA Division I, Division I. The conference was origina ...

, became a Division I independent.

Conference formats

Bowling Green A bowling green is a finely laid, close-mown and rolled stretch of turf for playing the game of bowls. Before 1830, when Edwin Beard Budding of Thrupp, near Stroud, UK, invented the lawnmower, lawns were often kept cropped by grazing sheep ...

, which had played in the East Division of the

Mid-American Conference The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region (North America), Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Its members co ...

, moved to the West Division.

Conference standings

College World Series

The 2003 season marked the fifty seventh NCAA baseball tournament, which culminated with the eight team

College World Series The College World Series (CWS), officially the NCAA Men's College World Series (MCWS), is a baseball tournament held each June in Omaha, Nebraska. It is the culmination of the NCAA Division I baseball tournament—featuring 64 teams in the ...

. The College World Series was held in

. The eight teams played a double-elimination format, with

claiming their first championship with a two games to one series win over

in the final.

Bracket

Award winners

All-America team

References

2003 Division I Standings
at BoydsWorld.com {{NCAA Division I baseball season navbox