With just weeks remaining in the college baseball regular season, schools are jockeying for postseason position.
And one HBCU program was placed right in the middle push of a suspected push to protect RPI.
North Carolina A&T, which is 12-34 overall and 3-21 in the CAA, was supposed to play NC State on Tuesday night.
The matchup was canceled as both teams “mutually agreed” to not hold the contest. No specific reasons were provided as to why the scheduled game did not happen.
Coincidentally, it was one of several games across the midweek slate — some involving ranked teams — that were also canceled for non-weather-related reasons.
The move comes even with a picture-perfect forecast on the horizon, underscoring that the decisions might have been driven by strategy.
We have to somehow change the RPI formula in college baseball
I think it’s a very good metric and deserves to be used heavily in the committee’s decision regarding the field
However, teams canceling midweeks against mid-majors because they will lose points for winning is dumb https://t.co/j081m23qJ8
— Garrett Armbrust (@4thandsaturday) May 4, 2026
Game cancellation part of season resume strategy
For NC State, not playing NC A&T, even if the Wolfpack would have won — doesn’t help them. That’s because NC State is currently on the outside looking in on an NCAA Tournament berth.
Because the NCAA selection committee relies heavily on RPI as one metric to determine which schools make the tournament field or even seeding, teams often forego the last midweek game of the regular season.
As a result, the NCAA Division I Baseball Committee in 2024 sent a memo to every school in the country, warning them against canceling a non-conference game for unspecified reasons.
“It is not the intent or spirit of the game to adjust scheduled games in an attempt to strategically impact selection data or metrics,” a part of the memo read.
For NC State, the timing of its cancellation comes on the heels of a series win over Miami, which lifted the Wolfpack 17 spots to No. 37 in Monday’s RPI rankings.
A game against the No. 281 Aggies in the RPI would have offered little upside and carried the potential to weaken NC State’s standing even with a victory.
NC State now turns its attention to a road series at Stanford and a home finale against No. 2 North Carolina. Series wins over those ACC opponents will help the Wolfpack’s tournament resume.
Beating up on a bad NC A&T team wouldn’t.
