Southern Miss will welcome SEC, ACC powers to Hattiesburg for NCAA regional
Hattiesburg is home again for Southern Miss.
The NCAA announced Hattiesburg as one of the tournament’s 16 host sites Sunday and revealed Southern Miss as the No. 16 overall seed.
A loss to Coastal Carolina in the Sun Belt title game Sunday left Southern Miss’ hosting fate hanging in the balance for a few hours before the NCAA delivered its 16-team verdict.
Joining the Golden Eagles are Ivy League champion Columbia as the No. 4 seed and Miami and Alabama as at-large entrants. The Crimson Tide will be the group’s No. 2 seed and the Hurricanes the 3-seed.
The region is matched with No. 1 overall seed and SEC tournament champion Vanderbilt, setting up another potential early run-in with the nation’s top seed after being placed in No. 1 Tennessee’s regional a year ago.
Southern Miss will play the evening game on Friday, according to ESPN, with a scheduled start time of 6 p.m. and broadcast on ESPN+. Alabama and Miami will play at 2 p.m. on ESPN2.
This will be the third region USM has shared with Alabama, after two prior trips to Tuscaloosa. It did face the Tide in a midweek match in April, losing 10-6.
It’ll be the first time the Eagles have faced Columbia in the postseason, though it did face and defeat Ivy League champ Penn twice in the 2023 Auburn regional.
Regionals begin on Friday, May 30, and run through Monday, June 2. Southern Miss season ticket holders have a two-day priority period to obtain all-session tickets and parking.
This is the ninth consecutive NCAA tournament appearance for USM, which won its regional the last time it hosted in 2022.
This story was originally published May 25, 2025 at 7:35 PM.
