New York ? Defending national champion Texas was selected Sunday as one of the 16 regional tournament hosts by the NCAA Division I baseball committee.

Texas (40-19), led by ace right-hander Kyle McCulloch and slugging outfielder Drew Stubbs, will play host for the 22nd time since the NCAA went to the current regional format in 1975.

The Southeastern Conference leads the field with five regional hosts: Alabama (41-19), Arkansas (38-19), Georgia (41-19), Kentucky (42-15), Mississippi (39-20). The Atlantic Coast Conference will have four hosts: Clemson (46-14), Georgia Tech (45-16), North Carolina (45-13) and Virginia (46-13).

The other regional hosts are: Cal State Fullerton (41-13), Nebraska (42-14), Oklahoma (40-19), Oregon State (39-13), Pepperdine (39-19) and Rice (49-10).

“We just had a lot of tough decisions and we did our best to geographically put sites at different places,” committee chairman Larry Templeton said.

Each of the 16 host schools are guaranteed berths in the 64-team tournament, which starts Friday. The rest of the field, including the top eight national seeds, will be announced by the committee Monday.

Each of the four-team, double-elimination regionals will be played on campus sites from June 2-5. The winners of each regional will advance to the super regionals, played June 9-12.

The eight winners of the super regionals will play in the College World Series, which starts June 16 in Omaha, Neb.

Seven sites – Cal State Fullerton, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oregon State and Texas – also hosted regionals last year.

Kentucky, the SEC co-champion, and Pepperdine, the West Coast Conference champ, are hosting for the first time. Pepperdine’s Eddy D. Field Stadium was selected despite not having any lights.

“We spent a lot of time with that decision, and we have played sites in the past without lights,” said Templeton, also the athletic director at Mississippi State. “At the end of the day, the committee felt that Pepperdine had earned that right to host, and we also felt that we needed a couple of sites out in the West.”

North Carolina, Oregon State and Virginia will host for the second time, but it’s the first for the Tar Heels since 1983.

There will be no regionals played in the state of Florida for the first time since 1975. National runner-up Florida failed to make the SEC tournament, while Florida State, which has hosted 24 times, and Miami, which has played host 21 times, will likely get at-large berths but will both have to hit the road.

“It came down to rewarding teams that were worthy based on their entire body of work during the season,” Templeton said. “We had a long discussion about that. Florida State finished tied for sixth in the ACC regular season; Miami was fifth in the ACC regular season. There were some outstanding teams from the ACC and other parts of the country, and the committee felt we should put those sites someplace else.”

Louisiana State will also not serve as host for the first time in 16 years, despite annually being among college baseball’s attendance leaders.