FAYETTEVILLE - Playing in the SEC has its advantages, even when a team doesn't make the league's postseason tournament.

Arkansas (34-22, 14-15 SEC ) was among the 64 teams selected Monday for the NCAA Tournament that begins Friday at regional sites throughout the country. The Razorbacks were assigned to the Stanford Regional in Palo Alto, Calif., and will face Pepperdine (36-19, 15-6 West Coast ) on Friday afternoon at 3 p.m. Central. The host Cardinal are the No. 1 seed and will open against No. 4 seed UC-Davis at 7 p.m. Central.

No. 3 seed Arkansas and No. 2 seed Pepperdine will meet for the first time since 1979, when the Razorbacks beat the Waves 5-4 while finishing as the runnersup in the College World Series.

"We don't know a lot about Pepperdine, but teams on the West Coast play solid baseball," Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said. "There's so many talented players out there, and they always play great defense and pitch well. We're the outsider coming in to compete with those three teams from the West Coast, and we're excited to be going. We didn't care where they sent us."

There was a lot of anxiety for Arkansas' players and coaches as they gathered at Baum Stadium on Monday to watch the NCAA selection show on ESPN. The Razorbacks were on the bubble after failing to qualify for the eightteam SEC Tournament for the first time since 2001. But Arkansas was one of nine SEC teams selected for the NCAA Tournament, and LSU and Georgia were named national seeds.

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Arkansas is the fifth SEC team since 2003 to be selected for the NCAA Tournament without qualifying for the SEC Tournament.

"We didn't know whether we were coming to a party or a funeral," Van Horn said of his team's attitude before Monday's selection show. "I did find out [Sunday ] night that we were getting two national seeds, and I thought that was a major plus for our league. But we didn't know for sure.

" The NCAA committee could have thrown us out early, but they stuck with us and we are very appreciative."

Thus, an Arkansas clubhouse that had been mostly quiet since the regular season ended became lively again Monday. Junior Logan Forsythe was already in his practice gear and smiling while carrying a bat shortly after the announcement.

"Everybody was on the edge of their seat, and our hearts were pounding," Forsythe said. "When our name got called, everybody erupted. We didn't do what we needed to host a regional, but we're in. That's all that matters."

Arkansas put itself in jeopardy for the NCAA Tournament by losing 2 of 3 at Mississippi State to end SEC play. But the Razorbacks had a good Ratings Percentage Index in their favor and they went 14-6 in their final 20 games. The RPI is a scale used by the NCAA to rank Division I baseball teams by their performance in relationship to strength of schedule.

Arkansas finished a half-game behind eighth-place Ole Miss for the SEC Tournament, but the Razorbacks played one less game after a rainout at Vanderbilt.

"I don't think there was one thing that got Arkansas in," said Larry Templeton, chairman of the NCAA Division I Baseball Selection Committee. "I think their RPI was in the middle of the field. The committee certainly understood that Arkansas was a rainout away from being the seventh-seeded team in the Southeastern Conference Tournament and we weren't going to hold that against them not being in the tournament. We judged them on the merit of their season.

" They played Arizona State, Nebraska and Oral Roberts, as well as what we considered a very tough conference schedule."