Florida State is in a familiar position as the top-seeded team in the NCAA tournament. This time, the Seminoles hope to end the season with a win at the College World Series.

Florida State was selected Monday as the first of eight national seeds in the 64-team Division I college baseball tournament for the second straight season.

	Top national seeds
	1. Florida State
	2. LSU
	3. Georgia Tech
	4. Auburn
	5. Rice
	6. Stanford
	7. Cal State Fullerton
	8. Miami (Fla.)

"That's our goal every year and I'm very proud of each of our young men,'' Seminoles coach Mike Martin said. "They know that no matter what the seed, we will have to play solid baseball in the regional to reach our goal.''

The Seminoles (50-10-1), making their 41st tournament appearance and 26th in a row, will host one of 16 four-team, double-elimination regionals that begin Friday.

Charlie Carr, the chairman of the Division I baseball committee and Florida State's senior associate athletic director, said he didn't have any input in his school's seeding. But he said the Seminoles more than proved their worthiness on the field.

"I will say that it's pretty evident why they got it,'' Carr said. "They're a team with 50 wins and with their strength of schedule, they deserve to be a No. 1 seed.''

The winners of each regional will advance to the super regionals, played June 6-9. The eight winners of the super regionals will play in the College World Series, which starts June 13 in Omaha, Neb.

The other national seeds are: Louisiana State (40-19-1), Georgia Tech (44-16), Auburn (40-19), Rice (48-10), Stanford (41-15), Cal State Fullerton (43-13) and Miami (39-14-1). By being national seeds, the teams are assured of not playing each other until they reach the College World Series.

"This year, in my personal judgment, this was probably the most difficult year we've ever had because we didn't have one, two or three just knock-your-lights-out top teams,'' Carr said. "We had a number of really, really good teams.''

Florida State was also the tournament's top seed last season, but lost to Notre Dame in the super regionals. The Seminoles have been College World Series runners-up three times, but have never won the national championship.

Florida State will take on Jacksonville (32-28) in its first game, and Rutgers and South Alabama will also play in the regional at Tallahassee, Fla.

"It doesn't matter what our seed or ranking is going into the tournament,'' Seminoles junior catcher Tony Richie said. "That doesn't get you to the College World Series. Everyone that got in is equal with everyone else right now.''

	Mike Martin will try to lead top-seeded Florida State to its first national title.

Defending champion Texas (43-17), looking to become just the fifth repeat winner in College World Series history, was not one of the eight national seeds -- but was the top seed in its regional.

The Longhorns will play Bucknell in the first round, and Lamar and Arkansas are the other teams in the regional at Austin, Texas. If Texas and Florida State win their regionals, they would meet in the super regionals.

"It just turned out that we had 16 evenly ranked schools and Texas was close to being one of those eight No. 1 seeds,'' Carr said.

The Southeastern Conference has a tournament-high eight representatives with Alabama, Auburn, Arkansas, Florida, LSU, Mississippi, Mississippi State and South Carolina.

The Atlantic Coast Conference -- with Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech, North Carolina and North Carolina State -- and Big 12 -- with Baylor, Missouri, Nebraska, Texas and Texas A&M -- were next with five teams each.

Miami is making its 31st straight appearance to extend its NCAA record.

first NCAA tournament appearance. Also in the regionals for the first time are UC Riverside (40-15) and UNC-Wilmington (38-21), who both earned at-large berths.

Murray State (25-29) won the Ohio Valley tournament to make its first regional appearance since 1979 despite a losing record. Eastern Michigan (32-26) is making its first appearance since 1982, and Le Moyne (33-15) is in for the second time, the first since 1989.

Florida (34-19-1) was the only team to get a bid despite not making its conference tournament.

"It is not the committee's decision to exclude non-tournament participants,'' Carr said. "Our job is to take the best 64 teams, and Florida was one of them.''

Because of safety concerns last year following Sept. 11, the committee limited travel by schools to within 400 miles of campus. For that reason, the committee had to select the 16 No. 1 seeds in relation to the host sites, rather than on a national basis.

"This time, our committee was given the ability to be more equitable or more conscious of the competition and certainly hopefully reward, as much as we could, the success on the field for all the teams,'' Carr said.

The regional hosts, announced Sunday, are: Arizona State, Auburn, Cal State Fullerton, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Long Beach State, LSU, Miami, Mississippi State, Nebraska, North Carolina State, Rice, Southern Mississippi, Stanford, Texas and Texas A&M.