The Big Ten's baseball coaches agreed that on the national stage, their teams are underestimated and often overlooked.

After their performance in this weekend's NCAA Regional play, Michigan, Minnesota and Ohio State showed they clearly belonged in the spotlight.

Last Monday, the NCAA chose the 34 teams that received at-large invitations by analyzing each school's strength of schedule and its rating percentage index, which is composed of the team's winning percentage, opponents' records and opponents' strength of schedule.

After winning the Big Ten Tournament, Ohio State received the Big Ten's automatic bid. Michigan and Minnesota earned at-large bids to give the Big Ten three teams in the NCAA Tournament.

With a regional opponent like host No. 1 Vanderbilt (53-12), which lost just two games at home before its Saturday night loss, many assumed Michigan would have no chance of advancing this weekend.

Many national media outlets saw Michigan's No. 2 seed in the Nashville regional as too high. Rivals.com gave Nashville the title of the "easiest regional," said the Wolverines were "definitely one of the lower two seeds in the field" and named the Wolverines' seeding as one of the biggest surprises in the selection process.

And just in case the Wolverines needed further proof the Big Ten is lightly regarded in baseball, CSTV.com also criticized Michigan's seeding before this weekend's play.

"CSTV said that they didn't send a real No. 2 (seed) to the Vanderbilt Regional," Michigan coach Rich Maloney said. "All the guys knew. We did read it to the team and we did talk about it, but in the actual playing of the game, it's all about making pitches and getting the timely hits. If you play the No. 1 team, you're always going to have a tighter focus, especially in front of a hostile crowd."

While playing for an audience which was largely unfamiliar with Northern teams, the Wolverines defied expectations by winning against Memphis and Vanderbilt, earning a spot in the regional championship game. All three Big Ten teams won at least one game this weekend.

Minnesota, which reached 40 victories but earned just one of the last at-large bids, eliminated regional host and No. 8 overall seed San Diego Saturday. And Ohio State, which wouldn't have made the NCAA Tournament if not for its surprise Big Ten Tournament victory, eliminated Le Moyne from the NCAA Tournament.

"I honestly thought that we were a better team than San Diego when we played them earlier this year (in a 7-6 loss March 9, after leading 6-4 going into the ninth inning), and for Minnesota to go there, take care of business and knock them out says a lot about the strength of our conference," Maloney said. "With Ohio State winning a game and certainly our big win (over Vanderbilt), at least people can't say that we didn't deserve to be in the Tournament."

The strong showing from the three Big Ten teams in this weekend's Regionals justifies the selection of the two at-large bids, though it will probably have little immediate impact on the Southern perception of Midwestern baseball as largely inferior - a fact Ohio State coach Bob Todd said effected the number of Big Ten teams that make the NCAA Tournament.

"There is too much negativism from the warm-weather schools," Todd said. "They still believe, which I do not, that the sixth-place team in some of the warm-weather conferences is better than the third- or fourth-place team in the Big Ten. And I truly disagree with that, especially when you look at how successful some of our programs have been when we play those people in May (in the NCAA Tournament)."

Having three teams in the Tournament this year is a significant achievement for the Big Ten. Last year, the Wolverines were the only Big Ten team in the 64-team field, and in 2005, they received the conference's only at-large bid.

But the ACC received seven tournament bids, the Big 12 earned six and the SEC received five, which many considered too few.

The Big Ten coaches said the smaller number of NCAA Tournament teams in the conference is partly because of the Midwest's less-than-ideal baseball climate, which forces teams like the Wolverines to travel south and play difficult games on the road for the first part of the season. Cold temperatures and snow can make it impossible to play, as with Michigan's cancelled four-game series against Minnesota in April. With fewer games, Big Ten teams lose the opportunity to improve their RPIs and records, which makes it harder to compete with Southern schools.

Minnesota coach John Anderson said Big Ten coaches had discussed a "baseball improvement plan" that could help to minimize the disadvantages of Midwestern cold weather by starting the season three or four weeks later.