With all due respect to the Mountain Region, who played the first NCCGA Regional Tournament of the semester last weekend, the college golf season truly gets underway on Saturday.

The Atlantic, Ohio Valley, Metro, Ozark, Twin Cities, North, Northeast, Great Lakes, Desert, Texas, Central and South regions all begin play in a weekend that will be a good baseline for NCCGA National Tournament qualifying.

A total of 21 teams from NCCGA VP Matt Brugner’s Preseason National Rankings are playing and look to make a big splash in Regional Tournament No. 1, including defending champion Baylor beginning their national title defense.

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Who will reign supreme in the ultra competitive Ohio Valley region?

No. 6 Ohio State, who has appeared in the most NCCGA National Tournaments of any team in the nation, enters as the favorite.

College golf's finest? Ohio State embarks on another NCCGA season with their sights set on a national championship.

No. 19 Miami (OH) and No. 33 Cincinnati will certainly have something to say about that, but overcoming the Buckeyes will be a tall task.

Other ranked teams in play include:

• No. 25 Pittsburgh and No. 39 Penn State in the Atlantic Region
• No. 17 Oklahoma State in the Ozark Region
• No. 35 ETSU, No. 38 Alabama and No. 46 Tennessee Tech in the South Region
• No. 42 Rutgers in the Ozark Region
• No. 48 Syracuse in the Northeast Region
• No. 9 Wisconsin (A), No. 29 Wisconsin-Whitewater and No. 43 Wisconsin (B) in the North Region
• No. 7 Purdue and No. 41 Notre Dame in the Great Lakes Region
• No. 20 Arizona and No. 45 Arizona State (A) in the Desert Region
• No. 1 Baylor, No. 23 Texas A&M and No. 27 TCU in the Texas Region

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Stay tuned to all region and team twitter handles for updates throughout the weekend, and be sure to use #ClubGolf as the #RoadToRabbit continues.

***Dave Uhrmacher (@DaveUhrm) is the NCCGA Director of Communications.