2013 SEC Baseball Tournament -- May 21-26 -- Hoover, Alabama

Well, pretty fitting that the #1 and #2 teams in the whole country are playing for the SEC Championship. Sort of a pre-national championship game. Wow! What a season for the Tigers so far. 51-9 and counting! So proud, and we're not done.

 

Thanks Bhem!

 

It don't really get much bigger than this, pre-NCAAT. #1 vs. #2 for the SECT championship. Geaux get 'em tigers!!

 

LSU's bp has been very good. Hope it works out for them tomorrow.


Vandy has hot bats atm...

 

What is our RPI? We have to have played just about as tough a schedule as anyone, right? I know we didn't play Vandy during the regular season and that may have hurt our RPI to some degree, but we play them tomorrow, so it will give us a boost if we win.

 

Baseball America's Aaron Fitt on Monday:

your thoughts about the SEC tourney this week? Winner, surprise upsets, dark horse?

Aaron Fitt: It probably feels like a
copout, but I think Vanderbilt’s absurdly
deep pitching staff is such an advantage
in a tournament like this that I’ll take the
Commodores even though they don’t
really have anything to play for. I could
see Arkansas or Mississippi State
making a deep run for the same reason.
How about a rematch of last year’s
final? Could happen, although I’d love
to see a Vandy-LSU final (and those are
clearly the two best teams in that
league, so that seems like the likeliest
result). Of the teams that play Tuesday,
Mississippi State strike me as the only
real threat to win the tournament.


With Vandy claiming the best record in SEC history with their weekend series win over Alabama, are you prepared to name them the best team in SEC history?

Aaron Fitt: I am… but I reserve to
change my mind in hindsight if Vandy
falls flat in the postseason.


Glen (Baton Rouge): LSU ran the
B team out there behind Ryan
Eades on Sunday and while they
gave a great effort, they lost
the game. As a result, LSU's
RPI fell to 6. Do you think
that game knocked LSU out of a
top 2 or 3 seed? When it comes
to the top 8, an RPI of 3
versus an RPI of 6 seems like a
big deal.

Aaron Fitt: Nah, that game had no
bearing on seeding. LSU feels like a very
strong bet to be seeded in the top three.

...

Aaron Fitt: Enjoy the final week
before selection Monday — always a fun
and manic time.

 

Aaron Fitt, today:

Says:

-sources tell us the committee is placing more emphasis on RPI this year

-We hear from multiple sources that the committee is not placing much emphasis on conference tournament


Projects the SEC to have eight teams in the NCAAT:

SEC (8): Vanderbilt, LSU, Mississippi
State, Arkansas, South Carolina,
Mississippi, Alabama, Auburn.

National Seeds: Vanderbilt, North
Carolina, LSU, Oregon State, Cal State
Fullerton, Virginia, N.C. State, Florida
State.

We’re making one change to our national
seed projection: Florida State, despite
going 0-4 this week, gets the last
national seed over Indiana. We hear
from multiple sources that the committee
is not placing much emphasis on
conference tournaments, and that it will
not balk at the prospect of having four
national seeds from the same
conference.
...
Regional Hosts: The eight national
seeds listed above; Indiana, Oregon,
Mississippi State, UCLA, Kansas State,
Louisville, South Carolina, Virginia Tech.

We’re making a change here as well,
based on what we hear through the
grapevine. South Carolina replaces
Arkansas as our final host, because
sources tell us the committee is placing
more emphasis on RPI this year, and
because two bad losses (to No. 257
Western Illinois and No. 243 Pacific) hurt
Arkansas. The Gamecocks are No. 12 in
the RPI, while the Hogs are No. 32. If
we were constructing the field, we’d still
go with Arkansas as a host, based on its
third-place finish in the SEC, its sweep
of the Gamecocks in Columbia, its
markedly better record against the top
50 (17-16 vs. 11-14), and its stronger
showing in the SEC tournament (the
Hogs beat Ole Miss and LSU before
losing to LSU on Saturday, while the
Gamecocks went 0-2). But we don’t sit
on the committee, and we now believe
South Carolina will host over Arkansas.
The final host race, then, could come
down to Virginia Tech vs. Arkansas, and
again the RPI is a deciding factor in
Virginia Tech’s favor, as the Hokies rank
11th.

 

Sean Ryan, Co-Founder of CollegeBaseballInsider.com, 5 hours ago:

Updated national seeds: Vanderbilt,
UNC, LSU , Oregon State, Virginia,
Cal State Fullerton, NC State, Oregon