We are down to the final week of the college baseball season. By this time next week, we’ll be in Hoover, Ala. for the SEC Baseball Tournament.
But a lot can still happen. Here are some of the big storylines to watch for in the final week:
To be blunt, a regular season SEC championship doesn’t mean a lot. Yes, it’s nice. Yes, you get to call yourself a conference champion. Yes, you get the No. 1 seed in the SEC Tournament. But more often than not, we remember who wins the tournament championship.
With only three SEC games left, three teams have a shot at finishing at the top of the standings: Texas, Arkansas and LSU. The Longhorns have a two game lead over Arkansas and three over LSU. The odds favor Texas, but if the Longhorns stumble against Oklahoma and LSU sweeps South Carolina (neither of which are impossibilities), things could get very interesting.
A week ago, there was no doubt who would finish 16th in the SEC. Then Missouri goes and sweeps Texas A&M and is now two games back of South Carolina (5-22 in SEC games). As previously mentioned, South Carolina faces LSU. Missouri hosts Mississippi State. It’s not likely (the Bulldogs have been playing good lately and still need some wins to get into the NCAA Tournament), but it’s shocking this is a real thing that could happen.
Right now, there are only four teams with less than 13 conference wins: Mississippi State, Texas A&M, South Carolina and Missouri. The Bulldogs and Aggies, though, are the only two within three games of 13 wins. Mississippi State needs just one more win to reach 13 and that should be easily accomplished against Missouri. Texas A&M, however, plays Georgia needing three wins to reach 13. Good luck with that Aggies.
Sankey ended up having to flip a coin to decide the conference’s women’s basketball regular season champion. He may end having to do it again for baseball. There’s an even better chance he’ll have to flip a coin to break up one or more ties lower in the standings.
There are four teams tied at 16-11, two at 15-12 and three at 13-14. With three games left, there’s potential some major movement. Will that movement break up all of the ties? Probably not and there are several tiebreakers to go through before a coin needs to be flipped. But Sankey may want to start practicing anyways.
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