There was the Siege of Constantinople in 717. There was the Philadelphia Election Riot bar brawls of 1742. There was the Nationwide Wrestling Alliance Bunkhouse Stampede of 1988.
And now, we now have the SEC baseball match of 2025.
After three many years of permitting a restricted variety of groups to take the sector in Hoover, Alabama, this 12 months’s overhauled SEC bracket will probably be bursting at its baseball seams. For the primary time within the match’s almost 50-year historical past, all 16 members of the convention will take part and the complete bracket will probably be single elimination, with 4 groups receiving a bye and one other 4 receiving a double bye.
In overwritten metaphorical phrases, it is a very crowded excessive wire that has been strung over Hoover Metropolitan Stadium with no security internet. However for the final staff nonetheless hanging on after 5 days and 15 video games performed, there will probably be loads of huge time, huge high, hardball glory.
The sphere that begins play Tuesday morning contains the nation’s high two groups (LSU and Texas), three of the highest 5 (No. 5 Arkansas), six of the highest 10 (Nos. 8-10, Auburn, Vanderbilt, Georgia), 10 of the highest 25 (Florida, Tennessee, Ole Miss, Alabama), the previous 5 Males’s Faculty World Collection champions and in addition 4 of the previous 5 runners-up. A whopping eight of Kiley McDaniel’s high 30 MLB first-year draft prospects will probably be in Hoover this week, in addition to eight of the just-announced 25-player listing of semifinalists for the Golden Spikes Award. On the shut of the common season, our pals at D1Baseball.com projected that the SEC would ship a document 13 groups to the NCAA match — 13 of 16 groups.
How stacked is that this deck? The defending SEC and MCWS champion is on this discipline … because the No. 8 seed.
“It’s no coincidence that every one of those champions in Omaha have come from the SEC as a result of actually, by the point we get the NCAA match, we have all already been by way of a wringer that in lots of methods is more durable,” mentioned Tennessee’s Tony Vitello, the coach of that reigning champ. “There is not a lot you are going to see in June, irrespective of the place you play, that you have not been ready for by the curler coaster of the SEC, in Hoover or in all of the video games main as much as it.”
The person is aware of of what he speaks. The Volunteers began convention play 11-4 however completed the common season by dropping their last 5 SEC weekend collection. Maybe they’ll discover some Huge Orange solace in the truth that the automotive of their amusement park journey was extraordinarily crowded.
Texas opened its convention season 19-2, tied for the most effective document after 21 video games in SEC historical past … after which dropped six of its final 9 convention video games. Whee!
Mississippi State was 7-14 in SEC play on April 28 when it fired head coach Chris Lemonis, the person who led the Bulldogs to their legendary MCWS title in 2021. Because the change, they’ve posted a document of 9-1, eight of these being convention wins. Whee!
Arkansas began 11-1 in SEC play after which misplaced three straight collection … after which went 6-3 in opposition to ranked opponents to shut out the common season. Woo!
The staff that Tennessee defeated to win in Omaha final summer time was Texas A&M. The Aggies entered 2025 because the preseason No. 1 staff, regardless of shockingly dropping head coach Jim Schlossnagle to archrival Texas as quickly as final 12 months’s MCWS was carried out. However the Aggies tumbled from that high spot after dropping 9 of their first 10 SEC video games … then gained seven out of their subsequent 9, together with collection wins over then-No. 1 Tennessee and then-No. 2 Arkansas … then ended the common season being swept by Missouri, the convention’s last-place staff and the Tigers’ solely three SEC wins all season. Now, they arrive to Hoover desperately hanging onto hopes of profitable their method onto an NCAA match choice bubble.
“I believe that is the scariest a part of the SEC match is that you might make a case for each staff in it being harmful, from the No. 1 staff within the nation to the staff on the backside of the convention standings,” mentioned Mike Bianco, a former LSU champion participant and Ole Miss head coach since 2000. “Each staff, all 16, have proven you in some unspecified time in the future that they’ll beat you in a single recreation. And that is all it takes now. Single elimination. You do not have to dig deep to seek out one thing that scares you.”
For instance, that Mizzou staff that swept the Aggies two weekends in the past to shove them off of that bubble. Or South Carolina, a promising staff that fell aside in Could, being led by Paul Mainieri, who as soon as led LSU to Omaha glory. Or, Kentucky, which made its first journey to Omaha a 12 months in the past and is bouncing atop a Huge Blue bubble with an SEC document of 13-17 however a nationwide power of schedule rating of ninth.
Or, sure, Ole Miss itself.
The Rebels are the one SEC program that was capable of trot out the identical weekend rotation all season. Hunter Elliott, Riley Maddox and Mason Nichols began 14 video games every in as many 2025 weekends. On this present period of faculty sports activities that’s dominated by transfers, the Ole Miss dogpile in 2022 feels as if it had been a decade in the past. However guess who had been all three key members of the pitching lineup that helped lead the Rebels to that MCWS title? Hunter Elliott, Riley Maddox and Mason Nichols.
“Everyone seems to be harmful for a various listing of causes,” Vanderbilt head coach Tim Corbin, a two-time MCWS champion, mentioned final month, his Commodores having simply misplaced two of three to that very same Ole Miss staff. “We misplaced a collection to Auburn in March, the staff that completed final within the convention one 12 months in the past and are definitely not that staff once more. We needed to battle our method by way of Georgia, a staff that’s hitting house runs like they’re the 1927 Yankees. There aren’t any weekends off and in Hoover there aren’t any video games off.”
However there is a fairly good probability there will probably be walk-offs. Vandy ended three of its final 4 regular-season house video games by way of walk-off homers. It has carried out that 5 instances this season, tied for tops within the SEC with … Georgia.
Whee! Certainly.
“Is it enjoyable? The SEC match? Yeah, it is enjoyable,” LSU head coach Jay Johnson acknowledged. His Tigers are in search of their tenth match title however first since 2017. Johnson is aware of all about hazard lurking from the decrease reaches of the SEC bracket. In 2023, his staff made it to the title recreation after arriving in Hoover because the No. 11 seed in a 12-team discipline. “However it’s additionally aggravating. Your mind would not cease. It may possibly’t.”
And that makes Hoover’s newly expanded stress cooker the right warmup to prepare for the even greater bracket that begins subsequent week.
