PALMER: The SEC has found its format in Hoover

By Hunt Palmer

College baseball conference tournaments serve many parties.

Leagues have swollen to 16 teams. Some need to play for their seasons. Some need to play for seeding. Some don’t need to play at all. The weather always has its say, and that can be a tricky thing this time of year in college baseball’s southeastern hot bed. Fans, plenty of whom call Louisiana home, trek to Hoover every year for the league’s tournament. They have their say, as well.

It’s impossible to make everyone happy.

SEC coaches voiced concerns with the old eight-team model because it was a negative data point for teams nine and 10 who likely sat on or near the NCAA Tournament bubble. LSU fell victim on Selection Monday in 2011 when the Tigers missed the field with a high RPI after sitting the SEC Tournament out.

When Texas A&M and Missouri joined the league, the tournament grew to 12 in a 14-team league.

That worked from an NCAA Tournament selection process because the bottom two teams in a 14-team league were toast anyway. However, it messed with format because 12 teams can’t play double elimination. So, it started with single elimination on Tuesday and reverted back to double-elimination Wednesday through Friday. Saturday’s semifinals and Sunday’s championship game were single elimination.

Convoluted, but effective.

When Texas and Oklahoma showed up two years ago, the inclusion problem cropped up again. Leaving four teams at home for a 12-team field was going to hurt someone’s bubble case. Last year, 13 SEC teams made the field of 64.

So, everybody’s now in.

That allows the bottom of the league–Missouri, South Carolina and LSU, this year–to play for their seasons. Because single elimination is the only way to send 15 teams home, it’s structured with byes and double-byes. That also positively impacts the top of the league. Georgia and Texas won’t have to tax pitching in meaningless games. They start their weeks on Thursday or Friday with a maximum of three games to play.

And the teams jockeying for at-larges (Kentucky), host sites (Ole Miss and Mississippi State) and top eights (Auburn, Alabama and Texas A&M) have the ability to make a run and lock it in.

It’s good across the board for the teams.

The losers here are the fans. No longer can anyone gas up the family car for a guaranteed two-game stay in Hoover like the old double-elimination days. Visitors are only assured a three-hour game. That’s not ideal.

However, when all things are considered, that’s the least of any evils. The teams have to take priority, and in this case they do. Ticket sales were still good last year in this format, and generally some group of LSU, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Auburn and Alabama will hang around until Saturday. They bring the biggest crowds.

The weather is always a concern, but the single elimination format allows for light schedules on Thursday, Friday and Saturday where more action is possible, if necessary. Only Tuesday and Wednesday are four-game days.

Perfect is impossible, but this version of the SEC Tournament works.

Play ball.