PALMER: One weekend doesn’t diminish SEC’s dominance
06/04/2025
By Hunt Palmer
As some SEC teams packed their bags for the summer this weekend, rivals took to the internet to take their shots.
Words like “overrated” and “embarrassment” and “faceplant” were used to describe the conference’s mass exodus from the NCAA tournament in regional play. It’s true, 13 teams reached the field, and only four remain. A maximum of three SEC teams will reach the College World Series, and only one spot in Omaha is assured to be held by a team from the county’s premier league.
You know RPI is flawed when you overvalue one conference to such an extent they go up just by playing each other.
We’re seeing the SEC get exposed this weekend and it’s a long time coming.
That being said— committee will continue do the same thing next yr & overvalue SEC.
— Monty Taylor (@Monty2740) June 1, 2025
The SEC is so OVERRATED pic.twitter.com/QCExc9NZyp
— Derek Duke (@DerekDuke25) June 1, 2025
SHOCKER: @SEC sets 𝙉𝙀𝙒 𝙍𝙀𝘾𝙊𝙍𝘿 for 𝐌𝐎𝐒𝐓 teams 𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 in the opening weekend of NCAA Baseball Tournament.
9 of the 13 teams they sent to the post season were sent packing. It truly just meant less in regionals. pic.twitter.com/DcJ5kaHb2n
— TJ Pittinger (@TJ_Pittinger) June 3, 2025
And it’s still the premier league. By a mile.
Those who leapt to their keyboards and cast aspersions at the league may have felt justified based Murray State bludgeoning Ole Miss or Georgia blowing a late lead against Oklahoma State. Tim Corbin and Kevin O’Sullivan made more headlines cursing at people than winning games. Sure.
But questioning the SEC’s standing in the sport is a fool’s errand and only proves jealousy and/or ignorance.
Twelve of the leagues 16 teams have made the College World Series in the last four years. One of the four that hasn’t is South Carolina, and the Gamecocks have more national titles since 2009 than the ACC has since 1955.
An SEC team has reached the College World Series final in 15 of the last 16 years. The lone time the league wasn’t represented, Jay Johnson was coaching his Arizona team within a swing of the national title. He’s now an SEC head coach.
Literally 100 percent of the slots in the championship series over the last four years have been filled by programs now in the SEC (No, Oklahoma was not an SEC member in 2022. The Sooners are now). Omaha annually feels like Hoover with a newer stadium.
The ACC plays a good brand of baseball. It’s just a notch below the SEC as a whole.
That was evident in Omaha last year when the two leagues split the field four-and-four, but the SEC won all five head-to-head matchups on the sport’s biggest stage.
It’s not just on the field where the SEC reigns supreme. Every summer the MLB organizations validate the conference’s dominance, as well.
The SEC has had more Top 30 picks than the ACC in each of the last five drafts. That running total is 29 to 19 over five years.
With the implementation of open transfers and NIL opportunities, the gap between the SEC and everyone else is going to grow. The only league that can keep up financially is the Big 10, and half of that league doesn’t know if a baseball is stitched or stapled.
Resources are the reason Brian O’Connor, the only active coach to actually climb the sport’s highest mountain from the ACC, bailed for the SEC.
With O’Connor’s addition, the SEC will likely have seven head coaches with a national title ring when the season opens next year. Dave Van Horn could make it eight, half the league, if the Hogs can finally figure this thing out over the next three weeks. Same goes for Butch Thompson at Auburn. Chris Lemonis won one four years ago, and he’s unemployed.
The rest of the conferences in college baseball currently have one combined–John Savage at UCLA.
This columnist is no SEC apologist. If I had it my way, the league wouldn’t take a blow torch to the rest of the country every summer. I have a rooting interest in all 16 SEC schools. It’s just that interest is only a positive one when it comes to LSU.
Even the strongest SEC hater wasn’t as disgusted as I was watching Tennessee and Texas A&M square off for a title.
I feel like the sport was more interesting when Cal State Fullerton and UC-Irvine were annual threats. California high school products are flocking to the SEC en masse. The best hitter in the PAC-12 transferred to the SEC two of three years when Jacob Berry followed Johnson from Arizona to LSU and Braden Montgomery left Stanford for Texas A&M. Both would have been top 10 picks had Montgomery not been injured in the NCAA Tournament.
It’s resources. Those resources bring the coaches and facilities. With those come the players. And the wins. And the championships.
The evidence that has piled up over the last 20 years is impossible to ignore. A terrible 48 hours doesn’t change that. This is a sport where Fresno State and Coastal Carolina have won national titles in the last 20 years. It can be a tad unpredictable.
Disliking the league is one thing. I can get on board with that.
Discrediting the league is another. And it’s a losing battle.