MARLER: SEC needs baseball to win more than ever

By Chris Marler

It’s over. The SEC’s run of dominance seems like it’s actually over. 

For the most part. 

For the first time in nine years, the SEC didn’t win a national title in football, men’s basketball or women’s basketball. They haven’t even played for a national title in football in the last three years. That marks the first time in 25 years that’s happened. 

It’s not a great look right now for a conference that’s spent decades pounding its chest and chanting its own name. You could argue this season matters more than ever for the SEC to reclaim its aura.

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There are few sports that the SEC has been more dominant in than baseball. If we are speaking factually, there’s probably no sport the SEC has been as dominant in. The SEC has won six straight national championships and seven of the last eight. What’s even more impressive is that those seven national titles have come from six different schools. 

The odds are, once again, in the SEC’s favor, as seven of the top 11 odds for teams to win the 2026 College World Series are from the conference. 

The concern? 

Two of the top three come from outside the conference, and the team with the best odds, UCLA, hails from the Big Ten. That’s been the SEC’s biggest nemesis this past year. We just watched the Big Ten become the first conference in history to win a football, women’s basketball and men’s basketball national title in the same calendar year by three different schools. 

If the SEC wants to break this cycle, they will most likely have to go through the Big Ten to do so. If not, the narrative will continue, and even worse – it will have merit.