2018 SEC Baseball Tournament Preview: Bracket, Seeding, Game Times

Omaha, NE - JUNE 26: Second basemen Cole Freeman #8 of the LSU Tigers tags out base runner Dalton Guthrie #5 of the Florida Gators attempting to steal second base in the first inning during game one of the College World Series Championship Series on June 26, 2017 at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Nebraska. (Photo by Peter Aiken/Getty Images)
Omaha, NE - JUNE 26: Second basemen Cole Freeman #8 of the LSU Tigers tags out base runner Dalton Guthrie #5 of the Florida Gators attempting to steal second base in the first inning during game one of the College World Series Championship Series on June 26, 2017 at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Nebraska. (Photo by Peter Aiken/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

The SEC Baseball Tournament is finally here

It’s time for the Southeastern Conference Baseball Tournament in Hoover, Alabama! 12 of the SEC’s 14 teams are picked to play in the tournament based off of their win percentage against other teams from the conference.

That means that teams like the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Tennessee Volunteers who had the two worst conference records this season got left out.

The way that the SEC Baseball Tournament operates is like this: the overall bracket is broken up into two brackets. The opening round of games in Hoover is single elimination. If your team can survive that, then it gets to participate in double elimination games. If your team is one of the four best in the conference then it doesn’t even have to play in the first round. It gets to sit back and wait for another team to make it to the second round of the tournament.

Then, once there are four teams remaining in the tournament, single elimination games are played once again.

In other words, it’s really good to go ahead and be one of the top four seeds in the SEC Tournament. Especially so when one considers how many pitchers a team might need to win the entire tournament.

For a team that plays in the opening round of the tournament, assuming it doesn’t lose even once, it will have to play four games to even get into the championship game of the tournament. If it drops a game in the double elimination round, then it’ll have to play a bit more.

Here’s what the bracket looks like:

The SEC Tournament runs from today, starting with Vanderbilt and Texas A&M at 9:30 central time, all the way to Sunday afternoon. A multitude of games will be played between now and then.

Next: MSU Swept No. 1 Florida With Ease

The Mississippi State Bulldogs will get their SEC Tournament bid started off today at 4:30 against the LSU Tigers. MSU has a pretty good shot at taking the Tigers down given the momentum that they have right now and how far the Bulldogs have come this season.