The SEC Network’s Twitter account sent out a juicy little nugget Wednesday morning.
There are eight teams playing in the first double-elimination round of the SEC Baseball Tournament today at the Hoover Met. Seven of them are ranked in the top 10 in at least one national poll.
Seven. Out of eight. That’s stronger than Bo Jackson.
Depending on which poll you check, Vanderbilt vs. Texas A&M, Ole Miss vs. South Carolina and LSU vs. Florida are all top-10 matchups. Then there’s regular-season champ Mississippi State, another top-10 team, taking on Alabama, the only unranked team left in the field.
That’s a ridiculous amount of talent and depth on display in one place at one time. The College World Series wishes it could have seven top-10 teams in its eight-team field.
Meanwhile, six ranked SEC softball teams will be competing this weekend in the super regionals. Only five can advance to the Women’s College World Series because No. 1 Florida is playing No. 16 Georgia. Otherwise, No. 4 Auburn and No. 6 Alabama are at home, and No. 10 LSU and No. 15 Missouri are on the road.
The national supremacy of the SEC in the stick-and-ball sports begs a question. What does the conference of champions, scholars and leaders do best right now – baseball, softball or football?
The knee-jerk answer is football because four different SEC teams (Alabama, Auburn, Florida and LSU) have combined to win eight of the last 10 national titles. Football’s big picture looks even better because SEC teams have filled 10 of the last 20 spots in the national championship game. Once, in 2011, Alabama beat LSU in the title game.
That compares to six different SEC baseball programs (Vandy, Mississippi State, South Carolina, Florida, LSU and Georgia) making nine appearances in the championship series and winning four of the last eight national titles.
Consider baseball’s depth. There’s been at least one SEC team in the championship series at the College World Series every year since 2008, and the league has filled nine of the 16 spots in the final series in that stretch. In 2011, South Carolina beat Florida for its second straight championship.
For SEC softball, a relative newcomer as a national power, three programs (Alabama, Florida and Tennessee) have played in seven of the last nine championship series and captured three big rings. The SEC has filled eight of the 18 spots in the championship series in that time. In 2014, Florida beat Alabama in the finals.
Softball gets a positive asterisk because current Auburn coach Clint Myers won two of those titles at Arizona State and Texas A&M reached the final series before it jumped from the Big 12 to the SEC.
So. SEC football, baseball or softball. Right this minute. Who ya got?
I’ll take baseball because of the depth in the league in that sport. Football’s run is skewed a bit by Alabama’s dominance. It’s been six years since an SEC football program other than the Crimson Tide won it all. Auburn did in 2010. Since then, three different SEC football programs have played for it all and only Alabama has won it. In that same time, four different SEC baseball programs have reached the championship series and two have won it.
Of course, this is a question with no wrong answers and no losers. Like Nick Saban or Bear Bryant as the best coach in Alabama history. Bo Jackson or Cam Newton as the best player in Auburn history. Insert your favorite joint here as the best barbecue in Alabama, a state whose buns can’t hope to contain all the great ‘cue.
Let’s talk it out today on AL.com All-Access, but let’s hurry. A great day of SEC baseball at the Hoover Met has already begun.
