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O’Gara: Here’s how 21st century SEC Tournament winners fared in the NCAA Tournament
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Two things can be true at the same time.
One is that winning the SEC Tournament is no small feat. Being the last team standing in the strongest baseball conference in America is impressive, regardless of what the road in Hoover dictates. It deserves to be celebrated.
The other is that winning the SEC Tournament is no sign of imminent postseason success. Being the last team standing in the strongest baseball conference is impressive, but anyone would trade that for a trip to Omaha.
Both of those things are fair to reference. This is not the SEC Championship in football, which put a team in the BCS/College Football Playoff National Championship 16 of 18 times (2014 Alabama and 2023 Alabama). But the SEC Tournament winner in men’s basketball has just 1 Final Four appearance in the past 9 seasons.
The SEC Tournament winner in baseball is somewhere in between … sort of.
The past 3 winners all failed to reach the College World Series. Most recently, Vandy couldn’t even get out of the Nashville Regional after winning the conference tournament title. At the same time, 2019 Vandy is the last SEC Tournament winner to make it to Omaha. That squad won it all. That is, however, the exception to the rule.
Here’s the breakdown of SEC Tournament winners in the 21st century and whether they eventually reached the College World Series (“yes” means reached Omaha and “no” is fell short):
- 2000 LSU, Yes (Won CWS)
- 2001 Mississippi State, No (Loss in Super Regional)
- 2002 Alabama, No (Loss in Regional)
- 2003 Alabama, No (Loss in Regional)
- 2004 South Carolina, Yes (Loss in CWS semifinals)
- 2005 Mississippi State, No (Loss in Regional)
- 2006 Ole Miss, No (Loss in Super Regional)
- 2007 Vandy, No (Loss in Regional)
- 2008 LSU, Yes (Loss in CWS second round)
- 2009 LSU, Yes (Won CWS)
- 2010 LSU, No (Loss in Regional)
- 2011 Florida, Yes (Loss in CWS Final)
- 2012 Mississippi State, No (Loss in Regional)
- 2013 LSU, Yes (Loss in CWS first round)
- 2014 LSU, No (Loss in Regional)
- 2015 Florida, Yes (Loss in CWS semifinals)
- 2016 Texas A&M, No (Loss in Super Regional)
- 2017 LSU, Yes (Loss in CWS Final)
- 2018 Ole Miss, No (Loss in Regional)
- 2019 Vandy, Yes (Won CWS)
- 2020 (canceled because of COVID)
- 2021 Arkansas, No (Loss in Super Regional)
- 2022 Tennessee, No (Loss in Super Regional)
- 2023 Vandy, No (Loss in Regional)
That’s a 23-year sample size. Of those 23 years in the 21st century in which we had an SEC Tournament and an NCAA Tournament, only 3 teams won both. That’s not necessarily that much of a surprise because since the field added a Super Regional and expanded to 64 teams in 1999 — another reason I made the cutoff at the start of the 21st century — that 1999 Miami squad was the last No. 1 overall seed to win the CWS. That’s the bigger historical hurdle here.
But of the SEC’s 10 teams that won national titles in the 21st century, 7 did so without winning the SEC Tournament, including a South Carolina program that repeated as CWS champs in 2010-11.
Even more telling? Of those 23 SEC Tournament winners, 9 failed to reach the Super Regional.
Most telling? Of those 23 SEC Tournament winners, only 9 reached the CWS.
In other words, the SEC Tournament winners of the 21st century were just as likely to lose in the Regional as they were to make it to Omaha.
That’s the stat to take into Hoover. Or rather, that’s perhaps what we should take away from Hoover.
Related: Need a place to reference all things College World Series? Saturday Down South has you covered with our CWS homepage!
Winning the SEC Tournament is an individual accomplishment. The winner is neither cursed nor destined for success. The former feels like a more important thing to point out, especially after the past 3 winners all failed to make it to Omaha.
Some might push back against that because of 2021 Arkansas and 2022 Tennessee, both of which won in Hoover en route to the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament … only to fail to reach Omaha. But it’s hard to pin that on the SEC Tournament when we know the aforementioned drought about No. 1 overall seeds failing to win a national title in the 21st century. Doing both is darn near impossible.
Hitting the SEC trifecta has proven to be a once-in-a-decade feat. In the 21st century, only 2009 LSU and 2019 Vandy swept the SEC regular season, SEC Tournament and College World Series.
Maybe Tennessee has what it takes to get that done. Tony Vitello’s squad has been knocking on the door of college baseball immortality. In the last 3 years, Vitello either led the Vols to the CWS or he earned the No. 1 overall seed. That yielded just 1 victory in Omaha. Winning in Hoover won’t change that.
Then again, neither will losing.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
