First non advantageous baseball result today.

[dawgphd]

USC - Vandy canceled.

 

[nsvltndog]

Impact of USC - Vandy rainout

Right now the SEC standings look like this.

VU 21-2
LSU 19-5
ARK 15-8
USC 13-10
MSU 13-11
UF 12-12
UM 12-12
Bama 11-12
A&M 10-13
UK 10-14
AUB 9-15
MZ 7-17
UT 6-16
UGA 5-16

Notice the 3 teams we don't play filling up slots 12, 13, and 14 in the 14 team league just like we all expected them to when we saw the schedule at the beginning of the season.

Now, back to the impact of the USC-VU rainout. We are 1/2 game behind South Carolina in the standings in the battle for 4th place and a bye in the SEC Tourney.

USC plays Georgia at home this weekend. We get 3 in Oxford. Being 1/2 game behind, we have to keep pace with them next weekend or we will have to sweep them in order to claim the #4 seed. Of course they could have beaten VU today and this would still be the case, but the odds are they would have picked up a loss and be tied with us with 6 games left.

UF closes with at home vs Auburn and on the road against Georgia. 5-1 or 6-0 is not out of the question for them.

 

[drt7891]

The SECT bye is not near as important to me as the series against USCe. That is setting up to be a battle for the third host spot in the SEC this year.

 

[dawgphd]

The SECT bye is not near as important to me as the series against USCe. That is setting up to be a battle for the third host spot in the SEC this year.

You are correct.

But hosting is going to be interesting.

Arkansas is solidly in 3rd with 6 games to go.

It would be really odd for the 3rd place SEC team not to host.

However, their RPI is 39. They are actually 9th in the league in RPI.

Bottom line - if we will all 6 we are a national seed.

 

[patdog]

The SECT bye could be huge if we don't win the play-in game if we don't get the bye. But, really it's probably just looking at the same situation two different ways. The MSU-USC series will probably be for both the bye and for a regional host.

 

[thekimmer]

Odd but far from out of the question......

You are correct.

"It would be really odd for the 3rd place SEC team not to host."

Remember that situation in hoops where the Western Div champs didn't get an at-large to the NCAAT but the #3 team in the west did?

Plus, as it has been pointed out already, there is a significant difference in the conference strength of schedule among the teams.

Ultimately I think its in our hands what we do these next two weeks. Two huge series with lots riding on them.

 

[patdog]

I agree. I don't think the committee is going to even look at conference standings for the SEC, not that they give it much consideration for any conference. They're evaluating teams entire body of work across the entire country. Arkansas just has way too many bad losses and too low an RPI to get serious consideration to host a regional. MSU and USC will both get serious consideration, and may very well both host.

 

[JacksonDevilDog]

I tend to agree with this theory, but factoring in traditional MSU luck, this will be the first year that a team with an RPI of 40'ish will host (Arky).

I agree. I don't think the committee is going to even look at conference standings for the SEC, not that they give it much consideration for any conference. They're evaluating teams entire body of work across the entire country. Arkansas just has way too many bad losses and too low an RPI to get serious consideration to host a regional. MSU and USC will both get serious consideration, and may very well both host.

 

[patdog]

You're being paranoid.

 

[thekimmer]

Right. Case in point MSU and Arky each had two different opponents from the east. Arky got UGA and UT with 11 wins between them. We got Vandy and UF who has 33 conference wins.

The things that hurt us right now is that we lost our series against arky and that UK series really hurts in retrospect.

 

[Jimbob Cooter]

The SECT won't matter at all. MSU-USC will be decided the week before that.