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Honest Question - Why does winning the SEC in baseball matter so much?

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Paperdog

Redshirt
Aug 24, 2012
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The other thread got me to thinking about this topic

Not saying that anyone's opinion is right or wrong ...

Why does winning the SEC regular season championship matter in baseball to so many of you ... Yes, it has been 25 years since winning the last one

However, I judge a season's success on making it to Omaha

Tonight, Kentucky is playing for the men's basketball national championship. However, Florida won the SEC regular season title and the SEC tournament title. If Kentucky wins the national title tonight, no one will be talking about Florida's SEC regular season title 10 years from now. However, the 2014 Wildcats will be discussed for the remainder of time.

I enjoyed last year's run and spent two weeks in Omaha. Not once, did I think the trip to Omaha was cheapened because that squad finished 10-1/2 games out of first

Again not saying anyone is right or wrong ... But why is winning the league title so important?
 
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8dog

All-American
Feb 23, 2008
14,019
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It doesnt. I dont care if we ever win it again. Just get to supers and
Omaha
 
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RebelAlumnus

Heisman
Jul 9, 2013
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Because it typically means you're a national seed and will have an easier path to Omaha.

Anything beyond that matters little.
 
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Shamoan

Redshirt
Jun 27, 2013
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its a benchmark for success. if you go with the route that baseball championships done matter, neither do basketball or football. for a school that prides itself on baseball, its especially important.

you refer to kentucky and florida, yet dont mention the countless regular season titles in basketball. now, if the question were regular season titles vs cws appearances, the answer is undoubtedly cws appearances, but every coach in the sec has the goal of winning the regular season title from first pitch until last.

for a team that claims to be elite in its own conference (as we do), its a knock on that claim to have gone as long as we have without a title.

is it everything? no, absolutely not, but its an indicator of how we stack up against our peers, and in that regard, we are severely lacking. again, you are 100% correct in that cws appearances and to a greater extent, national titles have more weight....no doubt about it, but how often is a team given the choice between those two? never, we are just trying to win as many baseball games as possible regardless of situation. 4 times has lsu claimed both the regular season title and the national title and six times, since we last won a reg season title, ('90,'91,'93, '96, '97, '12) have they won both the sec and had trips to omaha...and that is all since we have won the regular season back in '89.

so knowing that information, does it benefit this team more to win the regular season or to pretend it has no bearing on the quality of team we produce? clearly, if we can produce the caliber of team that wins the regular season, the odds of us going to and winning in omaha are vastly improved. we are burying our heads in the sand and saying that it doesnt matter, when there is a strong correlation between titles and success....certainly for other teams, so im not sure why we would be the exception to that rule. i think we have become complacent and with all respect, the fact that this is even being asked, is evidence of that.

winning regular season titles = strong teams. the more strong teams we string together, the more likely we find success in achieving the ultimate goal. complacency is running our program and we are content with blending in to the periphery instead of seizing opportunity by the horns and making this conference our baseball *****. why not us? we have some big pieces in place to achieve that, yet lack the gumption to step up and take control.
 
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LiterallyPolice

Redshirt
Dec 15, 2011
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I'm not saying that winning the SEC regular season is the *most* important thing... but it is something I care about, and I think it is a great accomplishment for a couple of reasons:

1.) You have to be consistently good for many weeks to win the regular season
2.) Regular season titles are more elusive to MSU than tourney wins or playoff runs.

Off the top of my head, I can think of ONE regular season SEC title: 2004 Men's Basketball (ETA: In recent memory). In that same timespan we've won the SEC tourney multiple times in both baseball and basketball, had a few trips to Omaha, a trip to the Final Four, etc.
 
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thekimmer

All-Conference
Aug 30, 2012
8,124
2,133
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Why does it matter so much in any sport?.....

Not just baseball. A conference championship is just that. It means you are recognized for being the best of 14 teams. It is a big deal for anybody. It is also pretty rare given that we haven't won one in a quarter century in BB, a lifetime in FB and a decade in hoops.

In baseball it also pretty much means you had a pretty good season which is fun for the fans and are in the running for a national seed which makes it easier to get to omaha.

No brainer really.
 
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WayboDawg

Redshirt
Jun 7, 2013
1,219
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One way to look at is that you can't be lucky and win the regular season title. Our 2007 team that made the CWS was lucky in my mind and probably not as good of a team as we all like to remember. Vandy's team that won the regular season title while only losing 3 league games last year was great. They just played a couple of bad games in the super regional when it mattered most. That being said, Is rather be lucky and make it to the CWS, than great and lay an egg at the wrong time.
 
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dickiedawg

All-Conference
Feb 22, 2008
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Regular season title would be a huge accomplishment. It's a good bet that more than one SEC team will go to Omaha in a given year, but only one had the sustained success over the course of a season to win the title.
 
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