Playoff baseball begins on Tuesday for the Florida Gators in Hoover, Alabama as the boys in Orange and Blue enter the SEC Tournament as the No. 9 seed.
The tournament schedule can be difficult to navigate for even the most seasoned college baseball fan, but we’ve got your back.
The opening round of the tournament is single-elimination where the top four seeds get a bye. Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky and Texas A&M own the top seed this year, in that order, which means Florida must beat the No. 8 seed Vanderbilt on Tuesday to keep playing. First pitch is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. ET.
Thanks to a series win over Georgia to close out the regular season, the Gators are guaranteed to finish with a record above .500 — the required win percentage to make the NCAA Tournament. Still, it’s important to win as many games as possible to secure a better seed.
The Commodores took two of three from the Gators earlier this season, but they won’t be at home this time around (no whistler). Win that game and Florida’s prize is a date with the top-ranked team in the country — Tennesee — 24 hours later.
Fortunately, if Florida makes it to the Tennessee game, it is guaranteed another as the double-elimination portion of the tournament starts on Wednesday.
It’s hard to project any Thursday matchup. A loss would pit UF against the loser of the game 30 minutes after it. Texas A&M is guaranteed a spot in that matchup, but the two Mississippi teams have to battle it out in the opening round to determine the other contender. A win over Tennessee means that Florida plays the winner of the game mentioned above.
It’s a complicated dance to come out on top in Hoover. Florida hasn’t done it since 2015 and has only won the tournament seven times since it started in 1976.
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