The first day of the tournament is a single-elimination format and double-elimination is implemented on day No. 2. No. 1 Tennessee will begin play Wednesday against Vanderbilt in the double-elimination format.
Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello met with media Tuesday ahead of the SEC Tournament. Vitello discussed if he would be interested in playing a double-elimination tournament earlier in the season to prepare for a postseason format used in Hoover, NCAA regional play and in the College World Series.
The Vols played in the Shriners Children’s College Classic in March at Minute Maid Park in Houston, Texas. The Shriners Children’s College Classic used a round robin format with Tennessee, Baylor, Texas, LSU, Oklahoma and UCLA being part of the field.
“I think just going into those things, like we did at Minute Maid does help you, because you want to be the best team there, or you want to be the best team out of the teams that you play,” Vitello said. “We didn’t play UCLA, for instance, in Houston, but it is a round robin. You can set your pitching. There’s no kind of ifs or if-necessaries, or any of that. I have played in some tournaments where there is a championship. I don’t think I’ve played one where there’s double-elimination. I think that would be tough to do at the beginning of the year.
“I would like to directly answer your question with, for the future, is I would love to help host one of those tournaments. With the new Smokies Park downtown and Lindsey Nelson Stadium, you could have two tremendous venues in a great city, fairly warm weather. I mean, for February or March, no matter where you go, it’s a little bit of a flip of the coin, but warm enough weather to attract teams to something like that, and have a championship or a final. I think for a lot of reasons, that would be an awesome event, and to get to your point, I think it would help you later on down the road.”
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