The SEC and Big 12 are receiving new teams heading into the 2025 college baseball season. This changes many things about the scheduling and tournament formats for each conference. Here is a breakdown of how the conference tournaments will run for the SEC and Big 12 once May rolls around.
SEC Tournament – Hoover, Ala.
Over the summer, the SEC added Texas and Oklahoma to its ranks, bringing the total number of teams in the SEC to 16, up from the previous 14.
So, the annual tournament in Hoover, Ala., is receiving a change after the conference announced in August that it would remain at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium through 2028.
The SEC used to have 14 teams, ranked first through twelfth, have the opportunity to play in Hoover, with the two last-place teams missing out. Now, all 16 teams will play in the tournament.
The tournament is also changing to single elimination, with the one seed playing the sixteen seed, the two seed playing the 15 seed, etc., until there is a champion at the end of the week.
This differs from previous years, as the tournament had a double-elimination segment between the first and semi-final rounds.
Now, no matter where they finish in the standings during the regular season, teams can have a chance to win the SEC championship in Hoover to gain a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
Phillips 66 Big 12 Tournament – Arlington, Texas
The Big 12 is also changing its conference tournament in Arlington, Texas. In response to losing Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC, it added Utah, Arizona, and Arizona State to its ranks.
After these realignments, 14 teams reside in the Big 12 for baseball. The top 12 teams will travel to Arlington for the Big 12 tournament, and the two last-place teams will not participate.
The top four teams in the conference will receive byes to the quarterfinal round. Until then, the fifth-place and twelfth-place teams, sixth-place and eleventh-place teams, and others will play each other in single-elimination games to determine who advances. The teams that win those games will play the top four teams that had byes.
From there, the remaining games, like the 5-12 seed matchups, will be single elimination to determine a Big 12 champion.
Much like the SEC, the Big 12 tournament used to have double elimination involved, but now that is no longer in the picture.
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WBN NCAA: https://worldbaseball.com/league/ncaa/
