Down Goes the SEC: A Weekend of Upsets Takes Away the SEC’s Dominance in College Baseball
SEC Baseball has been king of the NCAA for the last decade. Vanderbilt, Tennessee, LSU, Ole Miss and Florida have taken home one or more College World Series Titles since 2015. The 2025 season has been full of upsets since week one, however the SEC still managed to hold their reign into the postseason. Half of the 16 regional host sites belonged to SEC schools, and even more SEC teams fell into the two or three seed spot in other regionals. It seemed, like every year, that the SEC was just too good to take down. This season however, looks a little different.
One upset after another consumed the 13 SEC teams in their regionals. The Florida Gators fell not once but twice to East Carolina University, allowing 11 runs scored in each matchup. The Gators who made an appearance in Omaha last year will return home after just one round of the postseason. While Oklahoma put up a fight, they were unable to take down D1 Baseball’s one seed, the North Carolina Tar Heels and were flying back home after a 14-4 loss on June 2nd.
The biggest upsets of the weekend however, were found at Vanderbilt, Texas and Ole Miss. When Vandy received the one seed to begin the tournament fans and analysts cried SEC bias, an undeserving honor. Their record begged to differ, but their performance in their regional proved the doubters right. Vanderbilt fell in and out of the losers bracket all weekend before finally taking a tight 5-4 loss to Wright State and missing their chance at redemption in the championship game. Down goes the one seed.
The Longhorns faced a similar situation in the Austin Regional. After a total of four games in just three days the Longhorns were running out of steam. The UTSA Roadrunners made history as they took down the Longhorns 7-4 in their championship game making it to regionals for the first time in school history. The two seed fell in four games, dropping yet another SEC team from the rankings.
Late in the final hours of regional weekend another upset was brewing. The Rebels of Ole Miss also had a long weekend, playing in their fourth game in three days they had to hold the Racers of Murray State to one loss. One more win was all they needed, but the racers were hungry for a win. They’d beat Ole Miss 9-6 in game one, they knew it could be done. In a close call, down to the last inning game the Racers just wanted it more. They took game seven of the weekend 12-11 and punched their ticket to a super.
After a weekend of regional play only four of 13 SEC teams remain on the road to Omaha. Arkansas, LSU, Auburn, and the Tennessee Vols will represent the SEC in this weekend’s super regionals. With only 16 teams remaining in the postseason the praise for the SEC is slowly fizzling out. An unexpected turn of events for this usually dominant conference.
