This year’s College World Series will be unique in that there are only two conferences participating following the Super Regional round: the ACC and the SEC.
The heavy lineup of power conference players should make for a thoroughly compelling tournament out in Omaha, and it offers with it some unique advantages for the teams taking part.
“It definitely helps knowing some of the teams in the league’s styles of play, whether we’ve played them or we played them a year ago, whatever,” Kentucky coach Nick Mingione said. “That definitely does help with some familiarity.”
As for the field itself, it’s fairly stacked. There are the SEC juggernauts Kentucky, Tennessee and Texas A&M, as well as perennial power Florida, which fought through a sub-par season to reach the College World Series.
On the ACC side there are also some traditional powers: Virginia stands out along with Florida State. Then there are some squads looking to break through in NC State and North Carolina.
It’s a unique setup.
“It is, and you know what? I think we’re going to start seeing more of things like this,” Mingione said. “I just think it’s becoming harder and harder for some of these other schools because of all the different factors going on with college athletics. I fully anticipate moving forward to see, now will it be perfectly that way every time? I don’t think so. Maybe it will happen again.
“But some of the other conferences, with the Pac-12 going away, I think we’ll start seeing some Big 12 teams and some things there. But I think it’s going to be harder and harder for some of these other teams to make it because of the layout of college athletics.”
Kentucky landed in the SEC-heavy portion of the bracket, with three of the four schools in the bottom half of the bracket hailing from the Southeastern Conference.
The College World Series will open for the bottom half of the bracket on Saturday, with Kentucky and NC State squaring off first before Florida and Texas A&M go at it in the nightcap.
Kentucky will throw its first pitch at 1 p.m. ET on Saturday against NC State, with the game slated for a broadcast on ESPN.
The post Heavy SEC presence at College World Series provides unique setup, possible advantages appeared first on On3.