With florida making it to the final I think that secures a seed

LSU, Florida, and Vandy.

No

2 national seeds from the East, which will have no other at large teams? I don't see it. Vandy only split with A&M in Hoover--winning the tournament wouldn't be that significant an accomplishment. Vandy is the pro scouts' dream team, but that's not the criteria for handing out national seeds.

All are at-large, but the SECT winner.

LINK /

quote:

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Finally, the great Aggie-Commodore debate. Mark Etheridge and Kendall Rogers both leaned slightly toward Texas A&M, with the caveat that if Vanderbilt wins the SEC title tomorrow, it will jump the Aggies. The crux of their argument:

(1) A&M went 25-0 in nonconference play, while Vandy struggled in some midweek games and went 19-7 nonconference.

(2) Texas A&M should get credit for its 24-0 start, because that is difficult to do, regardless of the quality of the opponents.

(3) The Aggies have very slight edges in records against top 25 (7-3) and top 50 (14-7) over the Commodores, who are 6-6 vs. top 25, 13-9 vs. top 50.

(4) Texas A&M athletics director Stan Hyman serves on the selection committee, and his influence should help the Aggies get a better deal, as they did two years ago, when they should have been one of the last teams in the field and wound up as a No. 2 seed.

Those points are all valid. However, I was the dissenting opinion in this debate — I think Vanderbilt deserves a national seed over A&M regardless of what happens on Sunday. The crux of my argument:

(1) Vandy finished slightly ahead in the SEC in the regular season (20-10 vs. 18-10) and won its division — this is minor, but not irrelevant.

(2) Vandy also went farther in the conference tournament, and had to eliminate Texas A&M to do it. The two teams did split their two SEC tournament meetings, but Vandy had to play an additional game in the loser’s bracket before it got to face the Aggies again in the semifinals, so theoretically A&M should have had an advantage with fresher pitching because it played one fewer game — and the Commodores still won.

(3) Momentum: Vandy finished better down the stretch, winning three of its last four series, while A&M only won one of its final five series (and tied another).

(4) Nonconference strength of schedule — and this is the big one. All of the other differences between these two teams are small — a few metrics lean slightly toward A&M, a few lean slightly toward Vanderbilt. The only area where there is a huge gap between them is nonconference SOS, where Vandy is No. 36 and Texas A&M is No. 195. The Commodores are also No. 16 overall in SOS, while A&M is No. 62.

Again, you have to do a lot of splitting hairs to pick one of these two teams, and two of our three committee members voted for A&M (unless Vandy wins tomorrow), so I’ll defer to that here, and I think it is a perfectly fine choice. No conference has ever produced four national seeds, and I do not expect that to happen this year either, because there are other worthy contenders in the top 10 of the RPI.

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Thanks. Copy, paste, and quoting on your phone can be a pain in the arse.