The SEC highlights a week of NCAA baseball conference tournaments

The GIST: Baseball’s regular season slid home yesterday, setting up this week’s 29 thrilling Division I (DI) conference tourneys. But in this crowded postseason party, the must-watch action is in the SEC.

The competitive edge: This conference is scary good, with four of the nation’s Top 5 teams and seven of the Top 25. SEC squads lead the nation in win-loss percentage, shutouts, strikeouts per inning, and several other NCAA stats. DI’s best hitter and best pitcher? Both SEC athletes.

• Given that five of the last six national titles went to different SEC squads, this conference is essentially the Beyoncé of the NCAA diamond.

• And Saturday’s finale previewed the chaos to come: Florida bagged a series-sealing 19–11 dub over No. 9 Georgia, and the No. 2 Kentucky Wildcats choked 12–4 against unranked Vanderbilt — blowing the ’Cats’ sole ownership of the regular-season title in the process.

The conference tourney: Snagging a share of that regular-season title? Tennessee, who stole the tourney’s top seed thanks to their late-April head-to-head victories over Kentucky. Both have byes through tomorrow’s opening round, but this weekend proved that every single game in this conference is worth watching.

• No. 6–seed Georgia has the most to prove — they need to sweeten their resume ahead of next week’s selection show with a deep run in the toughest conference ’ship. Catch the Bulldogs tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. ET against reigning natty champ No. 11 LSU.