21 hours ago
Scooter Hobbs column: Only LSU and Arkansas left to carry SEC's banner
LSU and Arkansas know each other well, of course, but they may be in for a surprise when they arrive in Omaha for the College World Series.
No introduction needed for the CWS opener for both on Saturday, and they represent college baseball at its best, flag bearers for mighty Southeastern Conference.
Yet they're going to be kind of all by their lonesome Hog and Tiger selves and … who are all these other people?
This isn't the way it was supposed to happen.
They'd been promised, with much ado and season-long chest-pounding, that the 78th edition of the CWS was set up to be little more than an SEC reunion.
SEC Tournament Part Deaux, the sequel. Let the cream rise to the top.
The NCAA tournament selection committee played along — or got duped, depending on how you look at it.
That learned body huddled for days and, in the end, slotted six SEC teams among the coveted eight national seeds, the fast track to the Omaha (on paper at least). Treated it like a formality that the SEC would use Omaha to — step aside, everybody — showcase it talent and dominance.
Odd thing. The tournament field didn't play out much like that on the ballfield.
Instead, there will seem to be a lot of college baseball riffraff hanging around the ballpark.
And a lot of really good SEC teams sitting home, perhaps pouting.
Only two from the SEC, Arkansas and LSU, can go to games without a ticket. And they'll play each other Saturday.
It wasn't the only whiff by the committee, which won't be going to Las Vegas anytime soon.
Just the most glaring.
The No. 1 and No. 2 seeds, Vanderbilt and Texas, couldn't even make it out of the regionals that they hosted.
No whisky steaks or jello shots for ya'll.
Nor Georgia, which was the No. 7 national seed and also stumbled at home in its own regional.
That set the stage for Ole Miss, the No. 10 seed, to host a super regional and — oh, but wait, the Rebels also lost their home regional to something called Murray State, no less.
At least Auburn, the No. 4 national seed, made it out of its own regional — and promptly dropped two straight to Coastal Carolina.
Maybe that shouldn't be a shocker. Coastal will have the best mascot in Omaha — the dreaded Chanticleers, a fictional rooster of some sort that answers to the name 'Chauncey,' — and has one more national championship (1) than Auburn.
LSU fans, particularly head coach Jay Johnson, should know them. They won that 2016 CWS title after shocking LSU in the super regionals in Baton Rouge and eventually took two of three from Arizona — then coached by one J. Johnson — for the championship.
Johnson can mingle with some past friends in Omaha as his old Arizona team will alsobe in Omaha (in the opposite 4-team bracket from LSU). A No. 3 seed in regionals, the Wildcats took down No. 5 national seed North Carolina in the supers despite getting outscored 29-16 (lost the first game 18-2, showed up the next day anyway and then won the next two).
Anyway, if you're keeping score at home, that's just two of the SEC's six national seeds in Omaha, and only three of the eight overall.
One of the dual, four-team brackets has only one national seed, No. 8 Oregon State, along with Louisville, Arizona and Coastal Carolina.
The LSU-Arkansas bracket has UCLA … wait a minute, Murray State, we're going to need some I.D. here.
It's in Kentucky (I looked it up) so the whole world has a Cinderella to get behind, especially one whose home ballyards seats 23,200 fewer fans that the CWS' Charles Schwab Field.
Actually, it's not unusual for lesser lights to show in Omaha.
What ever happened to It Just Means More? Baseball really does mean more in the SEC than anywhere else.
But if the selection committee is a little red-faced after setting the table so nicely for the SEC, it's mainly the SEC itself that has egg on its reputation.
Two teams — that's it?
And they're playing each other right out of the gates.
No, it wasn't SEC fatigue setting up the brackets here, even if Arkansas beat Tennessee to make it. If you've got 13 teams in the tournament, it's inevitable — there's going to be some incidents of conference friendly-fire.
Still, it puts the pressure on LSU and Arkansas.
SEC pride is on the line — and the rest of the country, no doubt, would love to see them fail.
