It’s interesting (and, for once, in our favor) that we don’t play Vandy this season; but Ole Miss does, as does Florida and MSU. Of the top 5 teams that everyone figured to duke it out with each other for the SEC Championship, only Ole MIss plays all of the other 4. Obviously, Vandy doesn’t play us. And, MSU doesn’t play Florida, either. But all in all, as difficult a schedule as we have, it could be worse. And those wins over Texas, TCU and Tech will plug in nicely and continue to pay RPI dividends all season long.
But there is an outlier…Tennessee. Not only are they good and currently tied (with us and Ole Miss) for 2nd place, one game behind Vandy…But they don’t play TWO of the other 5 contenders (they escape the state of Mississippi altogether). Plus, the three contenders they do play (us, Vandy and Florida) are ALL home series for the Vols. That’s a big advantage.
Although i respect the program Vitello is building, I don’t think they’re the best team in the SEC at this point. But they do, by far, have the most favorable schedule. And at the end of the season, they only count up how many you won…not who or where you played.
I think Tech may host too. New ballpark, RPI is certainly very good so far with the help of playing us three times, and they lead their division in C-USA.
While I agree with your thoughts above, I think their 7-2 record is meaningful and insightful. Simply put, they have one of the top 4 SEC records at the half point at the 30% point, while playing 2 of 3 series on the road.
On the other hand, the Hogs have played 2 of 3 SEC series at home, perhaps against the two worst teams in the SEC West…thus far.
We haven’t played LSU yet; they’re at least as bad as Alabama. Tennessee has – at home. I’ll still put sweeping Moo U at Stankvomit over taking 2 of 3 from Jawja at Athens.
The Cajuns are #36 in the current RPI with a record of 18-11; they lead the Sun Belt West at 5-1. LaTech is #9 in the RPI.
I can remember when Tulane was a baseball power (trips to Omaha in '01 and '05) but the Greenies have been mediocre for years. David Pierce took them to a conference title in 2016 and promptly left for Texas, and they sank back into mediocrity
An argument can be made that Louisiana Tech is the best team outside of a Power 5 conference right now. The only other program that I think would be in that discussion is East Carolina, but East Carolina doesn’t have the resume that Louisiana Tech has.
The Bulldogs were 2-2 against Arkansas and Ole Miss, and also beat a pretty good Southern Miss team three out of four games in Hattiesburg. East Carolina’s best result was probably a two-game split with North Carolina, but North Carolina is not as good as it has been.
Yeah I was surprised when I looked up UNC last night to see they were barely over .500. But they did beat the Poultry in their annual game in Charlotte last night in 10 innings.
Mike Fox retired last year. He built UNC baseball into a monster. The Tar Heels promoted one of his assistant coaches who had no head coaching experience, so it’ll be interesting to see if they fall back.
The ACC is a tough baseball conference. You can get passed in a hurry.
