Column: Vanderbilt Baseball’s Final Series Matters on One Condition – Sports Illustrated

Vanderbilt baseball finishes up its regular season tonight with a weekend home series against South Carolina. At first glance, it seems like this series could end up being the least relevant and perhaps the series with the least amount of postseason stakes in the SEC this weekend.
And for the most part, that would be correct. In South Carolina’s case, the Gamecocks are 7-20 going into this weekend and their only hopes of making the NCAA Tournament would be to win the SEC Tournament next week.
In Vanderbilt’s case, though, it could be slightly different. Which is why this series can end up mattering if it goes on a run at the conference tournament. As of now, this series is not necessarily meaningless per se, but Vanderbilt does not have much to gain even with a sweep.
On the surface at this moment, Vanderbilt’s series against South Carolina does not matter in the big picture for its NCAA Tournament hopes.
But it can end up mattering on this condition: Vanderbilt goes on a run to the SEC Championship game.
It would be the Commodores’ only case, if any, for an at-large bid in the SEC Tournament. If Vanderbilt sweeps South Carolina to get to 14-16 and then wins three games at the SEC Tournament to make an appearance at the SEC Tournament Championship, it could have somewhat of a decent case to make it into the 64-team field and extend its regional streak.
It may not be a strong case, but it may be enough to at least be somewhat in the bubble conversation. To make it to the SEC title game, the Commodores would have to likely play and beat three teams that will be in the NCAA Tournament and that are also in the top 35 in the RPI.
Right now, Vanderbilt’s RPI is 74th and can raise it a few spots if it were to sweep South Carolina this weekend. Combine that with three wins in Hoover against strong RPI teams and that could maybe be enough for Vanderbilt’s RPI to rise high enough to where it could make a case to sneak in as the last team in.
But the thing is that this weekend must be a sweep. Going 2-1 against South Carolina would certainly eliminate any glimmer of hope Vanderbilt has of getting an at-large bid. At that point, Vanderbilt would be 13-17 in SEC play as opposed 14-16 and it would not have the resume for an at-large even if it were to win three games next week.
And all that assumes that Vanderbilt would be able to improve its resume enough to where it could be an at-large if it were to sweep the weekend plus making an appearance Sunday in Hoover.
It could easily not be enough. But if Vanderbilt fans are more optimistic, that could be the glimmer of hope to hang their hats on.
The path is about as narrow as it can be for the regional streak to be extended to 20 years, but it is not impossible. Vanderbilt just has to take things one game at a time and try to get hot like it did at this time of the season a year ago. If it does, who knows what can happen.
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Graham Baakko is a writer for Vanderbilt Commodores On SI, primarily covering football, basketball and baseball. Graham is a recent graduate from the University of Alabama, where he wrote for The Crimson White, WVUA-FM, WVUA 23 as he covered a variety of Crimson Tide sports. He also covered South Carolina athletics as a sportswriting intern for GamecockCentral.
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