Rivalry Weekend Hits the Diamond: SEC Baseball’s Biggest Series Are Here
OXFORD, Miss. – For most SEC football fans, the favorite weekend of the season is the final weekend of November.
Also known as “Rivalry Week,” fans eagerly await the Egg Bowl, the Iron Bowl, Texas-Texas A&M as well as Florida-Florida State, Georgia-Georgia Tech and South Carolina-Clemson.
Conference baseball fans are looking forward to this weekend, one set for what should be thrilling rivalry games.
Around the league, No. 6 Mississippi State visits No. 18 Ole Miss. No. 5 Auburn goes to Alabama. No. 2 Texas hosts No. 8 Oklahoma. So, we have the Egg Bowl, the Iron Bowl and the Red River Rivalry.
Not a bad weekend.
Also this week No. 21 Tennessee heads to Vanderbilt and No. 7 Georgia welcomes South Carolina.
The reason these three-game sets are so important is the teams are jockeying for position in the conference standings — and the conference is easily the best in college baseball. Click HERE for SEC standings.
In this week’s Top 25, ten of the ranked teams are from the SEC. Five are from the Atlantic Coast, four from the Big 10, two from the Big 12 and the Sun Belt, with one each from the Pac-whatever it is now and an independent.
The dominance also shows a regional tilt. The only state with three ranked teams is Mississippi. Texas and Georgia each have a pair of ranked teams.
Currently, Mississippi State and Texas lead the conference with a 21-4 record, while Auburn, Kentucky, Georgia, and Florida each have 20 wins while Alabama, Oklahoma, Ole Miss and Texas A&M have 19 apiece.
The only team that does not have a winning record is South Carolina and the Gamecocks are 13-13.
In league play there are no undefeated nor winless teams. Texas is at the top at 5-2, after having defeated Oklahoma Thursday night, and the logjam right behind the Horns has five teams at 4-2, with four more at 3-3.
This weekend will not only provide heated rivalries, it should help separate the teams in the conference standings and have a huge effect on the national polls.
March 26 (Thursday)
#7 Oklahoma at #2 Texas — 7 p.m. [SECN]
March 27 (Friday)
South Carolina at #4 Georgia — 5 p.m. [SECN+]
#5 Auburn at #22 Alabama — 6 p.m. [SECN+]
#22 Florida at #4 Arkansas — 6 p.m. [SECN+]
#24 Texas A&M at Missouri — 6 p.m. [SECN+]
#19 Kentucky at LSU — 6:30 p.m. [SECN+]
#4 Mississippi State at #17 Ole Miss — 6:30 p.m. [SECN+]
#7 Oklahoma at #2 Texas — 7 p.m. [SECN]
#21 Tennessee at Vanderbilt — 7 p.m. [ESPNU]
March 28 (Saturday)
#22 Florida at #4 Arkansas — 1 p.m. [SECN+]
South Carolina at #4 Georgia — 1 p.m. [SECN+]
#21 Tennessee at Vanderbilt — 1 p.m. [SECN]
#4 Mississippi State at #17 Ole Miss — 1:30 p.m. [SECN+]
#19 Kentucky at LSU — 2 p.m. [SECN+]
#24 Texas A&M at Missouri — 4 p.m. [SECN+]
#7 Oklahoma at #2 Texas — 4 p.m. [SECN]
#5 Auburn at #22 Alabama — 7 p.m. [SECN]
March 29 (Sunday)
#21 Tennessee at Vanderbilt — 11:00 a.m. [ESPN2]
#22 Florida at #4 Arkansas — NOON [SECN]
South Carolina at #4 Georgia — NOON [SECN+]
#19 Kentucky at LSU — NOON [SECN+]
#5 Auburn at #22 Alabama — 1 p.m. [SECN+]
#24 Texas A&M at Missouri — 1 p.m. [SECN+]
#4 Mississippi State at #17 Ole Miss — 3 p.m. [SECN]
Steve Barnes
Steve Barnes joins The Rebel Walk staff as a senior writer and brings a trifecta of journalistic experience. As a writer, he has covered college sports for Rivals.com, Football.com and SaturdayDownSouth.com as well as served as a beat writer for various traditional newspapers.
He has been a broadcaster for arena football and several national tournament events for the National Junior College Athletic Association as well as hosting various shows on radio.
A former sports information director at Albany (Ga.) State University and an assistant at Troy and West Florida, he has helped host many NCAA conference, regional and national events, including serving five years on the media committee of the NCAA Division II World Series.
Barnes, a native of Pensacola, Fla., attended Ole Miss in 1983-84, where his first journalism teacher was David Kellum. The duo has come a long way since that time.
He will bring a proven journalistic track record, along with a knack for finding the out-of-the-ordinary story angles to The Rebel Walk.
Barnes continues to reside in Pensacola a mere ten minutes from the beach because he does have taste and a brain.
