Tick tick. Tick tick. Selection Monday is approaching.
To help pass the time, we’re continuing our “5 Games to Watch” series with a special Conference Tournament edition: 5 Conference Tournaments to Watch.
Big Ten
The Big Ten has been extremely compelling in men’s sports this year, and this baseball season is no exception. The Beavers arch-rivals Oregon won the B1G regular season title, former Pac-12 pals UCLA are in the conference tournament semifinals, and the dogged Iowa Hawkeyes (who tied Oregon State earlier this month) also are in the semis.
Currently at the time of this article, Oregon is facing Michigan State in pool play, and they’ll battle Nebraska tomorrow at 4 PM PST on B1G Network. With a pair of wins, the B1G semifinals would feature two top 15 teams (Oregon and UCLA) and a fiesty Iowa squad.
The B1G semifinals are slated for Saturday, Game 1 at 12 PM PST, and Game 2 at 4 PM PST. The conference championship game would air Sunday at 12 PM PST, and all three contests can be seen on B1G Network.
Southeastern Conference (SEC)
It just matters more. In the SEC baseball conference tournament, that motto actually has some veracity: the conference tournament format is a 16 team single-elimination slugfest.
At the time of this article, Tennessee (SEC #8, but 21st nationally) has advanced to the conference semifinal game Saturday. They will await the winner of Oklahoma/Vanderbilt (9th in the nation), while the other side of the quarterfinal bracket pits Arkansas (SEC #2, 5th nationally) against Ole Miss (SEC #7, 17th nationally) and Texas A&M (preseason #1) versus LSU (current #1).
The semifinals will air on Saturday, beginning at 10 AM PST on SEC Network. The championship game is scheduled for Sunday at 12 PM PST on ESPN2.
Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC)
The nation’s #16 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets topped the ACC tournament bracket, and have punched their ticket to the semifinals Saturday. They await the winner of North Carolina State and Clemson tonight. The other side of the bracket revs up tomorrow with a pair of top ten teams: first, Florida State (nation’s #6) will face Duke, and North Carolina (nation’s #3) battle the ACC’s 14th-ranked Boston College Eagles. Coverage begins at 12 PM PST on the ACC Network.
The semifinals continue Saturday, beginning at 10 AM PST on the ACC Network. Sunday’s championship game will air at 9 AM PST on ESPN2.
Big West Conference
One of the top mid-major baseball conferences in America takes a different approach to their conference tournament: a four team double-elimination pool. Right now top seed UC Irvine faces Hawaii, and later tonight Cal Poly will face Cal State Fullerton. Notably, the Beavers beat each of UC Irvine, Hawaii, and CS Fullerton this season.
The winners bracket semifinal is tomorrow at 3 PM PST, streaming on ESPN+. The losers bracket semifinal will follow it at 7 PM PST. Then the championship round is slated for Saturday: Game 1 starts at 3 PM, and Game 2 (if necessary) will follow it at 7 PM.
Big 12
While the Big 12 lacks firepower from previous seasons, they always bring tradition. Tomorrow, the semifinals will pit West Virginia against Arizona (2 PM PST) and then the winners of Kansas/Oklahoma State and TCU/Houston will square off (5 PM PST). Both semifinal games will stream on ESPN+. The Big 12 championship game will air Saturday evening on ESPNU, at 4 PM PST.
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