All-SEC College World Series finals: Tennessee-Texas A&M CWS series latest in conference dominance

Craig Meyer, USA TODAY NETWORK
·3 min read

Through the athletic successes of its members, the schools it has been able to poach from elsewhere and, of course, the media rights deals it has garnered, the SEC has established itself in recent years as one of the two most powerful and lucrative conferences in college sports.

That lofty standing has been reinforced in the 2024 College World Series.

More: Buy College World Series tickets with StubHub

Benefitted by factors outside of its control — namely, the warmer temperatures that allow member programs to play outdoors year-round — and within it — fan support for baseball and schools’ investment in their baseball programs — that SEC has come to dominate the CWS in recent years.

The league has been home to each of the past four national champions. It sent four teams to Omaha, Nebraska for the event this year, making up half of the eight-team field. Beginning Saturday night, two of its teams, Tennessee and Texas A&M, will take part in the CWS championship series, assuring the conference of a fifth-consecutive national-title winner.

REQUIRED READING: Tennessee baseball could win it all. With no goalposts to tear down, how do we celebrate?

The SEC is accustomed to having two of its teams meet for the national championship in college football, There have been three all-SEC football title games since 2011, beginning with with Alabama’s yawn-inducing 21-0 drubbing of LSU in what was then the BCS championship game.

But has it ever happened in baseball? And if so, how often has it occurred? Here’s a look at the history of SEC teams meeting for the College World Series championship:

REQUIRED READING: Why Texas A&M's Jim Schlossnagle isn’t surprised by Tony Vitello’s success with Tennessee baseball

All-SEC College World Series championship history

This year marks the sixth time that the CWS championship series has involved two SEC teams.

It’s actually the third time in the past four years it has happened, with LSU defeating Florida in 2023 and Mississippi State taking down Vanderbilt in 2021.

It’s a relatively recent trend, too, with five of the six instances of an all-SEC CWS championship taking place since 2011.

Here’s how previous all-SEC CWS championships played out, with the scores listed as number of games in the three-game series that were won by each team:

  • 2023: LSU 2, Florida 1

  • 2021: Mississippi State 2, Vanderbilt 1

  • 2017: Florida 2, LSU 0

  • 2011: South Carolina 2, Florida 0

  • 1997: LSU 13, Alabama 6*

*The CWS played a single championship game until 2003, when it moved to a best-of-three series format

REQUIRED READING: Tennessee baseball announces starting pitcher for College World Series final vs Texas A&M

Conferences with two teams in CWS championship

What the SEC has managed to accomplish over the better part of the past 15 years is rare over the course of CWS history.

How rare, exactly?

Excluding the six all-SEC title matchups, the CWS championship has featured two schools from the same conference only twice, both of which belonged to what was then known as the Pac-10.

In 1998, USC defeated Arizona State in a 21-14 barnburner and in 1988, Arizona State fell again in the championship, this time to Stanford, 9-4.

Arizona State and USC met three times in the CWS championship from 1972-78, but each of those meetings occurred while the Sun Devils were in the Western Athletic Conference. Both Arizona and Arizona State moved from the WAC to what became the Pac-10 ahead of the 1978-79 academic year.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: All-SEC College World Series finals: Is Tennessee-Texas A&M first in CWS?