Halfway home: SEC baseball standings, takeaways after 5 weeks of conference play
By Andrew Olson
Published:
In the SEC, we’ve officially crossed the halfway point of the conference season. Obviously, we were well into the second half of the 2026 season already, as nonconference action began back in February. However, it’s the 10 weekends of conference action that determine the regular-season conference title and help decide which teams earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament. In years past, an SEC squad has generally needed to be 13-17 or better in conference play and over .500 overall to make the field of 64.
The SEC is as strong as ever. The conference has claimed the last 7 national champions, and it is set to have numerous postseason contenders again this June. But before Omaha, and even before the SEC Tournament in Hoover, what about the regular-season conference title?
Here’s where the 16 SEC teams stack up in the standings after 5 weeks of conference play:
- Georgia — 11-4 SEC (29-8 overall)
- Texas A&M — 9-5 (27-7)
- Texas — 9-5 (27-7)
- Florida — 9-6 (27-10)
- Alabama — 8-7 (26-11)
- Ole Miss — 8-7 (26-11)
- Auburn — 8-7 (24-11)
- Arkansas — 8-7 (24-13)
- Mississippi State — 7-8 (26-10)
- Kentucky — 7-8 (25-10)
- Oklahoma — 7-8 (24-11)
- Tennessee — 7-8 (24-12)
- Vanderbilt — 7-8 (21-16)
- LSU — 6-9 (22-15)
- South Carolina — 5-10 (18-19)
- Mizzou — 3-12 (20-17)
Will an SEC team win it all in Omaha? Make a College World Series prediction today at Kalshi!
Top Takeaways of the Week
Here are the biggest takeaways we had from last week in the SEC:
Tennessee turnaround
There’s still a long way to go, but if Tennessee is packing its bags for Omaha in June, this past weekend will likely be remembered as the point in the season in which Josh Elander’s team turned things around.
The Vols were having a rough go in things in the first 4 weeks of SEC play, standing at 4-8. Baseball America wasn’t even projecting UT to make the NCAA Tournament field entering the weekend. Things have changed in a significant way.
A sweep of the top-10 Mississippi State Bulldogs in Starkville is a big deal. Yes, the Diamond Dogs are struggling mightily with back-to-back home sweeps, suffering the same fate against Georgia last week. Still, going into Dudy Noble Field and leaving 3-0 is no small feat.
At 7-8 in conference play, Tennessee is firmly in the middle of the pack in the SEC standings. But, most importantly, it’s safe to say the Vols are solidly in the NCAA Tournament picture with a much-improved outlook entering the second half of the SEC grind.
Sully’s still got it
Kevin O’Sullivan turned some heads when he made an adjustment to the weekend rotation, rarely seen in his long tenure as Florida’s head coach. O’Sullivan moved Aidan King to the Friday night “ace” spot and pushed veteran starter Liam Peterson to the Saturday No. 2 spot.
King proved his skipper right by facing the minimum through 6 perfect innings. Don’t let the 8-2 final score discount the impact of King’s stellar outing. It was a 1-0 game through the first 6. The Gator bats didn’t really get going until the 7th inning. King ended up pitching into the 8th, allowing 2 earned runs against the SEC’s top team.
O’Sullivan also could not have asked for a better response from Peterson. Again, don’t let the final score fool you (5-1 Georgia), Peterson pitched a career-high 7 innings, allowing only 1 run in a no-decision for him. UGA scored its 4 runs in the 8th inning against UF relievers Cooper Walls and Caden McDonald.
If King and Peterson can consistently give these kinds of performances, they’ll be a 1-2 punch that has UF competing for the SEC title, and more, over the next few weeks.
Pressure’s on for LSU
As has been clear all year, this is not the same LSU team from last year. That much was obvious before SEC play, as the defending national champions had some surprising midweek stumbles.
Last year, LSU went 53-15 to win the College World Series. This year, the Tigers are 22-15 with 5 weekends of SEC play remaining.
Jay Johnson’s team is 6-9 in conference contests. That’s 1 game off the desired 13-17 pace for making the NCAA Tournament, but no one is going to sound the alarm just yet.
LSU has been here before. In 2024 — coming off a national championship season — the Tigers were 3-12 through their first 15 SEC games. Their record was also 22-15 overall.
The good news is the ’24 Tigers turned it around and finished 13-17 in regular-season play. They even stayed hot and went 4-1 in the SEC Tournament. The bad news is that that team did not make it out of the opening round of the NCAA Tournament, falling to North Carolina in the Chapel Hill Regional.
Right now, obviously, it’s too early for LSU to be worrying about NCAA Tournament Regionals. LSU’s RPI is 74 with 5 Quad 4 losses. The Bayou Bengals need to add some SEC wins to that tournament resume.
The (abbreviated) Lone Star Showdown delivers
Last year, Jim Schlossnagle led Texas to 3 one-run wins over Texas A&M (2-1, 3-2, 6-5). As bad as those losses stung the Aggies, the A&M faithful were still as excited as ever about hosting the Lone Star Showdown as an SEC series and offering their former coach a hostile return to College Station.
We all saw the screenshots; Texas vs. Texas A&M was the hottest ticket in college baseball this past weekend. Mother Nature, however, didn’t cooperate, and we were only treated to 2 out of 3 games. The delay got to be so late on Sunday that social media reports indicated tickets were not going to be needed to enter Blue Bell Park on Sunday night. Unfortunately, the weather never allowed the game to begin before the 10 p.m. cutoff for first pitch.
Instead, we got 2 games of Jim Schlossnagle’s much-anticipated return to Olsen Field. Coaching in the visitor’s dugout, Schlossnagle found his team on the losing end of both games. Game 1 was 9-8 in Texas A&M’s favor. The Aggies took the series with a lopsided 11-4 victory in Saturday’s Game 2.
Texas entered the weekend having won its first 4 SEC series of 2026. With the Aggies taking 2 from the Longhorns, the Lone Star State rivals are now all knotted up at 9-5 in conference play, good for second in the SEC standings, and 27-7 overall.
Here’s hoping for Game 3 in the SEC Tournament, or a Super Regional, or Omaha. Make it happen, baseball gods.
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
