The SEC Softball Tournament is going to take place in College Station this weekend, and it should be a competitive affair for the 13 schools with teams.

Alabama is the No. 1 seed and is favored to win the tournament at Texas A&M, but crazy things can happen in tournament play.

However, one thing will be done to make sure a bad call doesn’t swing a game. Per a release from the SEC, video replay will be used for a number of things during the course of the tournament:

The plays that can be reviewed include:

  • Deciding if a batted ball called fair is fair or foul.
  • Deciding if a batted ball called a ground rule double or home run is fair or foul.
  • Deciding if a batted ball called foul that could result in a ground rule double or home run is fair or foul.
  • Spectator interference.
  • Deciding scoring plays at home plate inclusive of collisions (illegal and/or malicious slides), obstruction by a defensive player or time plays.
  • Force/Tag Play Calls: Plays involving all runners acquiring the base before the defensive player’s attempt to put the runner out at any base.
  • Hit-by-Pitch Calls: Those plays for which there is a possibility that a pitched ball touches a batter or her clothing, which shall incorporate a review on whether the batter is inside or outside the batter’s box if it is determined upon review that a pitched ball has touched a batter or her clothing.
  • Placement of Runners: An umpire’s placement of all runners (per the rules/case book) after any blocked ball call.

Coaches will also get one challenge they can use at any point during the game, so that should be an interesting wrinkle as well.

We’ll see how this plays out this weekend and whether the SEC adopts it for next regular season or not.