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Rooting Interests: Last Game of the Regular Season

Obviously, we all want Vandy to finish the season off with a sweep of Ramajama, but who else gets our rooting interest today?

By Andrew VU '04
College World Series - Virginia v Vanderbilt - Game One Photo by Peter Aiken/Getty Images

This season has been... challenging. Regardless, today, we have a chance to finish 16-13 in SEC play (34-21 overall), lock up at least a #2 seed in the NCAA Tournament, and head into the postseason with a streaking offense (18-1 and 13-1 victories the last two days, respectively) and the best pitcher in college (possibly #1 overall pick in this year’s MLB Draft Kyle Wright). No team will want to face us in the tournament. Things could obviously be worse.

Of course, things could also be better.

At the moment, we’re the #8 seed in next week’s SEC tourney in Hooverville. Though we are the #3 team in the East, SEC tourney seeding goes like this: winning your division gets you 1st or 2nd, but teams 3-12 are ranked based on conference record, regardless of division.

We cannot finish lower than 8th, regardless of what happens today. However, we can move as high as 6th if dominos fall our way today.

Let’s run some scenarios to see where we’ll go, yo.

Secnario 1: We Get the 6 Seed

  1. Beat Alabama.
  2. Arkansas beats aTm today at 11am (SEC Network).
  3. Ole Miss beats Auburn today at 1pm (SEC Network Plus).

This one’s easy. A win brings us to 16-13 on the year. Losses by both Auburn and aTm drop them to 16-14. Seeing as we can’t go back in time and play that weather cancelled game against the now Dave Serrano-less THOSE WHO SHALL NOT BE NAMED, we would win the #6 seed by default.

Scenario 2: We Get the 7 Seed

  1. Beat Alabama.
  2. Arkansas beats aTm today at 11am (SEC Network).

OR Ole Miss beats Auburn today at 1pm (SEC Network Plus).

The math on this one isn’t exactly complicated. If one of the two teams we want to lose wins... we’re 7th. It’s not optimal, but it’s better than what we’ve got. This scenario is basically buying a house with a Hot Chicks Room, but learning that said chicks are from the 80s, and so aren’t as hot any more.

Scenario 3: We Stay in the 8 Seed

  1. Both aTm and Auburn win.
  2. The result of our game does not matter in this scenario.

So there you have it. Now why would we want seeds 6 or 7 over 8? They all play on the first day in Hooverville, right? Because they’re better. Shut up.

See you in the comments! Especially if you’re a Russian spam-bot!

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