Arkansas, Florida share SEC regular season championship

The 2023 SEC regular season will have co-champions this year, with Arkansas and Florida sharing the accomplishment. A chance to win the outright championship was there for the Razorbacks on Saturday but dropped the series finale to Vanderbilt. None the less, an impressive season from both squads in college baseball’s toughest conference.

Both teams finished with a 20-10 record. LSU had the same number of losses but due to weather canceling a series finale against South Carolina, the Tigers were behind in win percentage.

LSU was one of two teams who were able to take a series from Arkansas. Georgia pulled off a shocking sweep in late April, with two of the games being one-run games. From that point on, the Razorbacks played in 14 games and was on the winning end in 10 of them.

Head coach Dave Van Horn saw his team pull off some impressive series win along the way including South Carolina, at Vanderbilt, and Alabama. A conference opening sweep of Auburn really set the tone for the rest of the season as well.

As for Florida, they got off to a fast start with five consecutive series wins. None were sweeps but similar teams that Arkansas took down were on the schedule. To close out the year, the Gators won five out of six from Vanderbilt and Kentucky — including a Saturday win to clinch a share of the SEC title.

South Carolina swept Florida in late April, while the first weekend of May was a series loss to Texas A&M in College Station. Neither are exactly something to be ashamed of, especially when going through the grind of the SEC.

Arkansas, Florida heading to Hoover as regular season champions

With Arkansas being in the West and Florida being in the East, the two teams will find themselves on opposite sides of the bracket. If we are going to get a matchup between the two sides, it will have to be in the championship game.

If there was any debate about who the true champion was, it could be settled in Hoover with the SEC Tournament.

Arkansas has only won three conference tournaments in their history and just one in the SEC. It came during the 2021 season but did not lead to too much success later in the postseason. Florida has a long history in the SEC Tournament but have not left as winners since the 2015 edition.