In recent years, the Southeastern Conference has viewed the Atlantic Coast Conference as its little brother, particularly in football and baseball.
ACC basketball, with its depth of quality teams, has held the upper hand most of the times in comparison with the SEC.
But, things have changed during the 2016-17 academic year.
In football, the ACC won four of the five matchups with the SEC in bowl games. In the most important game of all, Clemson defeated Alabama in the national championship game. LSU was the only SEC team to win its bowl game against an ACC school.
In basketball, the two conferences split their four meetings. Florida eliminated Virginia and South Carolina eliminated Duke. However, North Carolina knocked off Arkansas and Kentucky while winning the national title.
Now, the competition has resumed in the NCAA baseball tournament. Five of the eight teams in the College World Series come from these two leagues. There are three teams from the SEC – Florida, LSU and Texas A&M – and two teams from the ACC – Florida State and Louisville.
There were two first-round matchups between the two conferences with each league recording one victory. LSU defeated Florida State on Saturday and Louisville beat Texas A&M on Sunday. Florida will take on Louisville in a winners’ bracket game Tuesday night.
In the regional round of the NCAA baseball tournament, two SEC teams won titles against ACC schools – Kentucky over North Carolina State and Vanderbilt over Clemson. One ACC team advanced to the super regionals with victories against a SEC school – Florida State against Auburn.
The SEC was matched up against the ACC in two super-regional series. The conferences split the two super regionals. Florida won a three-game series against Wake Forest, while Louisville swept two games from Kentucky.
There have been 15 NCAA tournament baseball games between the two leagues heading into Tuesday’s Florida-Louisville contest. The ACC has an 8-7 edge. Even last week’s major league baseball draft showed the closeness of the two conferences. Both the ACC and the SEC had 75 players selected.
Parity was the word in the SEC this year as regards the MLB draft. Five teams had eight players chosen – Florida, Kentucky, LSU, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt. Florida, LSU and Texas A&M reached the CWS. Kentucky and Vanderbilt lost in road super-regional series to Louisville and Oregon State, respectively.
Mississippi State and Auburn were the most overachieving teams in the SEC if one judges by the results of last week’s draft. The Bulldogs had only three players picked – one in the first ten rounds. Auburn had four players selected – two in the first ten rounds. Mississippi State won a regional tournament at USM.
LSU and Kentucky had the best drafts among SEC schools. Both the Tigers and Wildcats had six players chosen in the first ten rounds. Arkansas, Florida and Vanderbilt were next with four players drafted in the first ten rounds.
Here are the postseason results in games between ACC and SEC schools.
FOOTBALL
National championship game: Clemson 35, Alabama 31
Citrus Bowl: LSU 29, Louisville 9
TaxSlayer Bowl: Georgia Tech 33, Kentucky 18
Belk Bowl: Virginia Tech 35, Arkansas 24
Independence Bowl: North Carolina State 41, Vanderbilt 17
BASKETBALL
Elite 8 game: North Carolina 75, Kentucky 73
Second-round game: Florida 65, Virginia 39
Second-round game: North Carolina 72, Arkansas 65
Second-round game: South Carolina 88, Duke 81
BASEBALL
CWS game: LSU 5, Florida State 4
CWS game: Louisville 8, Texas A&M 4
Super-regional game: Louisville 5, Kentucky 2
Super-regional game: Louisville 6, Kentucky 2
Super-regional game: Florida 2, Wake Forest 1
Super-regional game: Wake Forest 8, Florida 6
Super-regional game: Florida 3, Wake Forest 0
Regional game: Florida State 8, Auburn 7
Regional game: Florida State 6, Auburn 0
Regional game: North Carolina State 5, Kentucky 4
Regional game: Kentucky 8, North Carolina State 6
Regional game: Kentucky 10, North Carolina State 5
Regional game: Vanderbilt 9, Clemson 4
Regional game: Clemson 6, Vanderbilt 0
Regional game: Vanderbilt 8, Clemson 0
Here is a breakdown of SEC players selected in the major league baseball draft.
Kentucky: 8; 6 in the first 10 rounds
LSU: 8; 6 in the first 10 rounds
Florida: 8; 4 in the first 10 rounds
Vanderbilt: 8; 4 in the first 10 rounds
Texas A&M: 8; 4 in the first 10 rounds
Arkansas: 6; 4 in the first 10 rounds
South Carolina: 6; 3 in the first 10 rounds
Tennessee: 5; 2 in the first 10 rounds
Missouri: 5; 1 in the first 10 rounds
Ole Miss: 5; 0 in the first 10 rounds
Auburn: 4; 2 in the first 10 rounds
Mississippi State: 3; 1 in the first 10 rounds
Alabama: 2; 0 in the first 10 rounds
Georgia: 1; 0 in the first 10 rounds
Here is an All-SEC baseball team with players chosen in the major league baseball draft.
C: Jason Delay, Vanderbilt
1B: Evan White, Kentucky
2B: Riley Mahan, Kentucky
SS: Kramer Robertson, LSU
3B: Will Toffey, Vanderbilt
OF: Jeren Kendall, Vanderbilt
OF: Greg Deichmann, LSU
OF: Jonah Todd, Auburn
DH: Brent Rooker, Mississippi State
SP: Kyle Wright, Vanderbilt
SP: Clarke Schmidt, South Carolina
SP: Alex Faedo, Florida
RP: Tyler Johnson, South Carolina
