Beginning in 2025, the SEC will use a new format for its yearly conference baseball tournament, allowing all 16 teams into the field for a single elimination bracket, the league confirmed in a press release Thursday.

Previously, only the top 12 of 14 SEC teams made the double-elimination tournament played in Hoover. The incoming addition of Texas and Oklahoma to the conference for the spring 2025 baseball season prompted the change.

The new tournament format will still take place over six days as the previous 12-team setup did. The top four seeds will all receive a double bye, and seeds No. 5 through No. 8 will get a single bye. Seeds No. 9 through No. 16 will open up tournament play on the Tuesday of that week’s tournament, with seeds No. 5 through No. 8 joining on Wednesday and the top four beginning play on Thursday.

“The SEC baseball regular season will continue to consist of 30 conference games for each team made up three-game series played over ten weekends,” the SEC wrote in its press release. “Under the new scheduling format, each team will play two permanent opponents and eight rotating opponents on an annual basis and standings will be kept in a single-standings format with no divisions.”

The SEC posted the schedule for the new tournament.

Tuesday

Game 1: Seed No. 9 vs. Seed No. 16

Game 2: Seed No. 12 vs. Seed No. 13

Game 3: Seed No. 10 vs. Seed No. 15

Game 4: Seed No. 11 vs. Seed No. 14

Wednesday

Game 5: Winner Game 1 vs. Seed No. 8

Game 6: Winner Game 2 vs. Seed No. 5

Game 7: Winner Game 3 vs. Seed No. 7

Game 8: Winner Game 4 vs. Seed No. 6

Thursday

Game 9: Winner Game 5 vs. Seed No. 1

Game 10: Winner Game 6 vs. Seed No. 4

Friday

Game 11: Winner Game 7 vs. Seed No. 2

Game 12: Winner Game 8 vs. Seed No. 3

Saturday

Game 13: Winner Game 9 vs. Winner Game 10

Game 14: Winner Game 11 vs. Winner Game 12

Sunday

Game 15: Championship – Winner Game 13 vs. Winner Game 14

The SEC tournament began in 1977. Auburn and Alabama have combined to win 10 tournament championships, but none since Alabama in 2003.

Eight SEC teams are ranked in the D1 Baseball preseason poll for the 2024 season. Alabama is ranked No. 19. Texas, which will play its final season in the Big 12 this spring, is ranked No. 16. Auburn is not ranked in the D1 Baseball poll, the primary rankings used in college baseball, but is ranked No. 15 in the Perfect Game preseason rankings and No. 23 in the Baseball America preseason list

Matt Cohen covers sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @Matt_Cohen_ or email him at [email protected]