Auburn baseball didn’t punctuate the regular season with the statement if might have hoped for. If anything, the Tigers closed the regular season chapter of 2025 campaign with an ellipsis rather an exclamation point.

It lost two out of three games to Ole Miss, results that didn’t ruin Auburn’s chances at a top eight seed, but makes the outlook less clear. While the regular season is over, Auburn has one more chance to boost its NCAA tournament resume, as it travels to Hoover this week for the Southeastern Conference tournament.

It’s often debated how much the conference tournament means for top teams not necessarily fighting for an NCAA tournament spot, and it’s hard to say just how much the selection committee values those games as it pertains to seeding.

However, it’s hard to argue that winning in the SEC tournament would hurt Auburn. The Tigers are already ranked second in the RPI and have the best strength of schedule in the country.

Auburn will start SEC tournament play in the second round against either Texas A&M or Mississippi State, and a matchup with the Bulldogs would be a Quad I opportunity. If Auburn wins in Round 2, it will face LSU, the No. 1 team in the country in all five major polls and a team Auburn swept at Plainsman Park in April.

That game — and any other games if Auburn advances — has a chance to further boost the Tigers’ chances at locking up a top eight seed, giving the upcoming week in Hoover some value.

For head coach Butch Thompson and the Auburn players, the tournament has value beyond the Tigers’ NCAA tournament seeding. Both Thompson and star player Ike Irish talked about how helpful the live game action is ahead of regionals next week, something that’s hard to replicate in practice.

“It’ll be huge,” Irish told reporters Tuesday. “If we can win, that means we don’t have to practice as much. We’re doing our live game reps, and we grow as players more in that than we do it in a practice.”

Playing multiple games this week would keep Auburn in its normal routine going into the NCAA tournament. The Tigers play four games in a typical week during the regular season, and keeping the players — especially the pitchers — on their normal schedule would be a plus.

Auburn would have to make it all the way to the tournament final to play four games, but even two or three games worth of live reps is better than one or none.

“I would love for all those guys to walk out there and rehearse another start,” Thompson said. “Because it’s so hard to get back to your campus, wait a week and a half and try to recreate that in a practice setting.”

Thompson also spoke to the confidence that can be built by winning games in the postseason, even if it’s in the conference tournament.

“I think there’s a flood of confidence that comes if you can have a chance to be in that last day or win this tournament,” Thompson said. “I think it does amazing things for your fans, your program, your players. It makes anything seem possible, because there’s not a better tournament of teams, a collection of teams, than in the SEC tournament.”

Auburn’s quest for an SEC tournament title is scheduled to begin Wednesday night, with its second-round game against either Texas A&M or Mississippi State set to begin 30 minutes after the conclusion of the preceding game at 4:30 p.m. The contest will be televised on SEC Network.

Peter Rauterkus covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @peter_rauterkus or email him at [email protected]m