Ole Miss and Auburn had similar paths through SEC play to set up Super Regional showdown

With 16 teams and only a 10-series schedule in Southeastern Conference play there are going to be times when Ole Miss avoids playing five other SEC opponents in the regular season of college baseball.

The SEC Tournament in Hoover provides the chance to see a team for the first time, but so does the NCAA Tournament. More specifically the Super Regional round.

Which is exactly what is happening this weekend at Plainsman Park when the Rebels and No. 4 National Seed Auburn meet in a best-of-three series to punch a ticket to Omaha and next weekend’s start of the Men’s College World Series.

This is one of two all-SEC Super Regionals. No. 3 National Seed Georgia hosts No. 14 National Seed Mississippi State in Athens, starting on Saturday.

The battle of the Bulldogs will be a rematch of a regular season series where Georgia swept the weekend in Starkville. But when Ole Miss and Auburn start their series on Friday (7 p.m. CT, ESPN2) it will be first-time matchup in 2026.

Last season the two teams met in Oxford with the Rebels taking the series over the then No. 6-Ranked Tigers.

With this being a fresh SEC series for both teams this season, both teams had similar regular season paths to get to this weekend. Out of 10 weekends Ole Miss and Auburn had eight common opponents in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi State, Texas and Texas A&M.

Of those eight series the Rebels and Tigers had the same results in six of them. They both won their respective series over Kentucky, Florida and Texas A&M while both dropping series to Georgia, Arkansas and Alabama.

Auburn won the series over Mississippi State and Arkansas.

Does that tell much of anything? Not really as anything can happen in a 56-game season but it does at least paint the picture that both Ole Miss and Auburn are evenly match when it comes to going up against similar SEC competition.

Where things differ now is that the Rebels completed a sweep at the Lincoln Regional, getting Monday off to rest. Meanwhile the Tigers had to play into Monday night to beat Milwaukee and clinch its regional to survive and advance. Now they have only two full days of rest before practicing on Thursday and starting up another intense series on Friday.

Ole Miss headed for the Plains on Wednesday and will also practice on Thursday at Plainsman Park.