SEC Tournament changes reported

Kendall Rogers of Rivals.com reports that the Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday morning sessions of the Southeastern Conference baseball tournament in Hoover, Ala., will begin a half-hour earlier (9:30 Central, 10:30 Eastern) than in past sessions.

He also reports the turnaround time between games will be trimmed from 45 or 50 minutes to about 30 minutes.

Officials likely hope the two moves will result in fewer fourth games on those days going well into the early morning hours, something that has happened frequently in recent years.

Also, Rogers said the SEC informed him that the tournament final will be televised nationally on ESPN2. TV for the first 14 games will be announced later. CSS and Fox Sports Net have been TV outlets in past years.

The tournament will continue the two four-team bracket setup it adopted a few years back, matching the College World Series format to determine finalists.

I'm hopeful of attending the tournament for a ninth straight year in 2010. It's a baseball fan's dream -- even when the games run past midnight.

SEC changes