FAYETTEVILLE — The second round of a prize fight between Arkansas baseball and Tennessee will determine which proud program is heading back to Omaha.

The No. 3 Razorbacks (46-13) will meet the No. 14 Volunteers (46-17) in the NCAA Tournament super regionals. Arkansas is trying to get back to the College World Series for the first time since 2022, while Tennessee is still defending its national title from last year. Game 1 is scheduled for Saturday at 4 p.m.

The best-of-three series is a rematch from the final weekend of the regular season. Tennessee won the opener before the Hogs rallied to win the final two games and clinch a series victory.

With 13 SEC teams in the field of 64, there were higher odds than ever that there would be a super regional featuring familiar foes. Here’s a look at the history of conference rematches at this stage of the NCAA Tournament.

History of super regional rematches

Overall, Arkansas fans are going to like the results of this exercise.

There have been 19 super regionals featuring rematches between conference opponents since the NCAA Tournament expanded in 1999. The teams that won the regular-season series are 13-6 when a trip to Omaha is on the line.

However, that trend hasn’t been as strong in recent years. Since 2019, teams that won the regular-season series are 3-3 in a super regional rematch. In 2023, Virginia got revenge over Duke, and Florida reversed its regular-season result versus South Carolina. LSU did secure a second series victory over Kentucky that same year.

Arkansas baseball’s two rematch victories

The Razorbacks met SEC rivals during the 2018 and 2019 super regionals. They’re 2-0 when Dave Van Horn gets a second crack at an opponent.

In 2018, Arkansas faced South Carolina after winning two of three home games against the Gamecocks during the regular season. When they met again in Fayetteville for the NCAA Tournament, Arkansas won the opener behind six strong innings from Blaine Knight. After losing Game 2, the Hogs clinched a trip to the College World Series thanks to five runs from Eric Cole and four RBIs courtesy of Carson Shaddy.

The next year, Arkansas lost two of three regular-season home games to Ole Miss, but the Hogs righted the ship in June with a 2-1 series win in the super regional. It was a weekend defined by blowouts. No game had a smaller margin of victory than six runs, with Arkansas winning the opener 11-2 and the rubber match 14-1.

The SEC’s similar trend

Nine of the 19 rematches have featured teams from the SEC. Only three times has the loser from the regular season cashed their ticket for Omaha.

As mentioned above, the Hogs did it in 2019 and the Gators were successful in 2023. Mississippi State also accomplished the feat in 2018.

Only one SEC team dealt with a super regional rematch and went on to win the national title. Paul Skenes and Dylan Crews got LSU to the mountain top in 2023 after beating Kentucky prior to the College World Series.

Jackson Fuller covers Arkansas football, basketball and baseball for the Southwest Times Record, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at jfuller@gannett.com or follow him @jacksonfuller16 on X, formerly known as Twitter.