SEC to experiment ABS challenges during upcoming conference tournament

One of the newest advancements in Major League Baseball will make its way to the SEC ahead of postseason play.

Kendall Rogers of D1Baseball reported Monday that the NCAA Rules Committee has approved a proposal from the SEC, which allows them to experiment with Automatic Ball-Strike challenges, otherwise known as "ABS," during the upcoming SEC Tournament, May 19-24 at the Hoover Met in Hoover, Alabama.

MLB began using ABS this season as a way to limit missed ball-strike calls during games. The system uses Hawk-eye camera technology to track pitches in the strike zone. It allows batters, pitchers, and catchers to challenge a ball-strike call from the home plate umpire, with a "head tap" being the universal signal for a challenge. Each MLB team begins a game with two challenges; a successful challenge gives them the option to retain one for later. An unsuccessful challenge, in turn, results in the team losing an opportunity to challenge a ball-strike call later in the game. A month into the MLB season, 53% of challenges have been overturned, with 59% of calls being challenged by either pitchers or catchers.

Comparing the SEC's experiment to the MLB, Rogers reports that the SEC will have three challenges, opposed to two in the MLB, and that teams will be granted an additional challenge in extra innings if their challenges were exhausted during regulation. One aspect the SEC will have similar to MLB is that only batters, pitchers, or catchers can signal a challenge, doing so within 2-3 seconds. Any challenges requested beyond that window will not be accepted.

The experiment will begin Tuesday, May 19, at the SEC Tournament in Hoover, Alabama, when the No. 16-seeded team faces the No. 9 seed at 9:30 a.m. CT. As it stands, Auburn is tied with Mississippi State in the No. 4 slot in the SEC standings, four games behind SEC-leading Georgia. The picture will become clearer this weekend as the two teams are set to meet in Starkville. If Auburn were to claim the series over the Bulldogs this weekend, they would play on Thursday, May 21, at approximately 7 p.m. CT as the No. 4 seed of the SEC Tournament.

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This article originally appeared on Auburn Wire: NCAA approves ABS challenges for SEC Baseball Tournament