SEC Tournament Will Give College Baseball a Look at ABS Reviews

SEC baseball is adding experimental ABS challenges to the tournament, allowing pitchers, catchers and hitters to review balls and strikes.

An umpire looks at the Jumbotron during an automated ball-strike challenge aka ABS in the Los Angeles Dodgers game against the Chicago White Sox during spring training at Camelback Ranch-Glendale. | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

The SEC Tournament was already shaping up to be a tough week in Hoover for all 16 SEC baseball teams. Now it comes with a new wrinkle.

D1Baseball’s Kendall Rogers reported Monday that the NCAA Baseball Rules Committee has signed off on the SEC’s plan to roll out experimental ABS challenge reviews during the tournament.

SCOOP: The @NCAA Baseball Rules Committee has approved the @SEC's proposal to use experimental ABS (Automated Ball-Strike) Challenges in the upcoming conference tournament, I'm told. Coaches will have (3) specific ABS challenges per game in Hoover. pic.twitter.com/S8NQXXCVJy

— Kendall Rogers (@KendallRogers) May 4, 2026

It’s the first time the league will use the system in live games, and it adds a new layer to how coaches manage the strike zone in a setting where every pitch matters.

Each team will get three ABS challenges per game, and they operate separately from the standard replay reviews. Win a challenge and you keep it. Lose it and it’s gone. If a game goes to extra innings and a team has burned through all three, it gets one more.

Only the pitcher, catcher, or hitter can ask for a review, and they have a three‑second window to do it. Anything after that won’t be considered.

More #SEC ABS Details:

- 3 ABS challenges (if you win the challenge, you retain)
- You get a bonus challenge in extra innings if you don't have any left
- 🚨ONLY a pitcher, catcher, hitter can request ABS challenge (within 2-3 seconds). Untimely challenges will NOT be granted.

— Kendall Rogers (@KendallRogers) May 4, 2026

Major League Baseball has been running its own version this season, though with only two challenges. Early numbers show it’s been almost a toss‑up.

Out of 1,882 challenges in the first month, 53.5 percent were overturned. Catchers have had the best eye so far, followed by hitters and pitchers. Walk‑rates have ticked up as well, though it’s too early to know what’s driving that.

College baseball has been inching toward this moment for a while. Back in 2025, Baseball America reported that the SEC expected to have ABS in place by 2027. Even then, league officials admitted the timeline was ambitious because of the cost and logistics involved. They also made it clear they wanted to see how the system played out at the major league level before committing to it fully.

The SEC has the resources to move faster than most conferences, and this trial run in Hoover is the next step. It gives the league a chance to see how coaches use the system, how quickly games move, and what unintended issues might pop up before ABS becomes a permanent part of the sport.

The tournament was already going to be competitive. Now it comes with a test drive of something that could reshape how college baseball handles the strike zone in the years ahead.