Hoover, AL--The environment and event that the SEC has created in Hoover is something that's important to Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin.

As it expands to 16 teams and becomes a single elimination event next season, it will take some getting used to for Corbin.

"I personally don't like it," the Vanderbilt head coach said of the SEC's incoming single-elimination format. "I think the regular season means a lot, and I think playing into the tournament is important."

Corbin holds that mindset largely because of what an SEC Tournament berth meant initially for his program.

Initially the standard was significantly different than it is now for a program that holds tightly to a 17-season regional streak that it has done some work to preserve this week at Hoover Met.

"It was the goal in 2003 because Vanderbilt had not been in such a long period of time, so we just made that the goal, and we got it done on the very last day against a Tennessee team.

The standard was quickly raised from that starting point.

"Since that time it's carried such momentum inside the team," Corbin said. "The next year we played in the championship game, that was a big deal for us in 2004 and building a program."

Hoover and what Vanderbilt has done go hand in hand.

It's essential.

It's also something worth celebrating in Corbin's eyes. Not just what happens on the field. The environment and the feel, too.

"It's meaningful for us to get down here and leave it all on the field," Corbin said. "This conference puts a lot of time and effort into it, and the fact that, as I tell the kids, too, you drive through the park and you see all those campers and it just shows you the amount of people that care and spend a lot of money to be here. That's meaningful."

In an era that prioritizes regionals and keeps Hoover as somewhat of an afterthought, that's not something that everyone can say.

Corbin doesn't have the same mindset as the people that think that way, though.

"Obviously any game we win here dignifies what we've done over the course of the year," he said of Vanderbilt's win over Florida. "It was an important game for Vanderbilt."

Perhaps this run feels a tad more important than normal for this program as it awaits change in its conference and in Hoover.

That's a result of what Corbin makes of the way the event operates in its current structure.

"I like the format of what we have right here," the Vanderbilt coach said. "I think it makes for a very good tournament. I think it makes also for fans that want to come, at least they know they're going to stay for a few days."

As the format changes, there will be change. Change that will alter the infrastructure of the event.

In Corbin's eyes that isn't necessarily a positive change, but it's a welcome one.

"If it's kind of single elimination, then I don't know personally if I'm packing up my family right away. I don't know. We'll see. I hope it works out because it's really good baseball, and you add Oklahoma and Texas to the fray, my God, it's a good conference. Tough. Tough baseball."

Regardless of the format it will continue to be tough.

This tournament will also continue to mean something. To Corbin, to Hoover and to the SEC's fanbase.

It's a place for celebration of baseball in a pure form that Vanderbilt hasn't taken for granted.