By Tyler Spanyer | @KernelSpanyer

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After the SEC regular season, nine of the top-25 teams in the ESPN/USA Today Softball poll will play at UK softball’s new John Cropp Stadium this week with the dreams of an SEC Tournament championship in their head.

The field of 10 teams incudes defending NCAA champions Alabama and regular season champion Florida, making this arguably the most loaded tournament field in modern history.

No. 15 UK (38-17, 13-11) earned the No. 7 seed for the tournament with last weekend’s series win over Alabama.

The Cats will have to win four games to win the crown and will face South Carolina at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday in the opening round live on ESPNU.

UK officially opened John Cropp Stadium on April 13 with a win against No. 3 Florida.

“It’s been cool to see the stadium go up from scratch,” said UK head coach Rachel Lawson on the SEC Teleconference Monday afternoon. “I want to thank everyone who worked on the stadium for all the work they put in to get this up in time.”

The stadium will have an accompanying hitting facility due to be completed this summer as well as an adjoining soccer complex.

The bracket sets up for some marquee match-ups including a possible UK vs. Tennessee rivalry game in the second round.

Also, the tournament could see defending national champion Alabama going up against Florida in another second round match-up.

In a year when everything has been so close in the SEC anything could happen as the action unfolds at John Cropp Stadium.

The first game of the tournament is at 4 p.m. on Wednesday when Alabama plays Texas A&M.

ESPN will televise the tournament final at 8 p.m. on Sunday.