Rising like a gilded spaceship above Poydras Street, the Caesars Superdome is one of the World’s most iconic structures. With its shimmering gold exterior and its seat in the heart of the Central Business District of New Orleans, the Dome has hosted just about everything: eight Super Bowls, six Final Fours, five College Football Playoff national championships, and even two WrestleManias. It’s become synonymous with the NFL and the home of the Saints and it’s where legends like Michael Jordan and Tom Brady won their first championships.
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But for one surreal stretch in May of 1992, the Superdome traded touchdowns and goalposts for double plays and dirt paths, transforming into one of the most unusual venues in college baseball history. That year, the SEC Baseball Tournament made a one-time stop inside the Dome. What followed was a week of artificial turf bounces, sky-high pop flies lost in the rafters, and unforgettable moments that now live quietly in the memories of those who were there. This was the SEC’s experiment with dome baseball—a bold, ambitious attempt to take the sport indoors on a stage built for everything but baseball.
In the early 1990s, the SEC was riding a wave of growth. Baseball was booming across the conference, with perennial powers like LSU and Mississippi State drawing record crowds and churning out pro talent. The SEC wanted to showcase the sport in a big way—and where better than one of the South’s largest and most recognizable venues ?
The 1992 SEC Baseball Tournament, held from May 13–17, featured eight teams converging under the Superdome’s 273-foot ceiling. A custom artificial turf infield was laid across the concrete floor, complete with temporary dugouts, padded fences, and foul lines chalked into turf that more closely resembled a warehouse floor than a ballpark.
To longtime New Orleans sports fans, the idea of baseball in the Superdome isn’t as far-fetched as it sounds. From the late 1970s through the 1990s, the Dome regularly hosted college baseball games and even a few MLB games. Tulane and LSU squared off inside the Dome multiple times, and the New Orleans Pelicans (the minor league version before the NBA) used the Dome as their home during the 1977 season.
Multiple Major League teams used the Superdome for exhibition games and even a few regular season games, with the first baseball game being played April 6, 1976 when the Twins played the Astros. Over the past 50 years over 20 baseball games have been played in the Superdome, with the last being April 3-4, 1999 when the Cubs and Twins played a two game series.
The Annual Busch Challenge/Winn-Dixie Showdown was also played in the Dome from 1987-1999. LSU, Tulane, UNO, Southern Miss and Southeastern Louisiana played in multiple Winn-Dixie Showdowns. Perhaps it was LSU’s familiarity with the confines of the Superdome that led to them to seize control of the Dome during the 1992 SEC Tournament. Led by the legendary Skip Bertman, the Tigers arrived with a championship mindset and a roster full of future major leaguers.
Led by shortstop Andy Sheets, who earned tournament MVP honors, and featuring future Big Leaguers like Todd Walker, Mike Sirotka and Armando Rios, LSU powered through the bracket, culminating in a blow out 12-1 win over Florida in the championship game. The Tigers adapted best to the conditions—quick turf hops, tricky lighting, and the cavernous atmosphere.
Mississippi State, no stranger to big crowds and big moments themselves, battled valiantly behind talents like Jay Powell and coached by the legendary Ron Polk, but they came up short going 1-2 in the tournament, losing both games to Georgia. For LSU, it was another piece of the dynasty Bertman was building—a title that preceded their 1993 national championship run and helped further cement their status as college baseball royalty.
After 1992 the SEC Tournament never returned to the Superdome. The Tournament would move to on-campus sites for next five years, until finally finding it’s permanent home in Hoover in 1998, where it has been played ever since.
More than 30 years later, the 1992 SEC Tournament remains a fascinating footnote in the history of both the conference and the Superdome. Could baseball to the Superdome ever return ? Highly unlikely. But for one week in May 1992, the golden crown of New Orleans—the same building where Tom Brady hoisted his first Lombardi Trophy and where Muhammad Ali once stood ringside—became the unlikely spotlight of college baseball, hosting another triumphant chapter in the legendary Skip Bertman era at LSU.
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