The Southeastern Conference has been college baseball’s heavyweight for more than two decades, winning eight of the past 21 national titles, including the past two.

This year, the league could get a record number of teams in the NCAA tournament and extend that dominance.

The SEC has an outside shot at sending 10 out of 12 teams to the NCAA tournament, which would be a first for any conference since the field expanded to 64 teams in 1999. The SEC has had nine teams reach the NCAA tournament three times.

According to the NCAA’s latest RPI rankings released on Tuesday, there are 10 SEC teams in the top 41, including three in the top five. Florida is No. 1, Vanderbilt is No. 3 and defending national champion South Carolina is No. 5.

“I’m obviously prejudiced here, but I do think the league is strong enough to warrant 10 teams,” Mississippi State coach John Cohen said, whose Bulldogs rank No. 29.

Some SEC teams enjoy lofty rankings even after struggling. LSU is last in the SEC’s Western Division with a 7-14 league record (29-17 overall), but still sits at No. 27 in RPI, which would normally be well within range for an at-large berth even though the Tigers are in serious danger of missing the league’s eight-team conference tournament.

That’s led some to say the RPI ratings skew too heavily toward teams from the southeast.

California (27-14) is one of the six Pac-10 teams in the RPI’s top 40, ranked at No. 36. The Golden Bears have an 11-7 record in the Pac-10.

Esquer praised the SEC as a terrific conference, but questioned the logic of sending 10 teams from any league.

“For some reason, the RPI hasn’t seemed to work well for the teams out west. I’m not sure why that is,” California coach David Esquer said. “All I know is if a team misses its conference tournament, has a conference record well below .500 and still gets in the NCAA tournament, it leaves a lot of coaches scratching their heads.”

Not all coaches think there’s a regional bias. Kansas State is one of six Big 12 programs in the RPI’s top 40, ranked at No. 28. The Wildcats are 27-18 overall and 8-12 in the Big 12.

“Would 10 teams from the SEC be a lot? Yeah, I suppose,” Kansas State coach Brad Hill said. “But it’s hard to argue against them considering their recent success. Honestly, I’m not worried about that. We’ve got three weeks left. If we play well, we’ll be in the NCAA tournament. If we don’t, then our season’s probably over.

“We control our destiny and that’s all you can ask for.”

The NCAA says the RPI, which is used in several sports, “never should be considered anything but an additional evaluation tool.” But there’s little doubt it has a heavy influence when the selection committee puts together its 64-team field in late May.

The NCAA’s formula for RPI is largely determined by three factors — 25 percent for a team’s Division I winning percentage, 50 percent for its opponents’ strength of schedule and 25 percent for its opponents’ opponent strength of schedule.

Cohen said the RPI isn’t a perfect measure, but discounted the idea that it favored southern teams.

“After doing this for so long, the RPI is a mystery to me,” Cohen said. “I try to steer clear of it, but you can’t help but look at it every week. I don’t know if there’s a bias toward the south — I just think there’s a lot of good teams down here and playing each other raises everyone’s RPI.”

Auburn coach John Pawlowski said SEC teams have been willing to schedule tough non-conference opponents on top of their 30-game league schedule.

“Everybody does their own scheduling,” Pawlowski said. “If you want to build an RPI, you can build a strong schedule. The idea that it favors the South? Well, you have choices on who to play in non-conference.”

Many things will have to go right for the SEC to get 10 teams in the NCAA tournament. To qualify for an at-large bid, teams must have an overall record above .500. Georgia (24-21), Auburn (23-21) and Mississippi (25-20) are all flirting with that barrier.

Auburn hosts Georgia in a crucial three-game series this weekend.

“The SEC is like Groundhog Day,” Pawlowski said. “Another weekend, another tough three games. That’s why this conference looks so good to the (NCAA) committee at tournament time. You look at strength of schedule, the hard numbers and our recent success and you see how good this conference really is.”