Bob... good question... I would say that there would be a minor indirect relation, perhaps. Warmer SSTs usually mean more evaporation. This means greater low-level moisture which can be advected into an area. All other things being equal (well, shear, mesoscale environment), an area characterized by 75/68 would have greater tornado potential (again, the mid-upper levels being the same) than 80/55, attributing to both instability and LCLs. I think that above-avg SSTs could mean more than usually low-level moisture. I would think this would mean an earlier start to the season. HOWEVER, as we all know, this seems to depend more upon the upper/mid level pattern (western US trough? consistent polar instrusions? etc) than much else. That being said, if we had 65 tds up here tomorrow, we'd likely be looking at a good chase day...
Jeff