Tuesday May 01, 2007

ACC Baseball Tournament; Exam Week

ACC Baseball Tournament
I don’t know how I missed it but I did not find out until this weekend that that ACC baseball tournament format has been changed. On the radio show Monday we discussed the new format but I wanted to wait until I had all of the information before I wrote a blog on the subject.

Since going to 12 teams the ACC switched its format of the tournament to where only eight teams qualify for the post-season event. However, some felt the fact that two teams go two-and-out was a problem. I think the argument was that teams had too far to travel to face a two-and-out scenario. I do not think that is a big deal but the tournament was changed in part to that argument.

Also the new format does solve the problem that some coaches saw with so many games being played in a short time span and pitching staffs could get burned out. Some coaches did not like having to use so many pitchers and only have a few days to get ready for the regionals. Also some coaches did not like the idea of a fifth or sixth starter being able to decide a conference title.

Therefore, the ACC now has the following format:
*The top eight teams still qualify for the tournament.
*The tournament will be broken down into two divisions.
*Seeds 1,4,5,8 will be in Division A.
*Seeds 2,3,6,7 will be in Division B.
*The teams play a round robin schedule in their respective division. In other words, each team will play one game against the other three teams in their division. This guarantees each team to play three games at the tournament.
*The two division winners will meet for a one-game championship.
*If a team goes 3-0 in their division they obviously advance to the finals.
*If two teams tie, the winner of the tournament game between the two schools would advance to the finals.
*If more than two teams tie, the first tie breaker will go to the team with the best regular season winning percentage. The second tie breaker will go to the best head-to-head winning percentage provided the opponents were the same. The final tie breaker would go to the higher seeded team coming into the tournament.

The seedings are more complicated. The top two teams from the Atlantic and Coastal Divisions will advance to the tournament. The next four teams based upon conference record advance to round out the tournament. These four can come from either division. The winner of each division will be seeded 1-2 in the tournament with the top seed going to the best record. Seeds 3-8 are also based upon regular season conference record and tie-breakers are in place but too complicated to put in this small space (see www.theacc.com).

The tournament will be May 23-27 in Jacksonville, FL.

The new format has several problems. First, a tournament should not be decided because of a seed. There is a chance that the regular season performance could have a direct effect on the winner of a division. Seeds have always had an indirect effect but they should not have a direct effect. A tournament should be settled on the court or field.

Also a team can have a loss and still advance to the finals and beat a team that was undefeated to win the title. I have always had a problem with that. I see nothing wrong with double elimination because it is the fairest way in baseball.

I think if they stay with the round robin format then just have all 12 schools involved. It would mean two more games for each school but at least we could have a true Cinderella.

There is no right way to run a tournament but double elimination in baseball is best in my opinion. I love what the NCAA did with its tournament with the double elimination in the regionals and best two-of-three in the super regionals. The NCAA also got it right with the double elimination in the College World Series and a best of three finals in Omaha. The goal is to give everyone a chance but identify a true champion.

College sports have a lot of issues but Division I-A football is the only sport to not determine their champion on the field. Some sports are more fair than others and some still need tweaking but only Division I-A football has it completely screwed up.

Exam Week
This is exam week for Clemson and this is a huge week from an athletic standpoint. Championships are won on the court or field. They are also won in the weight room and in the locker room (leadership). But in today’s academic environment many titles are determined in the classroom. The new APR, the academic progress report and graduation rates have become real issues today. APR penalties can reduce scholarships and games. In the future more games will be won on exam week across the country despite the lack of athletic competitions. Hypothetically speaking, would Texas have won their national title in 2005 if Vince Young would have been academically ineligible? Also if scholarships are taken away from a sport who is to say that one of those scholarships could have gone to the next Vince Young?

I did find out yesterday that the APR has an interesting side note. If a student-athlete was on scholarship in the past and they come back to graduate then the sport gets a bonus point with the APR. For example, a football player can be 85 years old and come back to school to get his degree and the football program benefits in terms of the APR.

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