Some of my opinions won't be popular with a lot of you. Then again, when are they? LOL

http://espn1420.com/big-decisions-facing...irds-nest/

I disagree with the tourney format argument. College Baseball is and remains the only format I have seen that uses a round robin tournament with 1 team advancing from each pool. Heck, even Little League is gradually moving away from it, and they are the spokesmen for not overusing a pitchers arm.

Teams that threw their pitchers for 200 plus pitches got themselves into that situation in previous tournaments because, like in FIU's case, they decided that the league tournament was more important then a potential NCAA bid. I harp on the SEC model all the time, but every single one of their coaches fully admits they dont really care either way if they win the league tourney. They know it is for the fans.

Now our situation is slightly different because we have teams who wont make the NCAA"s playing in the league tourney, but how is it fair for a Troy team that lost 1 game all tournament to be eliminated, when a team they beat got to play for the title?

ASU just played a conference tournament game in which our coaches refused to use either of our top relievers because they didnt want to blow their arms out after they had thrown 4 plus innings already in the tournament. We decided as a team we would win with what we had available, and that meant our starter would throw only 6 innings, and our best available relievers would not pitch despite having a lead in the 8th inning.
'
If our coaches want to stop abusing pitchers arms...quit throwing them for 12 innings in the tourney with limited rest.

As for the fans...our attendance at these tournaments is not large enough that it makes a tremendous difference either way whether our fans know in advance what time their team plays. Most of the fans at these tournaments are going to go either way, and arent going to skip games because they dont know what time the game starts.

Let me say this about the Troy situation....another thing I like about the round robin is the regular season means something. IN case of a three way tie, the higher seeded team advances...a reward for what you did in the regular season. I actually like that concept.

(05-29-2012 04:57 PM)chiefsfan Wrote:  I disagree with the tourney format argument. College Baseball is and remains the only format I have seen that uses a round robin tournament with 1 team advancing from each pool. Heck, even Little League is gradually moving away from it, and they are the spokesmen for not overusing a pitchers arm.

Teams that threw their pitchers for 200 plus pitches got themselves into that situation in previous tournaments because, like in FIU's case, they decided that the league tournament was more important then a potential NCAA bid. I harp on the SEC model all the time, but every single one of their coaches fully admits they dont really care either way if they win the league tourney. They know it is for the fans.

Now our situation is slightly different because we have teams who wont make the NCAA"s playing in the league tourney, but how is it fair for a Troy team that lost 1 game all tournament to be eliminated, when a team they beat got to play for the title?

ASU just played a conference tournament game in which our coaches refused to use either of our top relievers because they didnt want to blow their arms out after they had thrown 4 plus innings already in the tournament. We decided as a team we would win with what we had available, and that meant our starter would throw only 6 innings, and our best available relievers would not pitch despite having a lead in the 8th inning.
'
If our coaches want to stop abusing pitchers arms...quit throwing them for 12 innings in the tourney with limited rest.

As for the fans...our attendance at these tournaments is not large enough that it makes a tremendous difference either way whether our fans know in advance what time their team plays. Most of the fans at these tournaments are going to go either way, and arent going to skip games because they dont know what time the game starts.

Play the games at one of the teams in the conference. That team has to have a minimum fan count for multiple seasons, I would think 35K should be the bottom line, or over a tweve hundred a game.

I do not like the round robin. I like two brackets, double elimination, and one championship game. The history of the SBC says the regular season champion will get a bid, and so will the tournament champ, this season was not the norm. We should never taylor the tournament on how a couple seasons turn out.

Quote:Louisiana, South Alabama and Troy have been the attendance leaders and Louisiana-Monroe has joined the party the last couple of years. If you’re going to go to a neutral site, it needs to be near the aforementioned schools so that fan base can attend.

Hmmmmmm.... I like that idea. Does it apply to basketball too?

I'd like to correct the
"Getting a weekend series at home is tough" part of the SLC section.

What's hard? You get 6 home and 7 away one year and the reverse the next. If you have hte 7 home, that's 21 games. Add the below

TXST also hosts an early tournament and has a h/h series with Houston every year plus one other weekend series with other teams (Penn St, Notre Dame, Purdue, in recent years)
there's 9 more games and add in a number of weekday games.

In 2011 we had 34 of our 54 regular season games at home, plus the SLC tournament

In 2012 we only had 27/52 home games, plus the tournament. (our UH series was away)

So, playing everyone doesn't kill having home series, unless you feel entitled, like UT, and have 80% of your games at home.

I've followed the Southland for many years, and while the argument you make fits your school, it doesn't fit all of them. Many schools in the league have trouble getting non-conference home series on the weekends. With a 33 game schedule, you get one of those weekends filled and you're assured seven home series every other year.

There is no debating it was part of the reason the SLC decided to play 33 conference games.