SEC Baseball Tournament

I?ve seen it kicked around on several threads, but what is your suggestions as far as format to improve it?
Granted it?s a conference money maker and that?s it; plus they aren?t doing away with it; so what would be best?

My suggestion is take the top 8 teams and play single elimination. This would make it where it was just another SEC weekend (3 games). A coach could throw his regular rotation and be done.

If we do stay all 16 teams, then seed by rpi. Alternate top and bottom half bracket play each day. Would only be one more game than a regular weekend.

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Originally Posted by Pinto

I?ve seen it kicked around on several threads, but what is your suggestions as far as format to improve it?
Granted it?s a conference money maker and that?s it; plus they aren?t doing away with it; so what would be best?

My suggestion is take the top 8 teams and play single elimination. This would make it where it was just another SEC weekend (3 games). A coach could throw his regular rotation and be done.

If we do stay all 16 teams, then seed by rpi. Alternate top and bottom half bracket play each day. Would only be one more game than a regular weekend.

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I thought this format would ease the Regional curse of the championship game participants, but no. There's definitely something to be said for "taxing" your pitching staff if you play deep into the SEC tourney as both OM and Vandy found this out as neither won their home regional. And even at that, OM played 4 games and Vandy played 3 games in the SEC tourney.

Nothing happened in 4 games in hoover to effect the ole miss pitch staff. they just didn't face an sec team in oxford swinging for the fence and worrying about exit velo. simple as that and the racers didn't swing at the waste pitches. ole miss hardly even fouled off a ball under 80 mph all wknd.

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Originally Posted by Pinto

I?ve seen it kicked around on several threads, but what is your suggestions as far as format to improve it?
Granted it?s a conference money maker and that?s it; plus they aren?t doing away with it; so what would be best?

My suggestion is take the top 8 teams and play single elimination. This would make it where it was just another SEC weekend (3 games). A coach could throw his regular rotation and be done.

If we do stay all 16 teams, then seed by rpi. Alternate top and bottom half bracket play each day. Would only be one more game than a regular weekend.

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I do not know if you can improve the format. The easiest thing to do as a team is treat it like an early season week. Everyone is on pitch counts and a lot of pitchers get work.

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Originally Posted by WSOPdawg

I thought this format would ease the Regional curse of the championship game participants, but no. There's definitely something to be said for "taxing" your pitching staff if you play deep into the SEC tourney as both OM and Vandy found this out as neither won their home regional. And even at that, OM played 4 games and Vandy played 3 games in the SEC tourney.

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This is why I think the current setup is good as is. If you need a win or two, you are going to be playing early against teams that will be decent RPI boosts (sans Mizzou this year) but that are beatable. If you balled out in the regular season, you get a chance to win the tourney without playing more games than you would in a typical weekend. The only way somebody would play more than in a typical week would be if a bottom 8 seed goes on a run to the championship. Otherwise, a bottom 8 team that makes it to the semi's will play 4, and will play it on a schedule similar to a regular week. A team in the 5-8 seeds can make it to the championship and play 4 games. But the vast majority of teams are going to play 3 games or less.

I think the current format is perfect.

The easiest way to fix that tournament is move it to a better location. Put it in Nashville or somewhere else that feels like a destination so that people other than the RV crowd make a trip out of it and turn it into an atmosphere.

Glad it's now one and done. Don't have to waste any more pitching than need be.

Why not just try to work with the Barons Brass to use both facilities? If it is going to be single elimination, everybody plays! 1 vs 16, 2 vs 15, etc. 4 games at each facility on the Thursday, 2 games at each facility in Friday, 2 games at Hoover on Saturday. Championship at Hoover on Sunday. Done and Done!

Would be cool if the Atlanta Braves, Houston Astros, or Texas Rangers scheduled an annual road trip for the SECT to happen in their stadium. The Durham Bulls do it for the ACC tournament, seems easy.

Easy flights and huge Alumni bases in those cities.

Nashville is disqualified for having too many Whistlers running around.

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Originally Posted by It_Could_Happen

The easiest way to fix that tournament is move it to a better location. Put it in Nashville or somewhere else that feels like a destination so that people other than the RV crowd make a trip out of it and turn it into an atmosphere.

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I hate the whole RV angle. Those folks add nothing to the local economy so why cater to them. Also Hoover Stadium is a dump.

I don't think there is anything wrong with the current format and it is a hell of a lot better that the double, now single, somehow back to double if you lost a game format or whatever that was.

If you finish in the top four you get a double bye meaning you shouldn't have to go outside of our typical weekend rotation to win unless you just choose to rest a pitcher AND because of the Thurs/Fri/Sat format your pitchers actually get extra rest. Pretty nice advantage and it allows you to try to win without overtaxing your staff.

If you finish 5-8 you can still win with your rotation and your midweek guy. And yes you would have to pitch your big dog relief guys a couple of games probably but it's still not where it would be abusive on a staff if you manage it right.

Then 9-16 of course your going to have to roll the dice and probably win with some freshmen and go deep and get lucky to pull it off. I guess the only thing you could change here is you could maybe let some other cities in the South host a first round game potentially- MSU/Ole Miss in Pearl in the SEC Tournament first round with the season on the line and hosting and etc. That would be the Governor's Cup on steroids. I don't know if the coaches would be real wild about playing a first round game and then traveling but as the league keeps expanding it's probably what is going to happen at some point if the league gets into the 20's.

I think as far as Ole Miss- they burned through their pitching by choice to try to host a regional which they did do. And honestly, they should have won their regional easily. They choked but I'm not sure that I buy that it was because they went deep in the SEC Tournament. If Bianco is overpitching guys that's not the SEC's fault and it doesn't mean the SEC should change their format so he can pitch Hunter Elliott and Mason Morris every game. At the end of the day all they had to do to get to a SR was beat Murray State twice- a team whose last regional win was during the Jimmy Carter administration. They had to beat a midweek team with SEC pitching at home and failed TWICE. That's 100% on them.

As far as Mississippi State goes- I will be the FIRST to say that the SEC Tournament is a money grab pointless tournament. I won't argue that at all. But that said it's absolutely embarrassing to just show up- or not really- like we have mostly done since Lemonis was hired as our coach. We literally look like we don't give a shit in Hoover. And that's unacceptable and disrespectful to our fans and to the game. It just feels like "well we're going to be cute and save up for the real tournament" and that just doesn't sit well with me. We have fans that pay money, take off and travel, and etc. and the least they could do is at least be competitive and look respectable. I'm not saying pitch our ace 2-3 times for 120 pitches and then throw or closer 50-60 pitches a game either but just meet in the middle. I hope this is one of the things that changes under O'Connor. I'm not asking to even win the thing- just look presentable.

And this new format makes it a LOT easier to manage a pitching staff so to me there really aren't very many excuses about saving arms honestly. It didn't really help us in our regional either- we finished basically the same as Ole Miss and Vanderbilt in the postseason.

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Originally Posted by Pinto

I hate the whole RV angle. Those folks add nothing to the local economy so why cater to them. Also Hoover Stadium is a dump.

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It's an excuse. They're telling us that the only people that can figure out the RV situation isn't a MLB team, a AAA team, or a AA team. Nope- it's the Hoover Met only.

Oh and it's close to the SEC office but they're not going to say that.

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Originally Posted by Pinto

I hate the whole RV angle. Those folks add nothing to the local economy so why cater to them. Also Hoover Stadium is a dump.

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I won?t be back until we make a final or the thing is moved. The stadium sucks. There is nothing around it. It?s not a fun trip anymore.

Take notes from the basketball tournament. That thing has become a monster because it?s right off of Broadway and there is plenty of dining/entertainment walking distance from the arena.