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Monday - May 26, 2008

Regional musings

The four teams that'll be meeting at the Houston/Rice Regional:

  1. Rice (42-13, 21-3 C-USA, official site)
  2. Texas (37-20, 15-12 Big 12, official site)
  3. St. John's (41-14, 20-7 Big East, official site)
  4. Sam Houston State (37-23, 18-12 Southland, official site)

From a Baseball America blog post:

[NCAA selection committee chairman Larry] Templeton said the committee strongly considered Texas as a host, but geographic considerations proved the Longhorns' undoing. Three Big 12 teams (Texas A&M, Nebraska and Oklahoma State) were locks to host on the strength of their body of work, and Rice was a fourth sure-fire host in the same geographic footprint. "Well, I think the committee looked at (Texas as a host) long and hard, and at the end of the day geographic locations in some other parts of the country probably hurt Texas a little bit," Templeton said. "We certainly felt that we had rewarded the Big 12 Conference with three sites."

Huh. Sure. I don't understand why the committee keeps sending teams to regional tournaments to face teams they've already faced during the year. I understand that once you get out of the Regional round and into the Super Regional round, it's next-to-impossible to avoid re-matches. But, in the first round? Bah. I decided to look around the tournament to see which hosts have already faced teams they'll be hosting (and their records in those meetings):

  1. Miami (ACC): 2-0 vs. Bethune Cookman
  2. North Carolina (ACC): 0-1 vs. Elon
  3. Arizona State (Pac 10): 1-0 vs. Vanderbilt
  4. Florida State (ACC): 2-1 vs. Florida
  5. Cal State Fullerton (Big West): 3-0 vs. UCLA
  6. Rice (C-USA): 2-1 vs. Texas; 1-1 vs. Sam Houston State
  7. LSU (SEC): 1-0 vs. Southern Miss; 1-2 vs. New Orleans
  8. Georgia (SEC): 1-2 vs. Georgia Tech
  9. North Carolina State (ACC): no prior meetings
  10. Nebraska (Big 12): no prior meetings
  11. Texas A&M (Big 12): 2-1 vs. Dallas Baptist; 1-0 vs. Houston
  12. Stanford (Pac 10): 0-2 vs. UC-Davis
  13. Oklahoma State (Big 12): 1-0 vs. Wichita State
  14. Long Beach State (Big West): 0-2 vs. San Diego; 0-3 vs. California; 1-1 vs. Fresno State
  15. Coastal Carolina (Big South): no prior meetings
  16. Michigan (Big 10): 2-0 vs. Eastern Michigan

Wow. Look at that Long Beach field. Long Beach's "price to pay" for getting a Regional that should've probably gone to Arizona? A field against which they are 1-6 on the year. They've played everyone in their regional. Rice, LSU, and the Aggies have all met two of the teams in their fields. My druthers would definitely be more regionals like NCSU, Nebraska, and Coastal Carolina. I bet the committee could've done that pretty easily...if that had been a priority. It's clearly not a priority, though.

Anyway...

The winner of the Houston/Rice Regional will meet up with the winner of the College Station/Texas A&M Regional:

  1. Texas A&M (43-16, 19-8 Big 12, official site)
  2. Dallas Baptist (37-17, unaffiliated, official site)
  3. U. of Houston (39-22, 14-10 C-USA, official site)
  4. U. of Illinois-Chicago (34-20, 17-6 Horizon, official site)

If Texas can win the Rice Regional, they'll likely have to play the Aggies again. How stupid is that? I really dislike this whole "we don't want teams to have to travel far" nonsense. Rice should not be paired up with A&M at the Super Regional level. Likewise, Stanford and Cal State Fullerton shouldn't be paired up. Switch the Aggies with Stanford and you solve both problems.

Six teams from the Big 12 got in...the top 5 at the end of the regular season: Texas A&M (hosting), Oklahoma State (hosting), Nebraska (hosting), Missouri (headed to Miami), and Texas (headed to Rice). And, then Oklahoma (headed to Arizona State). I can't explain the Oklahoma thing. Shrug.

Old Southwest Conference teams making the field: Houston (going to A&M), TCU (going to Oklahoma State), and Arkansas (going to Stanford).

Ah well...I guess I'll post this and get on with the day.

By the way, I will not be going to Houston. My folks will be there, though. Texas faces St. John's at 2 o'clock on Friday. Hook 'em!

Posted by Joanna at 2:37 PM