The NCAA plans to study the current format for the baseball tournament and is contemplating a change to add a step to the process.
I know, why mess with something that is working? Probably pressure from ther northern schools who feel left out of the process because, frankly, we play better baseball where it’s warm.
The plan would have 32 sites for the first round, a best-of-three series to start things off. The winners would move to a second three-game super regional and the winners of that would advance to a super-duper regional. And then finally, the College World Series.
Three reasons to consider it:
1. Northern schools would get to host regionals.
2. All the games would involve host teams drawing bigger crowds.
3. It would be more like the three-game series teams play during their conference seasons.
One reason it won’t happen:
When are you going to play this added weekend? The NCAA doesn’t want the CWS extended to the July 4 weekend. And you can’t move the start of the season back anymore because northern schools are snowbound. Dennis Poppe, the NCAA vice president for football and baseball, implied in the Omaha World-Herald that the conference tournaments would have to be moved. But to where?
The schedules are already tight. The only way to make the proposal work would be to cut a weekend off the conference season. I’m not sure that’s a good idea.
We’ll see where this goes but for my money I believe they’re just looking at this idea to say they aren’t resting on their laurels. Don’t look for it to happen.
