The Set Up Is Wrong

It is only Thursday of the ACC Baseball Tournament and every team is well within their three games heading to decide who plays Sunday for the ACC Baseball championship.  N C State played Miami the top seeded team in the entire ACC tournament but before they took the field to play their game Florida State had already put away Georgia Tech which gives them two wins and even if State was to beat Miami and Georgia Tech they could only obtain two wins and since Florida State beat them already they are out of the championship game having played but once.

I thought the idea of a tournament was that the further you got to the end the  closer you got to keep playing.  There has been several instances where one team that made it to the finals played their last bracket game on Friday had Saturday off.  Just 2013 the classic State-Carolina 18 inning Saturday night into Sunday morning game that got over at 1:30 in the morning.  Carolina had to be back for championship game at 1:pm which they won over Virginia Tech.

There is a push right now to let 12 teams play with 2 groups of six which use to be the way the NCAA tournament use to be until the Super regional method was put in place.  Another concept is have four pods of three teams and the winner of each pod plays in the semi finals of Saturday and the winners play Sunday.   That sure would make semi final Saturday much like  semi final Saturday at the ACC basketball tournament. 

If they keep what they have now why not let everyone play their first game and who ever loses the first game play the other loser in your bracket next.  The way they have it set up now you know when you play each day.  If this was a true tournament you fall into the so called loser bracket and play at what ever time that game is called for.  There is no good answer to round robin play.  It is almost like three regular season games in one weekend  and somebody will play in the championship.

I think one thing missing from the baseball tournament the way it is set up now is the build up.  The only buildup the ACC Baseball tournament has is when State and Carolina play each other and that ain't happening this year.  I don't care if the tournament was in Boston if State and Carolina played each other at some point that day there would be the biggest crowd of the tournament.

The simple fact to this point is the baseball for the most part in thrown into the category of a non-revenue sport.  When the tournament is played in North Carolina both N C State Fans  and Carolina fans will support their teams and go watch them play.  They don't go see Miami play Boston College because both Miami and Boston college fans aren't there either to see their team play.  So if you want the biggest crowds you play at sites where the most people will go.

The ACC basketball tournament did the same thing.  They started in Reynolds because it was the biggest arena around and was full every game played.  Still these days when the tournament moves around nobody goes to an afternoon game in the quarterfinals when BC plays Syracuse but let Carolina or Duke play in a quarterfinal Friday afternoon game in Washington DC and the place is packed.

We all as fans especially if you love baseball want to see competitive games with each win building up that you might play Sunday.  Lose early and play two meaningless games and who wants to go to that. Regardless of what method is used the primary goal should be that as long as you win you keep playing.