Nonconference Schedules Loomed Large
Bubbles burst for teams that loaded up on cupcakes
When choosing at-large teams for the NCAA's 64-team baseball tournamentt, the Division I Baseball Committee wanted to reward teams that challenged themselves by playing tough nonconference schedules, and the decisions that the committee made with regard to bubble teams hammers that message home.
The Southeastern Conference was awarded just five bids, its fewest since the field expanded to 64 teams in 1999, and committee chairman Larry Templeton (Mississippi State's athletics director) cited poor nonconference schedules as the reasons Tennessee and Alabama were skipped over. Other notable omissions include Georgia Tech, which missed the tournament for the first time since 1999, and College of Charleston, which has reached regionals three straight years and went to a super-regional last year.
"There were 10 teams at the end for three, maybe four slots," Templeton said. "The committee probably spent four or five hours just on that decision."
Templeton said Troy's 17-9 record against a nonconference schedule rated the 16th-best in the nation was a major factor in awarding the Trojans a berth despite their 16-14 conference record and 1-2 showing in the Sun Belt tournament.
Memphis, which lost three of its final four conference series and finished fourth in the Conference USA regular-season standings, got a bid thanks largely to a nonconference schedule that included games against Clemson, Mississippi State, Mississippi and Missouri. The Tigers went just 2-6 against those teams, but Templeton said they won 18 games against the top-100 teams in the RPI. Memphis also got a boost in the RPI from playing six games against Rice in the last two weeks, though the Tigers went just 1-5 in those games.
"I don't think just playing Rice by themselves (helped the Tigers), but they've played some other really good teams," Templeton said. "They didn't win all those games, but they've done what this committee's asked everyone to do: Go play good teams.
"Our committee has said for several years we're going to look at your nonconference schedule. (Troy) played a good nonconference schedule, and they won."
Templeton said the biggest factor in Georgia Tech's omission was its seventh-place standing in the Atlantic Coast Conference, though eighth-place Wake Forest did make the field on the strength of its strong conference tournament performance. Templeton also blamed Tech's poor nonconference RPI and its weak finish (2-8 in its last 10 games).
Tennessee and Alabama both finished stronger, winning three of their final four conference series, and the Volunteers added a win against No. 1 Vanderbilt in the SEC tournament before losing their final two games. But that wasn't enough to overshadow their lackluster first half against a soft nonconference slate.
"I'm very disappointed," Volunteers coach Rod Delmonico said. "I thought we did what we had to do (to make the NCAA Tournament). We won three of our last four series and added a win over the nation's No. 1-ranked team last week in the SEC Tournament.
"I thought we did enough to get a bid."
Tennessee has been a different team since All-Americans Julio Borbon and J.P. Arencibia have returned to health, but Templeton said the committee did not consider those factors.
"The schedule was put together long before they knew they had injuries. A lot of teams have injuries, and unless it was a major player or star hurt right before tournament time, we try not to consider who's had injuries," Templeton said. "I don't know that we have that data or would want to have it."
Out West, Pacific-10 Conference bubble teams such as UCLA (No. 2 seed in the Long Beach regional) and Oregon State (No. 3 in the Charlottesville regional) got in despite struggling in the final month of the season, but teams from smaller conferences like Gonzaga, Brigham Young and Cal Poly were omitted despite finishing strong.
Gonzaga has the most reason to be upset; not only do the Bulldogs have quality series wins under their belts in San Diego and Pepperdine, not only did they win six of their final seven regular-season series to reach the West Coast Conference's championship series, but they played challenging nonconference series against Arizona, UC Riverside and Brigham Young, not to mention tournament games against Missouri, Arizona State, and Oregon State. Granted, the Zags went just 3-9 in those games, but just playing tough nonconference schedules benefited Memphis. Not so Gonzaga.
"(Gonzaga, Cal Poly and Brigham Young) were all there at the end, we spent a lot of conversation on two of those three," Templeton said. "I would say that one of those came off the board earlier than that (final 10). We spent a lot of time, they were there. Gonzaga, the 5-14 nonconference record against the top 50 probably hurt them. Cal Poly was 5-16 against the top 50. Those issues were all on the table."
The Mustangs finished in fourth place in the Big West with a 13-8 conference record but were passed over by fifth-place Cal State Fullerton (10-11). Poly won eight of its final nine games, including a series win against the Titans, but its overall record was just 32-24, and its Ratings Percentage Index was on the low side (60).
"It's always disappointing when you don't get the opportunity to take your team to postseason competition," Cal Poly coach Larry Lee said, "but we'll just have to work that much harder to eventually earn a berth.
"We struggled in the first half of the season and, looking back, there were a number of games where we had a chance to get some quality wins against the nation's top teams."
One other note about the West: every single West Coast team is on the left side of the bracket, making it impossible for two West Coast teams to meet in the national championship series and making it more difficult for Western teams to get to the College World Series. Even West Coast teams that were shipped to different regions of the country--such as UC Irvine, which is the No. 2 seed at Texas' regional--are on the left side of the bracket.
The situation could have been remedied very easily if San Diego had been awarded the No. 7 national seed and Arkansas had been given the eighth national seed, and that would have been easily defensible, as the Toreros have played stronger down the stretch. Arkansas lost its final three conference series before running to the SEC title game and losing to Vanderbilt. San Diego, on the other hand, won 12 of its last 14 games. USD even has a higher RPI (12 vs. 15).
But the committee didn't make that change, so the left side of the bracket might as well be called the Left Coast bracket.
Bubbles burst for teams that loaded up on cupcakes
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PrintWhen choosing at-large teams for the NCAA's 64-team baseball tournamentt, the Division I Baseball Committee wanted to reward teams that challenged themselves by playing tough nonconference schedules, and the decisions that the committee made with regard to bubble teams hammers that message home.
The Southeastern Conference was awarded just five bids, its fewest since the field expanded to 64 teams in 1999, and committee chairman Larry Templeton (Mississippi State's athletics director) cited poor nonconference schedules as the reasons Tennessee and Alabama were skipped over. Other notable omissions include Georgia Tech, which missed the tournament for the first time since 1999, and College of Charleston, which has reached regionals three straight years and went to a super-regional last year.
"There were 10 teams at the end for three, maybe four slots," Templeton said. "The committee probably spent four or five hours just on that decision."
Templeton said Troy's 17-9 record against a nonconference schedule rated the 16th-best in the nation was a major factor in awarding the Trojans a berth despite their 16-14 conference record and 1-2 showing in the Sun Belt tournament.
Memphis, which lost three of its final four conference series and finished fourth in the Conference USA regular-season standings, got a bid thanks largely to a nonconference schedule that included games against Clemson, Mississippi State, Mississippi and Missouri. The Tigers went just 2-6 against those teams, but Templeton said they won 18 games against the top-100 teams in the RPI. Memphis also got a boost in the RPI from playing six games against Rice in the last two weeks, though the Tigers went just 1-5 in those games.
"I don't think just playing Rice by themselves (helped the Tigers), but they've played some other really good teams," Templeton said. "They didn't win all those games, but they've done what this committee's asked everyone to do: Go play good teams.
"Our committee has said for several years we're going to look at your nonconference schedule. (Troy) played a good nonconference schedule, and they won."
Templeton said the biggest factor in Georgia Tech's omission was its seventh-place standing in the Atlantic Coast Conference, though eighth-place Wake Forest did make the field on the strength of its strong conference tournament performance. Templeton also blamed Tech's poor nonconference RPI and its weak finish (2-8 in its last 10 games).
Tennessee and Alabama both finished stronger, winning three of their final four conference series, and the Volunteers added a win against No. 1 Vanderbilt in the SEC tournament before losing their final two games. But that wasn't enough to overshadow their lackluster first half against a soft nonconference slate.
"I'm very disappointed," Volunteers coach Rod Delmonico said. "I thought we did what we had to do (to make the NCAA Tournament). We won three of our last four series and added a win over the nation's No. 1-ranked team last week in the SEC Tournament.
"I thought we did enough to get a bid."
Tennessee has been a different team since All-Americans Julio Borbon and J.P. Arencibia have returned to health, but Templeton said the committee did not consider those factors.
"The schedule was put together long before they knew they had injuries. A lot of teams have injuries, and unless it was a major player or star hurt right before tournament time, we try not to consider who's had injuries," Templeton said. "I don't know that we have that data or would want to have it."
Out West, Pacific-10 Conference bubble teams such as UCLA (No. 2 seed in the Long Beach regional) and Oregon State (No. 3 in the Charlottesville regional) got in despite struggling in the final month of the season, but teams from smaller conferences like Gonzaga, Brigham Young and Cal Poly were omitted despite finishing strong.
Gonzaga has the most reason to be upset; not only do the Bulldogs have quality series wins under their belts in San Diego and Pepperdine, not only did they win six of their final seven regular-season series to reach the West Coast Conference's championship series, but they played challenging nonconference series against Arizona, UC Riverside and Brigham Young, not to mention tournament games against Missouri, Arizona State, and Oregon State. Granted, the Zags went just 3-9 in those games, but just playing tough nonconference schedules benefited Memphis. Not so Gonzaga.
"(Gonzaga, Cal Poly and Brigham Young) were all there at the end, we spent a lot of conversation on two of those three," Templeton said. "I would say that one of those came off the board earlier than that (final 10). We spent a lot of time, they were there. Gonzaga, the 5-14 nonconference record against the top 50 probably hurt them. Cal Poly was 5-16 against the top 50. Those issues were all on the table."
The Mustangs finished in fourth place in the Big West with a 13-8 conference record but were passed over by fifth-place Cal State Fullerton (10-11). Poly won eight of its final nine games, including a series win against the Titans, but its overall record was just 32-24, and its Ratings Percentage Index was on the low side (60).
"It's always disappointing when you don't get the opportunity to take your team to postseason competition," Cal Poly coach Larry Lee said, "but we'll just have to work that much harder to eventually earn a berth.
"We struggled in the first half of the season and, looking back, there were a number of games where we had a chance to get some quality wins against the nation's top teams."
One other note about the West: every single West Coast team is on the left side of the bracket, making it impossible for two West Coast teams to meet in the national championship series and making it more difficult for Western teams to get to the College World Series. Even West Coast teams that were shipped to different regions of the country--such as UC Irvine, which is the No. 2 seed at Texas' regional--are on the left side of the bracket.
The situation could have been remedied very easily if San Diego had been awarded the No. 7 national seed and Arkansas had been given the eighth national seed, and that would have been easily defensible, as the Toreros have played stronger down the stretch. Arkansas lost its final three conference series before running to the SEC title game and losing to Vanderbilt. San Diego, on the other hand, won 12 of its last 14 games. USD even has a higher RPI (12 vs. 15).
But the committee didn't make that change, so the left side of the bracket might as well be called the Left Coast bracket.
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