This was without question the craziest year of college baseball in my 18 years of studying this sport. No west coast hosts, the midwest is very week and the SEC and ACC got 13 of the 16 hosts. Most years, 9 would be a good combined total. 13!!!!
The line between being a regional host and a national seed has never been thinner. Most years we talk about how someone got screwed out of a national seed and regional host. This year, the last 2 for each were earned in the last 2 weekends..which never happens so easily in this sport. You could argue they were given away.
Big Big Big congrats to Monte Lee for an amazing first year at Clemson. I always thought he’d turn the mindset around from Leggett’s absurd way of thinking, but I NEVER thought it’d be done so quickly. Job well done.
I don’t like a lot of the things the committee did this year…more on that later. But I agree with giving Clemson a national seed. The last 3 came down to the Tigers, LSU and USC. I’m not going to bore you with numbers that you could look up yourself. As much as USC earned it over Clemson once conference play began, everything else favored Clemson including Head to Head. I have always stated in every sport I cover that Head to Head should be taken into account way more than it is. I get so frustrated when it isn’t. This year, it was.
A win or 2 in the conference tournament 99 out of 100 years never matters. But 100 out of 100 years it matters when you win your conference tournament. I’ve stated as much for years. At the end of the day, the committee treats the conference tournament as just another conference weekend. USC won 20 conference games…so did Clemson. One game or 2 doesn’t matter…4 do.
I always put tons and tons of stock in to head to head. The committee for once did too. Good for them. They got it right.
USC had a great year. 6-5 against the top 4 teams they played in conference, SEC East title, and 42 regular season wins. Amazing.
Picking between USC and LSU was incredibly tough. Both of their resumes were very very close. I would have put more stock into winning the East. But LSU had more wins against top teams..not many more…but more. In the end, either choice would have worked.
NOW- moving forward. I will have regional previews and predictions up later this week. Here are my thoughts on the other committee decisions:
MATCHING USC AND CLEMSON UP AS SUPER REGIONAL HOSTS IS LAZY, STUPID, LAZY LAZY LAZY, AND ABSURD. If you want to grow the sport, stop paring up teams who play each other 3 times in the regular season just because they are located near each other.
FSU and Florida are also matched up again….BORING!!!!!! We’ve already seen these teams play. The committee got lazy and this is stupid. These teams have already settled it on the field. Shame on you committee, you screwed this up again.
The committee also whiffed on the bubble teams in my opinion but you don’t care as much about that this year.
If the NCAA committee cared about growing the sport, you’d introduce other matchups. This is boring and pathetic.
Catch more of my thoughts this week on Open Mic Daily from 3-6pm.
