The Road to Omaha: NCAA Baseball Tournament Thread

CWS appearances since 1999

Alabama: 1999
Arkansas: 2004
Florida: 2005
Georgia: 2001, 2004, 2006, 2008
LSU: 2000, 2003, 2004, 2008
Mississippi State: 2007
South Carolina: 2002, 2003, 2004
Tennessee: 2001, 2005

Eight of 12 have made at least 1 CWS appearance since 1999. Conference has had 2 teams in Omaha four times. Not sure I'm buying lack of depth.

 

Johnny D has to be loving this discussion. have it with him every year.

Lots of SEC teams make it to Omaha. They should, as 8-9 teams are invited the the NCAAs every year, and they are spread out so they generally don't eliminate each other in the supers. They also get a disproportional amount of regionals and supers, which is how you make it to Omaha.

But of all those teams to make it only one has won, and only two have finished second.

During that same period, the Pac-10 (for example), a nine-team league until this year, had two titles and three second-place finishes, and had five of its nine teams make it to Omaha, even though it generally gets half as many teams in the tournament in the first place, seldom if ever gets to host more than two regionals, and generally has its teams bunched in the same SR bracket so they have to eliminate each other to make it to Omaha.

Both leagues are good. The SEC lovefest gets old, though, when the numbers don't crunch.

 

Regional host sites based on geography and facilities. For the most part, NCAA is trying to limit travel to save costs. Makes sense ACC hosts 4 regionals because of number of teams East of Mississippi. Not saying ACC is that strong in baseball and is not overrated in baseball; just saying that's probably why they got the host sites.

Re Big 12: More major-league pitching prospects in that league than any other. Each team has minimum of 2 top quality starters. Guy who started for Texas in B12 championship game Sunday - UT's fourth game in 5 days - was throwing low 90s, the guy who relieved him was hitting 94 on radar gun.

 

Micro, I lumped Rice in with the SEC and Big 12 because they're from the same region. If it's SEC/Big 12 vs. Pac-10/Big West, then throw Fresno State out of your argument too. If it's West Coast vs. Southeast/Big 12, then we get to keep Rice.

 

I think it's also based, in part, on who can actually put some asses in the seats and make some money. That's why a school like Ole Miss gets one. They'll draw 9,000 or 10,000 people for their games.

 

Revenue used to be the biggest reason schools could get NCAA baseball regionals.

It's still a factor -- no team north of Louisville is going to host -- but not as much when there were just six regionals of six teams apiece, like in the old days.

 

Fair enough. Most people on the West Coast would like to throw Freesno State out, too. ;D

 

Here's the bracket for all of those interested...

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/bracket?id=4203475

 

wake me up when it's over.

 

One factoid I learned today: No Big 12 team has advanced to the CWS since 2005 (Nebraska, Texas). Ouch.

 

PING!

 

Arizona State does not complain beacuse it cannot field (or even try) to field an ice hockey team, so I am not going to shed a tear if Vermont has trouble competing in baseball (which they do not if I recall correctly).