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Byes For Top Eight National Seeds?
Posted on 6/1/25 at 10:17 am
Posted on 6/1/25 at 10:17 am
What if the top 8 host sites get a bye to the Supers? What if the other 9-16 play regionals to see who advances to play in the Supers? Any merit?
Posted on 6/1/25 at 10:25 am to AHM21
In the SEC baseball tournament, for instance, the Top 4 seeds get a bye to reward season-long play. Lower seeds have to play their way in. That was my thought.
Posted on 6/1/25 at 10:28 am to ht1950
quote:
In the SEC baseball tournament, for instance, the Top 4 seeds get a bye to reward season-long play. Lower seeds have to play their way in. That was my thought.
Top 8 National seeds are rewarded just fine as it is now.
You don’t think playing at home until you get to Omaha, and choosing which game on Friday you want to play in the regional isn’t enough of an award???
Posted on 6/1/25 at 10:29 am to ht1950
But that’s a week long tournament. The regional and super setup is completely different and it works. You get upset and teams having to climb out of a hole. It’s intriguing and gives you good games and good moments.
Posted on 6/1/25 at 10:32 am to ht1950
So we get less baseball from the better teams? I like watching the good teams play. If anything they will increase the number of teams and have play in games like basketball, rather than decrease the games played by the top teams. They will expand the post season, rather than contract it.
Posted on 6/1/25 at 10:34 am to bigDgator
Got it. Everyone likes things the way they are.
Posted on 6/1/25 at 10:35 am to bigDgator
Imagine if the 1 and 2 seeds got byes to the sweet 16 in basketball. That would be terrible. Not to mention that having long layoffs in baseball is arguably a disadvantage, even moreso than in other sports.
This post was edited on 6/1/25 at 12:45 pm
Posted on 6/1/25 at 10:38 am to ht1950
Being completely idle for a week and having 14 days between games is not an advantage in baseball.
Posted on 6/1/25 at 10:39 am to ht1950
quote:
Got it. Everyone likes things the way they are.
I do.

Posted on 6/1/25 at 10:39 am to ht1950
I personally like the current format. Show up and play ball or go home. Baseball is more fickle in that manner than the other sports that the best team(s) may not always win which makes it pretty entertaining to follow in postseason.
Posted on 6/1/25 at 10:41 am to ht1950
Baseball is about pitcher attrition. Byes give an almost unsurmountable advantage.
Posted on 6/1/25 at 10:57 am to ht1950
quote:
What if the top 8 host sites get a bye to the Supers? What if the other 9-16 play regionals to see who advances to play in the Supers? Any merit?
The first 2 days of this tournament have brought more drama than the entire basketball tournament brought. Why change it?
It will be interesting to watch and see if the top 2 national seeds in Vandy and Texas can now bounce back and win 3 games in around a 30-36 hour time frame. Imagine if they got those byes the drama we’d be robbed of.
The format is perfect. The double elimination format usually provides for the better team winning it.
Posted on 6/1/25 at 11:30 am to ht1950
This was actually a proposal by some of the northern teams a while back. Basically reversing the current format.
-Seed them 1-64, top 32 teams host 3 game series vs bottom 32.
-Highest 8 seeds remaining host a 4 team regional.
-Seed them 1-64, top 32 teams host 3 game series vs bottom 32.
-Highest 8 seeds remaining host a 4 team regional.
Posted on 6/1/25 at 12:49 pm to ht1950
Problem is ranking the top 8 seeds is a popularity contest. SEC tournament byes are based on what happened on the field.
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