BB: ASC: American Southwest Conference

[TexasBB]

The ASC will never get  Austin College or Trinity to switch so the east needs another team of quality. I also don't thing UD is going to come back. Texas Wesleyan would be a good school to approach. It is in Ft. Worth and plays alot of the ASC teams already.

The east then would have more balance and 8 teams.  If ETBU can get its act back together, plus given the recent rise of Ozarks, the East would then be tough and the split of the conference into two leages for baseball would have credibility.

UTT
UTD
Texas Wesleyan
MC
LC
ETBU
Ozarks
LTU

[tloc14]

I think TX Wesleyan is DII, so them dropping back down to DIII is very unlikely

[dp643]

They are NAIA.

[cat_fan_08]

I am a Linfield and northwest conference fan and am interested in finding out what people in the ASC think of northwest conference teams.

[TexasBB]

I am a Linfield and northwest conference fan and am interested in finding out what people in the ASC think of northwest conference teams.

I know of the teams by reputation only. Other than in the regional the distance is so far that we really don't see them so I have no real basis of comparison. The only thing you can go on is common opponents and there just isn't alot of cross over play. All I know is that we are likely to only have a 6 team regional and thus the ASC will likely only have one representative out of 13 teams which is what happened last year. The big push is how do we get more teams in and the best solution is to break the conference into two leagues. The West region is georgraphically too spread out - covers almost 1/2 of the country.

[Ralph Turner]

I think TX Wesleyan is DII, so them dropping back down to DIII is very unlikely

They are NAIA.

It is even more difficult than you think about TWU.

They spent an exploratory year in D-III in the ASC on their way from D-II to NAIA and strongly rejected the D-III experience.

[Ralph Turner]

McMurry gave Chris Semchenko his 3rd start of the year today against AC as McMurry won 11-3.

Semchenko goes to 2-0 on the season.

[dp643]

I was thinking about the claim that Tyler doesn't play a tough schedule.

I will say that coming into this season their schedule looked very tough in the preseason. Two games against Trinity (who made it to the region finals last year), one against CTX, 3 against UMHB, 3 against McMurry, 2 games against HSU, and one vs Marietta.

Last season when the schedules were being formed, you had to assume that being paired against UMHB, and McMurry and filling in with the rest of those that you would think you have a very tough schedule out of conference.

UMHB is leading a midweek game vs Trinity 7-5 as wek speak.

[Ralph Turner]

I was thinking about the claim that Tyler doesn't play a tough schedule.

I will say that coming into this season their schedule looked very tough in the preseason. Two games against Trinity (who made it to the region finals last year), one against CTX, 3 against UMHB, 3 against McMurry, 2 games against HSU, and one vs Marietta.

Last season when the schedules were being formed, you had to assume that being paired against UMHB, and McMurry and filling in with the rest of those that you would think you have a very tough schedule out of conference.

UMHB is leading a midweek game vs Trinity 7-5 as wek speak.

I woould like for UT-Tyler to do everything that they could do to help bring quality teams south, as HSU and McMurry have been able to get teams to come to Abilene, and as Trinity and the "southern" Texas D-III's have.

I think that UTT put together a very good schedule.

Even playing the SCAC-West (except Millsaps) schools makes for a good schedule, because those are in-region games!

[tloc14]

Millsaps is considered out of region?  They are from Louisiana right?  Is that a border state when it comes to region lines?

Or are you pointing out that they played many of the western teams in that league except Millsaps?   I am easily confused.

[Jack Parkman]

Millsaps is from Tenn. not Louisiana.

[baseballfan24]

Millsaps is from Tenn. not Louisiana.

Millsaps is considered out of region?  They are from Louisiana right?  Is that a border state when it comes to region lines?

Or are you pointing out that they played many of the western teams in that league except Millsaps?   I am easily confused.

Actually, Millsaps is located in Jackson, Mississippi.

[TexasBB]

Ralph is the expert on this but Mississipi College is another one that is a tweener. They play are in the ASC which is considered a West Region conference but are phsyically located in the South Region. Thus they are in both regions. That means, I guess they could be ranked in both regions? So when they played Millsaps that was in region for the south region but when they play UTT or UTD that would be considered in region for the west region? Talk about confusing!

[baseballfan24]

I am a Linfield and northwest conference fan and am interested in finding out what people in the ASC think of northwest conference teams.

From what it appears to me, the top three teams in the NWC are as good as any.  That is why they are constanly battling it out to make the regionals.  However, it appears that the rest of the conference other than George Fox, Linfield, and Pac Lutheran is very weak.

This is one difference between the NWC and the ASC.  In the ASC West alone, there are probably 5 teams that can compete for a conference championship even though Concordia is underacheiving this year.  Now throw in UTDallas, UTTyler, and Mississippi College from the East of the ASC, and this makes for a very difficult conference to get out of.

As I understand it, the NWC does not play a conference championship tourney.  You simply have the best record at the end and you win outright.  This is another difference that could be argued either way.

In the ASC a team must first win a best of three crossover series as the first round of the playoffs.  Once they have won that they then go to a 4  team double elimination bracket.  Of course with all the teams being so even it is very difficult to get out of the ASC conference tourney.  So, by the time that an ASC team gets to the regionals they will have already played 2 rounds of playoff action.

So this could be argued that this prepares the team for regionals, or that this wears the team out for regionals.  I don't know which is right.  Where as in the NWC the team simply goes into the regional after they finish their season up.  This could be argued either way as well.  Either the team is not tournament prepared, or they are fresh.

So in conclusion, I personally feel that the ASC teams have a much tougher road to the regionals than teams from the NWC.  My reason being that the teams in the NWC are really only playing 2 big series a year inside of their conference, and that is when the top 3 teams go at it.  But, I cannot say this for sure because I cannot watch those games from here.  In the ASC, especially the West, every weekend series is as important as the previous because the teams are more often than not seperated by one game.

This is just one opinion.
 

[TexasBB]

From the Handbook:
Regional Alignments
Each Division III men's baseball team is assigned to one of eight geographic
"evaluation" regions. The primary criteria used for ranking and selection is based on how a team performs against other Division III "in-region" teams. In addition, results versus Division III opponents within 200 miles or less of a team's campus, but outside its assigned geographic region, will be considered "in-region" and part of the primary selection/ranking criteria. And finally, the championships committee has expanded the definition of an in-region contest to include "all competition within an institutions membership geographical region (Bylaw 4.12.1.1)." The country is divided into four membership regions. For most institutions, the change in definition should result in an expanded list of potential in-region opponents than in the past.

Mississippi College was assigned to the West Region whereas Millsaps was assigned to the South region. You will note the expanded definition: "Results versus versus DIII opponenents within 200 miles or less of a teams campus but outside its assigned georgraphic region witll be considered in region..."

I interpret that to mean that when Millsaps plays MC it is considered "in-region" for both teams but MC would count it as to its record in the West region and Millsaps at to its record in the South Region. (So they are not in both regions.)

Still somewhat confusing since when the powers that be are ranking MC in the West Region it would count the loss against Millsaps as a region loss but would get to consider Millsaps record when determining whether it was a bad loss or not.


At least that is my interpretation.