BB: ASC: American Southwest Conference

[Ron Boerger]

Scannell went with Speer on Sat and will likely pitch Fink. He also used a number of pitchers who had not seen much action on Sat and has his full bullpen available. He might use Klimesh for one inning to close out a close game as he would likely throw his midweek pen tomorrow. UMHB looked good the last time they played so it should be a good game.

108, since UMHB has already seen Fink (and vice versa) do you think there's any change Scannell might throw someone else into the mix what with it being a home game?

[108 Stitches]

I will start this out by saying I have no idea....but Scannell has set his starting rotation up (so far) with Klimesh, Lucero, Fink, and Speer in that order. He skipped Fink over the weekend to get Speer some meaningful work. I don't think he really cares whether UMHB has seen Fink or not. He has 6 others (excluding closer Bentz) who have thrown 2-8 innings and all are available, so he could go at it by committee so all of these guys get some more work in, but I think Fink needs the work. Maybe if they get up early they go to the pen and work some other guys in.

I don't think it matters who goes, if they keep the ball down, change speeds and trust their defense they will be in the game. 

[CrashDavisD3]

Why does the ASC have so many teams(8) in their Conference Tourney to determine the Pool A bid?

Do you think this has hurt the ASC in the Regionals?

Would not be better to cut this tourney to 4 teams or 2 teams?

Just my inquiring mind?

[Ron Boerger]

Ralph will no doubt have the canonical answer, but baseball and basketball are both eight-team championships, probably to give as many teams the chance to compete as possible.   This is a 16-team conference, and all play both sports. 

Interestingly, soccer and softball (both played by 15 schools) are only six-team championships.

[Ralph Turner]

Why does the ASC have so many teams(8) in their Conference Tourney to determine the Pool A bid?

Do you think this has hurt the ASC in the Regionals?

Would not be better to cut this tourney to 4 teams or 2 teams?

Just my inquiring mind?

1) The main reason is to keep interest in the division races.  The #4 slot in both divisions has been up for grabs going into the last week of season in most years.  As many as 6 teams in a division are in a playoff chase. In a Top 2 scenario, most teams are eliminated with 3 weeks left in the regular season.

2) The 8-team bracket allows for the Top 2 teams in the division to host a playoff series, best 2-of-3. This prolongs the season an extra week, keeping the teams fresher and awards playoff games to successful programs for the local fans.  You rotate the series between East and West for the one-week 6-or 4- team playoff and the closest that any school is to a cross-division opponent is about 3.5 hours travel time. Local fans just cannot get to see the team in a playoff game. The first week winners then play 4-team double elimination in week #2 of the playoffs

3) It allows extra games to be played beyond the 40-game regular season limit.

4) It increases the number of post-season games for players.  You may get to play some deep bench players in selected situations in the first weekend series.

5) This expanded playoff concept is used in as many sports as possible, VB, Hoops, Softball, soccer, Tennis.


I do not think that it has hurt the conference. We have had a fair representation of Pool C bids. The extra games in competitive playoff mode have not hurt.

Even with the conference "shrinking" next year and thereafter, I am interested to see how they handle the playoffs. This has been a popular format for a 15-team conference. What they decide to do at 12 teams is another story.

Thanks for asking.

[Ralph Turner]

Ralph will no doubt have the canonical answer, but baseball and basketball are both eight-team championships, probably to give as many teams the chance to compete as possible.   This is a 16-team conference, and all play both sports. 

Interestingly, soccer and softball (both played by 15 schools) are only six-team championships.

Soccer is offered by 14 schools. (No Sul Ross) Soccer went to one division about 5 years ago.

Softball is offered by 14 schools (No McMurry). The 6-team format probably works better at the neutral field in Farmers Branch where the tourney is held than an 8-team format.  (McMurry has more women's sports than any other school with the exception of HSU which has now added XC and T&F.  McMurry has women's swimming and HSU doesn't.)


Volleyball is top 3 seeds from each division as well.  (No Ozarks. No LaCollege. UMHB moved to the East.)

The playoff expansion taking baseball to 8 games occurred when other sports were increased to 6 teams. Most sports were 4 team playoffs before the expansion.

[108 Stitches]

Great answers. Does anyone know what the SCAC will do next year?

[Ron Boerger]

Great answers. Does anyone know what the SCAC will do next year?

Punt?   

Next year is such a transitional year, only six schools, hard to say.  Year after that I can see four-team playoffs for sports that have 7 or 8 schools participating. 

[CrashDavisD3]

Why does the ASC have so many teams(8) in their Conference Tourney to determine the Pool A bid?

Do you think this has hurt the ASC in the Regionals?

Would not be better to cut this tourney to 4 teams or 2 teams?

Just my inquiring mind?

1) The main reason is to keep interest in the division races.  The #4 slot in both divisions has been up for grabs going into the last week of season in most years.  As many as 6 teams in a division are in a playoff chase. In a Top 2 scenario, most teams are eliminated with 3 weeks left in the regular season.

2) The 8-team bracket allows for the Top 2 teams in the division to host a playoff series, best 2-of-3. This prolongs the season an extra week, keeping the teams fresher and awards playoff games to successful programs for the local fans.  You rotate the series between East and West for the one-week 6-or 4- team playoff and the closest that any school is to a cross-division opponent is about 3.5 hours travel time. Local fans just cannot get to see the team in a playoff game. The first week winners then play 4-team double elimination in week #2 of the playoffs

3) It allows extra games to be played beyond the 40-game regular season limit.

4) It increases the number of post-season games for players.  You may get to play some deep bench players in selected situations in the first weekend series.

5) This expanded playoff concept is used in as many sports as possible, VB, Hoops, Softball, soccer, Tennis.


I do not think that it has hurt the conference. We have had a fair representation of Pool C bids. The extra games in competitive playoff mode have not hurt.

Even with the conference "shrinking" next year and thereafter, I am interested to see how they handle the playoffs. This has been a popular format for a 15-team conference. What they decide to do at 12 teams is another story.

Thanks for asking.

Thanks for the great reply...

NWC has nine teams no playoffs

SCIAC has nine teams in 2013. I wonder if they will go to a conference tourney.

If they followed the ASC model 4 teams would be in conference tourney. I agree with the greater interest with 4 teams with games being meaningful until the last day of conference play.

#4 seed with a poor conferece record could win the conference tourney. IWU proved a few years back get hot in the conference tourney and they went on to winning a national championship with barely a .500 record going into their conference tourney.

[Ralph Turner]

A point of clarification...

The #4 seed in the West will go to the #1 seed in the East for the first round games, best 2 of 3.

Last year McMurry knocked out UTTyler that way.  UTT did get a Pool C bid.  Was that because they lost to a battle-hardened #4 seed from a tougher division?  Did they win a weak East Division and built a gaudy record which gave them great numbers for Pool C sake?

Nevetheless, the #4 West Seed then went on the road to UTD, the highest remaiinig seed on the East for the second weekend and the 4-team double-elimination format.

Any #4 seed in the ASC format has a tough road and clearly has earned it the Pool A bid, if they win it

[baseballfan24]

I also think it may have had something to do with the equal competition of the conference.  In any given year it seems as though there are anywhere from 2-4 teams in the ASC that could represent the conference well in a regional, and it just depends on who gets hot, and, or plays best in playoff time.  In 2009, the conference probably had 4 teams all good enough to compete in regionals (not necessarily win but compete), and in 2010 I think it could be said that 3 of the teams were very strong.  Last year UT-Dallas was probably a good enough team to compete in the regionals, but just didn't have a strong enough resume, I suppose.  The same might be said for Hardin-Simmons who had a good team.  Both had good pitching staffs. I'm not sure that the ASC playoff format has ever hurt any teams; if anything it prepares them for a difficult regional tourney.  The tough part is that there always seems to be a couple of teams that are quality teams, but are not quite good enough to get into the regional because they may have too many losses along the way.  I'm pretty sure that the ASC has not produced the best teams in the region especially considering what Chapman and Linfield have done, but I think a pretty strong argument could be made that it is the deepest conference in the region almost always possessing 2-4 teams that are probably capable of competing in the regional tournament and representing the conference well.

[dbat]

I can remember this conversation coming up back in 2004 and 2009 when the ASC should have received Pool C bids and they didn't. There will always be a team/conference that feels they deserve that last bid for a spot in the regional tournament. The ASC in particular is just a very strong conference when it comes to baseball especially. I think that is why you are seeing so many schools bounce around conferences lately. Schools are trying to ensure the best possibility for teams to advance further in the playoffs.

[Ralph Turner]

I can remember this conversation coming up back in 2004 and 2009 when the ASC should have received Pool C bids and they didn't. There will always be a team/conference that feels they deserve that last bid for a spot in the regional tournament. The ASC in particular is just a very strong conference when it comes to baseball especially. I think that is why you are seeing so many schools bounce around conferences lately. Schools are trying to ensure the best possibility for teams to advance further in the playoffs.

This part of the country just handled the problem of too many teams chasing too few Pool A bids.

The SAA will pull the east half of the SCAC into a full Pool A bid in 2014-15.

The "old SCAC" will keep its bid but pulls 3 schools out of the ASC but sends occasional SCAC Pool A winners like Hendrix and Millsaps to the east.

With McMurry's departure, the ASC will be a 12-team conference instead of the 15-team conference.

We might also have a better chance of getting a Pool C bid with TLU moving over to the SCAC.  Fewer ASC conference games gives us a chance to play more non-conference/in-region games to boost the in-region record and SOS.

[Ralph Turner]

Nice win by McMurry last night over HPU...1-0 in 10 innings.

The Top 4 teams all "held serve" last night.  CTX (8-2) is at UMHB. McMurry (8-2) hosts HPU. TLU (7-3) hosts SRSU. HSU (5-5) plays at Schreiner.

[Ralph Turner]

McMurry beat HPU 7-4 in the 7-inning opener. HPU's Gilbert Barrera shut down McMurry in the first 4 innings as the Yellow Jackets put up single markers in the first four innings.  McMurry broke for 5 in the bottom of the 5th off Barrera and added a pair in the 6th.

I am guessing that Patterson gets the win in relief and Hejny gets the save for McMurry.

McMurry 11-1. Run rule after McMurry puts up 4 in the bottom of the 7th.