BB: ASC: American Southwest Conference

[TexasBB]

No question that in the 5th game UTT had the yips or choked howerver you word it. The had beatent CTX 2-3 at CTX earlier in the season. In the 5th game CTX had a bunch of little dink hits - texas leagers that got through and burned Campbell. They got a lot of hits off him but did not hit him real hard. UTT on the other hand had 17 base runners and only scored 3 runs. If that isn't choking then I don't know what is. But that is also baseball. Since I am a UTT fan I would hope that the entire body of their work this season would impress the decision makers. If it is an 8 team region they should make it. If it is 6 they will not.  We all are anxious if we are on the bubble. The body of work based on the criteria that is the measurement is W-L percentage in the region and W-L against common opponents. Those two marks favor UTT against some other teams in the region that are also on the bubble. All we can do is wait,

[All-AmericanFan]

UTT schedule...as mentioned:                                McM's tough schedule:
Hendrix                               3                                 Hendrix                          0
Sull Ross                             2                                    "                                  3
Schriener                            3                                    "                                  3
Jarvis Christian                   1                                    "                                  0
Austin College                     3                                   "                                  3
and I will throw in ETBU      3                                    "                                 3
Total vs weak teams:         16                                                                     12

Did those 4 games make the difference? Two weeks ago I would have said no the tough early schedule for McM did not make a difference because they couldn't win the series against Sull Ross in Alpine.

Baseball is about being consistent over the long haul, but getting hot at the right time. McM picked it up at the right time and won a conference championship. UTT got cold at the wrong time and showed they are like everyone else: beatable.

[Ralph Turner]

If it is an 8 team region they should make it. If it is 6 they will not.  We all are anxious if we are on the bubble.

Actually the committee determines the bids and then decides where to send everyone.  We could have a 6-team bracket comprised of Trinity, McMurry, CTX and UTT plus Chapman and Linfield.  The committee could fly ULV and George Fox to Wisconsin or Terre Haute or Rock Island or wherever.

We could have an 8-team bracket in Abilene (Trinity, McM, CTX, UTT, ULV, Chapman, GFU and Linfield).

How about we fly Chapman to Wisconsin to play the WIAC teams!   

[Ralph Turner]

I think that most of you are missing the mark.   

As I ran down the Pool B and C bids, it became clear to me that we are only talking about one game, usually, separating the bid-earners and those staying at home.

Why do the majors play 162 games!  Because it takes that much time to determine a champion.  The only reason we have playoffs now is the big TV bucks.  For about one-hundred years, baseball had a "pennant race" to determine the champion.  If you had the American Association and the National League, you did not even get a "World Series" for a quarter of a century.

You only get a World Series to match the 2 pennant winners in 1901!

You don't get divisional playoffs until the NL and AL had expanded to 12 teams in 1969!

As for UT-Tyler, I hope that they will schedule more aggressively.

Go to the Metrodome and play St Thomas and St Scholastica.  McMurry had series with GFU and Chapman.  They have gone to Hawaii to play solid West Coast Teams.  TLU went to southern California this year!

I think that we have a very competitive conference.  You cannot look past a weekend.  As trite as that sounds, that is the ASC!

[The U For Life]

I agree with you Texas BB, that the body of work is a very important piece in the selection process.  I also feel that it is like march madness where there are always a couple of teams that will be left out that you can make a case for it not being fair.  There are so many factors that go into the process,  overall record, winning % in the region, one i feel that is very important is how you finished.  Just like in march madness they factor in how a team finished the season.  There are so many things that go into a season that dont always show up in the stats or the box score.  Does UTT deserve to keep playing??? probably, but so does Concordia and George Fox.  What sucks is there is going to be someone left out that you can make a case for continuing to play.  The thing that sucks for ya'll is that you lost at the end of the season.  If you flip your record around against Concordia and you would have lost 2 of the 3 earlier in the season, but beat them both times in the tourney then im sure there would be no question of you getting in.  Who knows who would win the series if ya'll stepped on a field today and played 3 games.  But if a outsider looks at the events that occured they would probably figure that Concordia became a better team as the year went on and the end of the day was better than UTT. 

All-AmericanFan,

McMurry schedule                                   UTT schedule

George Fox      3                                     0
Chapman         3                                     0
Mary HB           3                                     0
Concordia        5      4-1                          5          2-3
UT Tyler           1      1-0                          1          0-1
Le Tournea      0                                     3

Fun facts  These two teams both played Sul Ross, Concordia, Schreiner, Austin C., each other, Marietta, Hardin Simmons, ETBU, Lousiana, and UTD.(McMurry played them on a Tuesday game and faced Mark Cox and Mark Cox beat both McMurry and UTT.

McMurrys record vs those teams                             UTT
20-7                                                                        20-6

So after all that this is the difference in schedules
McMurry                                                           UTT

Chapman 3 games                                          Ozarks  3games
George Fox   3 games                                     Le Tourneau  3games
Southwestern 2games                                    Mississippi  4 games
Trinity 1 game                                                 Northwood 1game
Wayland Baptist 1 game                                 Jarvis Christian  1game
MHB  3 games                                                 Hendrix  3games
Texas Lutheran   3 games                              Dallas U  1game
Howard Payne   3 games

[Ralph Turner]

How a team finishes a season is not a criteria that is used.  (You may see the wording in the handbook, tho'.)

On the other hand, finishing weak, with losses in tournament play, only drags down won-loss percentages, etc.,  especially when those losses come at the hands of a regionally ranked opponents, which is what conference tourneys are good for. 

UT-Tyler was 30-7 (.811) before the tourney and finished 33-9 (.785).

[Blackcat00]

Yeah we talked up Concordia because we knew they were a solid team and it was just a matter of time before they put it together, then it was fun to have some posters on here give us hell, and yes to come back to bite them in the ass. I do beleive with CTX preseason schedule and the way they finished te season, and their record, that in fact they deserve a spot in the regional.

[TexasBB]

 No team other than McMurrey gets in   

The ASC is obviously not well thought of as a conference by the decision makers. I don't know much about George Fox as a team but there overall record was not impressive 28-12??

I feel bad for the student athletes at CTX, Ozarks and UTT. I would put our conference up against any in the country. I think the quality of BB played in the ASC is second to none. It is too bad that we don't get the recognition. Good luck to all the seniors as they move on!!

[All-AmericanFan]

Why do the majors play 162 games!  Because it takes that much time to determine a champion.  The only reason we have playoffs now is the big TV bucks.  For about one-hundred years, baseball had a "pennant race" to determine the champion.  If you had the American Association and the National League, you did not even get a "World Series" for a quarter of a century.

sounds, that is the ASC!

I think you bring a good point, but I would counter with the notion that maybe the game has been upgraded and MLB has realized that even the long season, the best team still needs to prove itself through Playoffs, and thats why they have added Wild Cards etc.

Look at previous World Series Champs:
07 Boston   - Best Record AL (suits your argument)
06 St. Louis - WILD CARD - Barely won 80 regular season games (my argument)
05 Chicago - Won division but not best record (mine??)
04 Boston - WILD CARD
03 Florida - WILD CARD
02 Anaheim - WILD CARD
01 Arizona - WILD CARD
97 Florida - WILD CARD

6 of the last 11 World Series Champs have been Wild Cards, which I think prove it's proving you are deserving of playoffs over the long haul, then turning it on at the right time to win a championship.

[Blackcat00]

They are not well respected as i stated earlier. IF they were in the New England area or in the North then UTT and Concordia would have been selected. Are any of the commitee members located in the south?

[mcm505]

I thought Coach Driggers was on that committee, so there would be one from the south.  But that might be a completely different committee.  Well, with the lack of respect that the conference saw today everyone on here should cheer on the Indians to earn some respect for our conference.

[mcm_sid]

http://athletics.mcm.edu/Sports/baseball/2008/08baseballregional.asp

[infielddad]

Two pretty good indications of how the West Region is viewed can be gleaned by Linfield being shifted out of the West and getting a #5 seed when George Fox, which finished behind them, gets the #2 in the West.
Even more so is the treatment of Rose Hulman.
First they get in as a pool C and then they get a #4 seed with a 32-13 record.
Rose Hulman was in the SCAC for 8 years and never once made it to the SCAC Championship game.  Several years they came in ranked in the top 25 and left early.  Two years ago they pulled out of the SCAC because they could not compete at the top level with Millsaps, Trinity, Rhodes and Southwestern.
So, we are to either assume that in 2 years Rose Hulman improved so much that they are now superior to teams they could not beat over the prior 8 years, or we are to accept that the top ASC and SCAC teams are superior to Rose Hulman, which is very likely, but suffered from the blinders that would get Linfield the #5 seed and  a team that wasn't in the top 4-5 in the SCAC's a pool C.
Pretty tough to understand, or accept, if you are from UTT or Concordia or Millsaps or Rhodes.

[Jack Parkman]

Two pretty good indications of how the West Region is viewed can be gleaned by Linfield being shifted out of the West and getting a #5 seed when George Fox, which finished behind them, gets the #2 in the West.
Even more so is the treatment of Rose Hulman.
First they get in as a pool C and then they get a #4 seed with a 32-13 record.
Rose Hulman was in the SCAC for 8 years and never once made it to the SCAC Championship game.  Several years they came in ranked in the top 25 and left early.  Two years ago they pulled out of the SCAC because they could not compete at the top level with Millsaps, Trinity, Rhodes and Southwestern.
So, we are to either assume that in 2 years Rose Hulman improved so much that they are now superior to teams they could not beat over the prior 8 years, or we are to accept that the top ASC and SCAC teams are superior to Rose Hulman, which is very likely, but suffered from the blinders that would get Linfield the #5 seed and  a team that wasn't in the top 4-5 in the SCAC's a pool C.
Pretty tough to understand, or accept, if you are from UTT or Concordia or Millsaps or Rhodes.

I find it very hard to believe George Fox gets in as a #2 while the team that finished ahead of them gets shipped somewhere else as a #5.  The biggest problem with all of this is the fact that the West is huge geographicaly but there really are not that many schools.  Oh well, its not the first time and it will not be last time we have something to question about the NCAA's thinking.

[TexasBB]

In the D3 top 10 only one school did not receive a bid and it is an ASC school UTT. In fact it was the only school in the top 19 that did not get a bid. Of the top 25 two ASC teams did not get bids adding Ozarks. Of the total top 25 only 4 schools did not get bids so 1/2 of those were in the ASC. The only ASC team to get a bid was McMurry which was not ranked in the top 25 but did win the conference tournament. Why is it that the confernce  got so slighted?  George Fox was not rated in the top 25 but it got a pool C bid? I realize rankings do not mean anything in so far as selection but these rankings are voted on by coaches. How can the selection be on with others and so far off with one team?  Are the wise men making the selection more knowledgable than the coaches that vote. What about stats look at NCAA Div III leaders in runs, rbi's, BA, ERA, W-L all of those UTT is ranked in the top 10. Something is rotten in Denmark.