2014 West Regional - McMinnville, OR

[Spence]

ILVBB is spot on. I am thinking that Trinity will not have any trouble next year getting the ASC teams filling in their Tuesday night games.  They did the right thing this year going to Hendrix and Millsaps, plus their regular home/away with Chapman. Chapman actually has a better chance by going independent again.

Yes, scheduling Milsaps, Hendrix and Chapman was nice, but despite all that, Trinity's SOS was still 197.  Chapman was 203.  The highest ranked West team this year was George Fox at 92nd.  It seems like the West Region teams can play any combination of games amongst themselves and it will not solve the SOS issue regarding at-large bids.  It looks like teams need to somehow get out of region for games, way out of region.  The OAC placed 4 teams in 3 different regionals this year.  The NESCAC placed 3 teams into 3 different regionals.  1/8th of the total field is from those two conferences.

I'd love to see teams be able to get out to Florida, or the mid-west or East Coast, but the realities of that are very difficult.

It is difficult, but all of the northern schools do it. They find a way to put their teams into contention despite the disadvantage of the weather.

I guess this will be the last time I'll whine about this for the current season, but the NWC in particular also deals with weather (rain, and yes, ice and snow for the Eastern schools) in addition to extreme distance and isolation.  Any out-of-conference away game requires a flight.  I recall Spence stating earlier this season on another thread that he does not recall Marietta ever taking a single flight.  That's a great position to be in, not complaining, its just reality.

Well, Marietta also took a bus to west Texas. So it's not as if they haven't traveled. They just don't fly. They bus to Appleton as well.

[Teddy_Ballgame]

I agree that not having an NWC tourney may have hurt some teams, but each conference determines how it wishes to hand out the bid. The NWC knowingly puts its baseball teams at a disadvantage in terms of a national comparison when they don't give a second (or third) team a chance to get hot and make some noise prior to the bids being handed out on Selection Sunday.

I am certain the fristration needs to be directed not at the committee, but at the NWC and the NCAA oversight group that created the framework for the selection of teams.

Good points, particularly re: direction of frustration. NWC not helping itself. But even if they have a conference Tourny, Linfield probably wins and we are in the same place.

[ILVBB]

Spence - if it didn't happen this year it is in the "past tense." Rule changes which eliminate the ability to play early season games which don't count against your regional record and "a game is a game" will likely eliminate trips which are anything other than both competitive and cost effective.

You shouldn't make blanket statements which don't recognize that the methodology has change and that prior actions may not occur under the current operating parameters.

[dp643]

Finishing 3rd in your conference with less than 30 wins....I dont think there is too much to complain about.

I remember in 2008 the ASC had 5 30+ win teams, including UT Tyler at something like 36-9 and only 1 team got in (McMurry).

[Westside]

Finishing 3rd in your conference with less than 30 wins....I dont think there is too much to complain about.

There is a complaint when there is one conference theat gets 4 teams in the regionals and 3 of those teams have less than 30 wins. Another conference gets 3 teams in and 2 of those teams have less than 30 wins.

But everyone will just point to the strength of schedule. I guess I just don't understand how it can work at the D3 level. None of these leagues play common opponents or each other. It is like the strength of schedule is high just because of the name on the jersey.

It is disappointing that a team like Fox comes out of a league that doesn't get any love. The NWC has sent a team to the World Series 3 of the last 4 years, but they reamin a one bid league even when they have multiple teams that are deserving.

[dp643]

Finishing 3rd in your conference with less than 30 wins....I dont think there is too much to complain about.

There is a complaint when there is one conference theat gets 4 teams in the regionals and 3 of those teams have less than 30 wins. Another conference gets 3 teams in and 2 of those teams have less than 30 wins.

But everyone will just point to the strength of schedule. I guess I just don't understand how it can work at the D3 level. None of these leagues play common opponents or each other. It is like the strength of schedule is high just because of the name on the jersey.

It is disappointing that a team like Fox comes out of a league that doesn't get any love. The NWC has sent a team to the World Series 3 of the last 4 years, but they reamin a one bid league even when they have multiple teams that are deserving.

The 2008 year I was referencing, George Fox got in with a 28-12 Pool C bid that was played in Texas and left 4 30+ win ASC teams out, including the 36-9 UT Tyler team. GFU went 2 and bbq that year.

My guess is if GFU had won 30+, and not getting swept by the 4th place team is a good start, they would have gotten in.

[Strike1]

If NWC has a tourney and someone other than Linfield were to have won can we assume there would then have been two teams making it? How can they leave a top 10 team out!

[CrashDavisD3]

2nd time in recent years that West only gets 4 teams into the regional tournament. Why is this now a trend in my opinion. If the 2 fly in teams go 2 and Q then what???

[CrashDavisD3]

Regional Site
http://www.linfield.edu/sports/2014mcminnvilleregional.html

[SoCalSoxFan]

Regional Site
http://www.linfield.edu/sports/2014mcminnvilleregional.html

Crash,

Thanks for the Link with update.

I'll try and stay detached enough to send posts/updates.

[Spence]

Spence - if it didn't happen this year it is in the "past tense." Rule changes which eliminate the ability to play early season games which don't count against your regional record and "a game is a game" will likely eliminate trips which are anything other than both competitive and cost effective.

You shouldn't make blanket statements which don't recognize that the methodology has change and that prior actions may not occur under the current operating parameters.

I don't understand what you're even referencing here.

I'm well aware of the rule changes. I think they were a good idea that's resulted in a truer reflection of schedule strength.

[CrashDavisD3]

I like the rule changes counting all D3 games. I think additional changes are needed for SOS and the regional ranking system.

[108 Stitches]

In general I like the trend, but agree some tweaking is needed. I would prefer a nationally ranked/seeded system. It would be chaotic for fan travel but oh well.

I will bet there will be some discussions within the ASC and SCIAC on how many league games they will have next year. If not then there should be no complaining about only one team getting in. I would be surprised if CalTech is not asked to leave. (this is a complete waste of games for any serious team/league) If not then too bad for the SCIAC.

I love what Trinity did this year in searching out the best competition they could find, with Millsaps/Hendrix/Chapman home/away series. I would like to see them add in BSC or some other team high quality team. Not sure they can swing it but a mid to late season series with a strong northern program would be great. An early season Fl trip would not make much sense for them IMO.

Like I posted earlier high quality programs will be having teams line up and wanting to play them.

Really looking forward to seeing some of the other programs in McMinnville.

SoCalSox fan looking forward to seeing you again in McMinnville, hopefully in game 2!

[Whatagame]

In general I like the trend, but agree some tweaking is needed. I would prefer a nationally ranked/seeded system. It would be chaotic for fan travel but oh well.

I will bet there will be some discussions within the ASC and SCIAC on how many league games they will have next year. If not then there should be no complaining about only one team getting in. I would be surprised if CalTech is not asked to leave. (this is a complete waste of games for any serious team/league) If not then too bad for the SCIAC.

I love what Trinity did this year in searching out the best competition they could find, with Millsaps/Hendrix/Chapman home/away series. I would like to see them add in BSC or some other team high quality team. Not sure they can swing it but a mid to late season series with a strong northern program would be great. An early season Fl trip would not make much sense for them IMO.

Like I posted earlier high quality programs will be having teams line up and wanting to play them.

Really looking forward to seeing some of the other programs in McMinnville.

SoCalSox fan looking forward to seeing you again in McMinnville, hopefully in game 2!

None of this makes any difference, getting rid of Caltech would make no difference.  The only thing that will make a difference is for West Region teams to choose to travel to faraway lands to cherry pick a fair number of games versus strong teams from Mid East, New England, South, etc.

West Region has mediocre SOS because essentially all 38 West teams play each other out of geographic necessity, thus the OWP and OOWP figures for each team get driven towards .500  You could take the top 38 teams from this season (all 8 Appleton teams, and 30 other strongest regional teams) and put them in a mythological "region" next season, make them essentially only play amongst each other, and those 38 strongest teams would have SOS rankings tending toward .500, by virtue of the plain old math.

Then, we could expect to see zero Pool C bids out of that group, because they all played a cruddy schedule.

Despite Trinity's efforts, they still had a very mediocre SOS this season, ranking around 200th place, correct?

[Westside]

Random interjection, if anyone going to the regional wants to meet up and talk some baseball during the week, I am always down. Just shoot me a message on here. I'll be at all the games. I promise I am pretty normal and cool