Kent State BY FAR had the best record in the MAC this year, and EMU ends up winning the tourny. The problem with this is, the regular season basically means jack squat. Whoever wins the MAC tourny gets a bid to the NCAA tourny and thats that.
All the MAC regular season champs get is home field advantage.
So for instance, Kent goes 40-1, but loses their only game in the MACC to Buffalo(who for example could have a record of 1-40) and Buffalo would go to the NCAA tourny. Not fair.
The MAC needs more bids to the NCAA tourny....not just the MAC tourny winner. That is kind of ridiculous in my opinion.
Is anybody else here with me on this??? I feel like we're getting screwed here - especially with all of the good MAC baseball teams.
Kudos to EMU for playing particularly well against Nebraska.
Same old same old. The MAC gets no respect in any sport. No matter how well the MAC does in the NCAAs, no addl bids or bowls.
(Man, I can't believe I actually agree with a zippy)
Hey, we're all brothers of the MAC community...and we all get screwed together!!!
lol...that doesn't sound too good does it? :D
I agree that the MAC should get more bids.
Not everyone MAC team plays in the MAC Tourney though so what you do in the regular season does have some meaning. Look at Toledo. They stunk it up so badly they finished in last place in the MAC and did not play in the tourney.
Now, if a 40-1 Kent team didn't get an at-large bid to the NCAA Tourney that would really suck.
I wish the MAC did get more bids, but look at basketball. Until recent years it was pretty unheard of for the MAC to get more than 1 team in the NCAA's. The MAC gets no respect what so ever.
You're right rocketfootball
I remember Dick Vitale being irate that BGSU didn't make the NCAA tourny when Kent had their Elite 8 run.....
Something needs to be done. I personally feel the MAC is a TOUGH basketball conference....a decent/pretty good baseball conference....and I also believe we're a very good/underrated football conference.
That's the big three sports...not including the others that the MAC is very successful in as well. (track, swimming, etc.)
The MAC needs AT LEAST 3 bids.....whether it be for basketball, baseball, football, or all three.
I don't know how the MAC baseball tourney is organized, but if it means a chance of the best team not getting an NCAA bid, why does it even exist?
My institutional memory may not go far back enough, but I believe that conference tournaments started with ACC basketball back in the 60's. It spread because other conferences figured out that there is money to be made- especially if the tournament is televised. Even before cable, the entire ACC tournament (and just about every other ACC game) was televised locally in ACC country. Even with a much smaller NCAA tournament, if the regular season ACC champ lost in the tournament, they would generally still get a NCAA bid.
Safe prediction- the MAC will always only get 1 NCAA baseball bid, unless it expands into the South or Western US. There are just too many geographic advantages for those schools- how much practice can MAC baseball players get in the winter? Yeah, I know most schools take a southern tour in the spring, but how much are the players playing in December and January in preparation for the season? Even if the MAC did have multiple NCAA caliber teams in a given year, it would be hard to overcome the perception that they can't be as good as the southern or western schools. That's one reason why I always liked track and field- nobody is screwed from an NCAA bid because of perceptions of coaches or sportswriters. Either you run/jump/ throw at the required level or you don't.
Back to the point- Does the MAC baseball tournament attract any attention or generate enough money and interest to justify its existance? With only so many pitchers to go around, upsets are going to happen and the best teams potentially left out of the NCAA.
try to remember the context of NCAA baseball...
northern teams are like glorified intramural teams compared to what even "mid-major" southern teams can field. (ok, a little hyperbole).
the only northern conferences with multiple representatives are the Big Ten and the MVC....the Valley will get a second team in but they have an outstanding history with teams like Wichita State, Creighton and SMS this year is in.
The Big 12 is a different story, thanks in large part to their Texas and Oklahoma members and I get the impression Nebraska has made a serious investment in having their program competitive with the Texas schools.
The last Baseball America top 25 I saw also had 1 northern team ranked...
Notre Dame, #25.
sad to say, but the MAC doesn't deserve a 2d bid.
Think of it: Virginia Commonwealth and Coastal Carolina were #2 seeds.
<!--EDIT|DogTracks|Jun 1 2003, 03:59 AM-->
"Kent State BY FAR had the best record in the MAC this year, and EMU ends up winning the tourny. The problem with this is, the regular season basically means jack squat. Whoever wins the MAC tourny gets a bid to the NCAA tourny and thats that."
Just like in 1999-2000. BG won the regular season title in hoops and got upset by Miami in the tourney. We finished 22-7 and went to the NIT.
I thought what is the purpose of the regular season???
Seems like we've all seen enough of this BS in our conference.
:mad:
you can't compare baseball and basketball. in basketball quality teams are spread across the country. in baseball the quality is all in the south and west.
there are 16 regional winners right now. 1 is from the north (Ohio State) another (SMS) plays in the Valley, which historically seems to get a team through to the CWS every so often.
you can't improve the baseball lot of the MAC without improving the baseball lot of the whole North. the problem isn't an anti-MAC or anti-mid major bias, the problem is that baseball in the north lags behind southern baseball because of a whole series of issues.
Can't disagree with you there AO.
What also sux is that the MAC tournament champ is forced to play at the home turf of a team like Nebraska. No matter what sport, the MAC is continually screwed by the NCAA and it's getting damned old. :mad:
FWIW...SW Missouri State knocked off Nebraska in the regional there to win the regional tournament. Kinda sweet! :)
<!--EDIT|HuronDave|Jun 2 2003, 12:40 PM-->
Northern collegiate baseball still is ahead of southern collegiate hockey.
But both tourneys point out that there is no clear-cut "third" sport in NCAA Division I. Heck, lacrosse is more popular than either of those two sports at some places I've been, and the NCAA lax final four drew crowds over 30,000.