NCAA Regionals Format For College Baseball Is Flawed And Unfair, A Rant

They say don’t hate the player but hate the game. So after witnessing the Florida Gators baseball team play five games in four days during NCAA Regionals am I allowed to say that I hate the game?

This probably comes across as sour grapes, but for the record I started drafting this article prior to the first pitch of the game seven matchup between Florida and Oklahoma for the right to move on to Super Regionals and face Virginia Tech.

And before Florida collapsed post rain delay.

And yes, Florida has benefitted from the NCAA Regional format in the past. During their 2017 run to winning the national title, Florida had an elimination game seven against Bethune Cookman and survived in part because BCC had run out of pitchers.

This leads me to my main point, the NCAA Regionals format for college baseball is flawed and unfair.

The format is designed to whittle four teams down to one while still allowing for a margin of error to allow teams to comeback should they drop a game. In its quest to do so it creates a barrage of games that teams never encounter during the regular season.

The NCAA Tournament for basketball and volleyball for example have teams play two games over three days. While the Gators’ basketball team normally gets at least two days rest between games in the regular season, they had four instances this past season where they played two games in three days. So had Florida not been stuck with Mike White’s lack of innovation, the tournament format wouldn’t have been uncharted territory.

A standard week for Gator baseball however sees them play one game during the week, and then a three game weekend series. The entire team, as is the case with virtually every team in the country, is built around a three-man weekend rotation with various guys filling the gaps for your weekday matchups.

College baseball struggles with pitching depth already when trying to fill four games over seven days, so to have the single most important game of the season occur when bullpens are running on fumes is asinine.

Putting the annoyance of the rain delay aside, game seven of Florida vs Oklahoma saw the Gators start Brandon Neely after he threw 50 pitches two days prior and Oklahoma start a guy who was making just his second start all season.

Could you imagine the Tampa Bay Buccaneers making the playoffs, and in the most critical moment of the season having to go “Hey guys, we know we have Tom Brady, but he is tired. Instead, we are going to start Blaine Gabbert.”

What is flawed about the format is that it creates an artificial bonus for winning early. If you lose game one of regionals, you wind up having to play five games if you want to make it to Super Regionals. If you lose game two of regionals, the story is the same.

But if you win your first game and win your second game, but then lose your third game you wind up only having to play four games even though you too lost a game. But because you lost it later in the tournament you are not penalized as much.

It would be like saying that the Golden State Warriors have to go on a side mission because they lost game one of the NBA Finals before being allowed back into the series. But because Boston won game one, they don’t have to do the side mission after losing game two.

The fix is actually really easy.

Option One: Have NCAA Regionals mimic the pacing of the College World Series

This still creates the extra game scenario for losing early, but it at least allows for greater rest and allows for the starters in game one to come back at the end if needed. This year the College World Series double elimination phase is scheduled to take place over seven days rather than the four days allotted for Regionals.

Option Two: Break NCAA Regionals into two weekends and make everything best two out of three

Chop off one week from the regular season, or start the regular season a week early, and you 100% could do this. In this format the Gators would have played Central Michigan in a two out of three series, THEN would move on to Oklahoma at full strength. This would also ensure that the single most critical game of the season isn’t being played at 1PM on a work day.

Despite the flaw of the format, the Gators still almost survived and made it to the Super Regional round.

But they didn’t. And I blame the format for it. And the rain delay. And Mike White. I’m sure he is to blame somehow.

But congratulations Oklahoma on advancing. I just hope a change in format comes sooner………………… rather than later.