College Softball News

Did the Committee Get It Right?

In what has seemingly become a disturbing trend, the NCAA committee made yet another controversial decision that has people talking about it instead of the actual games set to take place on the field. We will break down the good and bad from the committee this year.

Florida at No. 5 and Alabama at No. 8:

So, apparently, winning the regular season title in the No. 1 conferences in the country that also has all 13 teams in field of 64 is not as important as finishing 6th in SEC and winning one weekend conference tournament.

Alabama won the SEC regular season title by four games including a sweep of the Gators in Florida during the 2019 campaign. The committee pointed towards the Tide’s 106th ranked non-conference strength of schedule; which is fine. However, the committee ignored the fact that Alabama swept Florida at Florida, Won at Arizona and beat Minnesota twice. Three teams that are seeded ahead of Alabama. The committee should have “punished” Alabama by having them be a fifth seed, instead of a widely expected top four. Not the eighth seed behind Arizona and Minnesota and you certainly do not put Florida ahead of them. Alabama is lowest seeded SEC champion since the current format started in 2007 when Monica Abbott’s Tennessee Volunteers were seeded fifth. Here is breakdown of where SEC regular season champions have been seeded since 2007.

Year- SEC Champion- Seed- SOS Overall – Non Conference SOS

2007- Tennessee – 5th seed – 8th – 34th

2008- Florida – 1st – 2nd – 12th

2009- Florida 1st – 9th – 13th

2010- Alabama 1st – 1st – 1st

2011- Alabama 2nd – 9th – 5th

2012- Alabama 2nd – 8th -9th

2013- Florida – 2nd -7th – 24th

2014- Alabama – 2nd – 6th – 20th

2015- Florida – 1st – 1st – 4th

2016- Florida- 1st – 4th -13th

2017-Florida – 1st -6th -16th

2018-Florida- 2nd – 6th -44th

If the committee would have simply placed Alabama fifth and cited the non-conference schedule ranking and put Florida eighth, while people still be slightly bothered, it would have at least been more easily moved on from. But they went too far. It is almost like the committee wanted to double down and still try to justify leaving Minnesota out of hosting in 2017 which is the greatest travesty that any committee in any college sport has ever committed.

So, Florida winning the SEC Tournament mattered but Michigan Winning Big Ten did not?

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The Gators clearly benefited from winning SEC Tournament, as they should. But why than should Michigan not benefit from winning Big Ten Tournament? The Wolverines wrap up Big Ten Tournament title by beating Minnesota on the field! Yet Minnesota is eight seeds higher than Michigan.

This is where the committee gets themselves in trouble. They are not consistent. Either put value on both results or don’t, but do not pick and choose. I think Michigan should have gotten more of a bump than a 15 seed especially since the Wolverines have wins in their resume over No. 2 seed UCLA, No. 3 seed Washington, and No.7 Minnesota.

Michigan’s RPI got bumped from 16 to 12 after Big Ten Tournament. I think you can make the argument that Michigan should be ahead of Minnesota who is No. 9 in RPI. But at worst Michigan should be within the 11-12 range.

Ole Miss at a No.11?

Ole Miss lost four of their of last five games and hold an RPI of 18. Yet the Rebels are the 11th seed according to the committee. That seed would have been fine prior to Ole Miss being swept at Georgia. It’s almost like the committee did not watch last two weeks of the Rebels’ season. I agree the Rebels should be hosting as I will get into later, but a proper seeding would have been 15-16 range. I would easily flip Michigan and Ole Miss seedings.

Was Southern Illinois the right choice?

Southern Illinois basically got in for three reasons: strength of non-conference schedule compared to teams left out; their RPI of 43; and, most importantly perhaps, the campus of Southern Illinois is about 346 miles away from Northwestern where they were placed, meaning a bus trip.

Southern Illinois went 4-3 vs Top 50 teams with their best wins coming at home vs Drake, a win over Mississippi State, San Jose State, and North Dakota State. Their overall strength of schedule for the Salukis is 90 and 73 in non conference schedule strength. Lets compare that to other teams who were left out:

Teams Top 25 RPI Top 50 Record SOS overall SOS

Southern Illinois – 1-3 4-3 90 72

Oregon State 0-12 2-15 35 137

UNLV – 0-0 6-5 100 191

Indiana 1-5 3-12 66 113

San Jose State 0-0 6-4 68 127

UCF 0-6 4-16 56 57

Southern Illinois’ non-conference strength schedule is stronger than all the listed bubble teams left out of the tournament field except for UCF. But overall, Southern Illinois schedule is weaker than everyone except for UNLV because of how weak the MVC is. Also, Indiana recorded three wins vs Top 50: LSU, Georgia, and South Florida. These were more impressive than Southern Illinois’s four. UNLV finished third in the Mountain West which was the seventh strongest conference according to the RPI. Southern Illinois finished second in Missouri Valley Conference which was 12th! Southern Illinois was upset in semi-finals of MVC tournament by Northern Iowa where the top two teams received a bye. That did not hurt Southern Illinois at end of day.

I would have put UNLV in over Southern Illinois who held stronger top 50 wins and can bus to Los Angeles or Tucson. The Rebels also played in tougher conference. But credit to committee for putting a mid-major team from Missouri Valley Conference in over a bubble Pac-12 and Big Ten team. So at the end of day, that is a positive and every team had flaws in their resumes. It is worth to point out as some people in the sport have texted and messaged to me that Southern Illinois Head Coach Kerri Blaylock is currently on the NFCA Board of Directors as the D1 representive and has served on the selection committee in the past. You can make what you want from that.

UNLV got snubbed big time!

The Running Rebels should be in over Southern Illinois and Boise State. UNLV finished third in Mountain West going 14-9 while Boise State finished fifth at 12-12. The committee basically sent a message they love a 12-12 conference record. UNLV also beat Boise State two of three contests on the field and finished stronger as UNLV went 8-2 in last 10 while Boise State went 5-5 in last 10 including getting swept at Fresno State in final weekend of regular season.

All that did not matter as they went with Boise State because of better RPI (40) compared to UNLV, 46. UNLV was punished for a loss to Portland State (RPI 207) instead of two wins at Stanford and two of three vs Boise State. By the way, UNLV’s RPI was better than Texas A&M who sat at 50. UNLV should be in field of 64.

Now I know there were many negatives here but not all was bad!

They got all 16 host sites right!

While some seedings may be questionable, the committee got the right 16 host teams. Sorry James Madison and Louisiana, but your conference being down and lack of top 50 wins cost you. Here is the breakdown:

Top 25 Top 50 SOS SOS Non Conference

Ole Miss 12-9 18-17 6 28

Michigan 3-7 16-10 27 7

Northwestern 3-7 16-8 26 13

James Madison 4-4 4-5 41 22

Louisiana 0-1 2-1 100 107

As I’ve written before, the lowest top 50 win total for a mid-major since 2008 was James Madison hosting in 2015 with just nine wins vs top 50. Every other mid-major that has hosted since 2008 recorded at least 10 victories. That trend continues as JMU only secured four while Louisiana had two.

The trend also continues that to host you have to play in a top eight rated conference that season. In 2016 when James Madison hosted the CAA was the eighth strongest conference. That is lowest conference ranking for mid-major host in last decade. This year the CAA was 11th the Sun Belt was ninth.

The Big Ten got six teams and three host sites into the field, and the Committee got it right. They also got it right leaving Oregon State out and not giving the Pac-12 a sixth team.

Does the Committee have an issue with Florida and Tennessee?

The Gators and Vols are projected to play each other in the Super Regional if they both advance. It would be the fourth straight season the Gators potentially have to go through an SEC team in the Super Regionals to advance to the Women’s College World Series. In 2016, Florida as a No. 1 seed and lost to No. 16 seed Georgia. In 2017, Gators were again the No. 1 seed and played No. 16 seeded Alabama. Last season, Florida was the No. 2 and hosted No. 15 Texas A&M in Super Regional play. This season Florida as a five seed would host No. 12 Tennessee who Gators lost to 2 of 3 during regular season.

For the Lady Vols, It is also the 4th straight season and 6th in the last 8 seasons that Tennessee has been paired with an SEC foe in Super Regional. Last season the Vols were paired with Georgia in a 7-10 super regional. In 2017, Vols hosted Texas A&M in 8-9 super regional. In 2016. Tennessee was a 13 seed and was paired in bracket with No 4 seed Auburn. In 2013, The Vols were the 7 seed and paired with 10th seed Alabama. In 2012, Tennessee was the 7 seed paired with 10 seed Georgia.

Overall there were improvements from the committee this year compared to past season but the lack of consistency, eye ball test, and at times lack of common sense still leaves us wondering if the committee will ever truly get it together?

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