College Baseball's Tournament Selection Process Is a Joke

No other way to put it.

For years now west coast baseball fans have been up in arms and for good reason: their teams keep getting worked over by the selection committee.

The basic process itself makes sense: automatically invite conference champions, allow top teams to host regionals, quarrel over remaining "at large" teams. It's quite similar to how the NCAA basketball tournament works.

The major problem seems to be the introduction of several biases in this process. Although it's cited as "just one measure", the RPI rating system seems to be of heavy focus. The RPI itself, according to some, is heavily flawed and works strongly against west coast teams in particular.

Another error is how teams are allocated. This year, like most years, most of the west coast teams are bunched together in a small pack of "regional" groupings, limiting the number who can potentially make it to Omaha for the College World Series. Yet the SEC and ACC get much more favorable treatment.

There are 25 schools in the Pac-10, Big West and West Coast Conference. Eleven made the tournament field. Nine are stuffed in three regionals, meaning only 33 percent of them could advance to a Super Regional.

There are 24 schools in the Southeastern Conference and Atlantic Coast Conference. Fifteen made the tournament. They are stretched across 11 different regionals, so 73 percent could advance to the next round.

This has been going on for years.

Meanwhile, in spite of the rigged tournament, west coast teams have prospered. This is no accident.

So ... UCLA if it survives a loaded bracket, gets to face not a new foe but yet another conference opponent in the Super Regional? This is stacking the decks, apparently in an effort to make sure no more than one or two Pac-10/west coast teams make it to Omaha.

The tournament should be about the best teams making the final, not gerrymandering this thing so that a limited number of arguably the best teams out there even get to Omaha. If that means that five western teams make it to Omaha, so be it. If it means zero west coast teams, so be it. Just mix it up so that the odds aren't so stacked deliberately against the western teams. The goal should be to strengthen the final eight in Omaha, not dilute the field.

There's plenty more lunacy still ahead. The upcoming Miami/Arizona series should be spectacular, but it's probably a matchup that should have happened in Omaha and not the Super Regionals. This does no favors for a great Miami team and a well above average Arizona team. In fact, it does no favors to college baseball as it dilutes the final product, as stated above. I still remember a couple years ago thinking USC and Stanford had the two best teams in college baseball, yet they had to play knockout in the Super Regional instead of meeting in Omaha. That kind of seeding only fuels the suspicion, frustration and paranoia out west.

Meanwhile, this year, the biggest stunner was Oklahoma's appearance in the tournament. Two time defending champion Oregon State was left in the cold (with an 11-13 conference record in the loaded Pac-10, 28-24 overall). Oklahoma, at 9-17 in the less impressive Big 12, got in. Again, these kinds of oddball decisions, specifically working against west coast teams, delegitimizes the NCAA selection process.

It seems that at minimum, a remedy could be a more "diverse" regional process, willfully allocating teams all across the country instead of so tightly packed in their own regions. Yes, there's travel costs to this but at this point western teams' fans are fed up. Additionally, I'd replace the RPI with the ISR measure at the Boyd's World Baseball website. It seems to be much more predictive of performance and doesn't seem so skewed against west coast teams.

It shouldn't be the job of the committee to protect upper midwest baseball, or the SEC/ACC. It should simply be to fairly allocate the best teams into the tournament and let the chips fall where they may. If it means making Arizona head east, so be it. Just the same, maybe Georgia shouldn't be hosting a regional and maybe should head to Big 12 or Pac-10 country as a two seed. You get the picture.