PAC-12 first ever Baseball Championship Tournament
For the first time ever, the Pac-12 will hold a baseball championship tournament starting in 2021.For the first three years, it will be held at Scottsdale Stadium, the Spring Training home to the San Francisco Giants.
According to Michael Lev with the Arizona Daily Star, a format for the tournament has yet to be finalized but one that is being contemplated is having the top eight teams out of the 11 play a double elimination tournament with a one game championship. All Pac-12 schools have a baseball team, except Colorado.
Also according to Lev, each baseball team in the Pac-12 will continue to play the 30 -game conference schedule before the season ending championship tournament. The champion team will receive an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament with hopes of making it to the College Baseball World Series.
This new postseason is good for the Pac -12 schools with baseball teams for two reasons:
1. It gives a team that might not have had a chance to get into the NCAA tournament a chance by winning the championship game.
2. It gives teams that might have been on the bubble a chance to put together a couple more impressive victories to get into the NCAA tournament.
One team that might have benefited from this last year could have been the 2019 wildcats who were hot and won their last 10 games of the season and finished with a 32-24 record but did not qualify.
This is great for baseball, the Sun Devils and for Pac-12.