Pac-12 officially announces inaugural baseball conference tournament
Over two years since reports first started coming out about a Pac-12 baseball tournament, the idea will finally come to fruition next May.
The Pac-12 has announced it would join the ACC, SEC, Big Ten and Big 12 in hosting its own baseball conference tournament at the conclusion of every regular season, starting May, 2022, in Scottsdale, Arizona. The Pac-12 CEO Group and Pac-12 Council agreed to move forward with a conference tournament back in early 2020, with initial confirmation coming from the Arizona Daily Star in May 2020, but the tournament was not held during the 2021 season.
In the past, Pac-12 teams have continued with regular season series on the diamond while other top-level programs have gone to neutral sites for their respective conference tournaments. Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff said in a written statement released Wednesday that the event will help draw eyes to premiere West Coast matchups ahead of the NCAA tournament.
“The Pac-12 Baseball Tournament is a marquee event that will serve to enhance the exposure of the Conference’s baseball programs with competitive, late-season matchups prior to NCAA Tournament selections,” Kliavkoff said. “It will also provide student-athletes with a first-class experience and the opportunity to compete for a championship in a premier destination for the sport on the West Coast. A lot of work has gone into the creation of this tournament and we are grateful for the partnership of the City of Scottsdale and The Arizona Sports & Entertainment Commission in making it a reality.”
Scottsdale has been pegged as the host for the 2022, 2023 and 2024 renditions of the tournament, and the games will be played at the San Francisco Giants' spring training venue, Scottsdale Stadium.
The tournament will include eight teams and take place across five days, following the standard double-elimination format of other conference tournaments across the country. The winner of the tournament will earn an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
UCLA baseball coach John Savage, however, has not been so keen on the Pac-12 adopting a conference tournament in the past.
In a Q&A with the Daily Bruin's Jared Tay back in June 2020, soon after the idea had reportedly been locked in by conference officials, Savage said he was a believer in the regular season as an accurate gauge of which teams are best.
"I’ve never been a proponent of a tournament. I believe in 30 nine-inning games to decide a champion, but I think our league felt that we were getting short-changed in the selection process for the (NCAA tournament). People thought it was a potential try to see if we could get another team into the tournament. I don’t know if this will help it. They haven’t announced anything official, but somehow it got leaked to the press, (so) we’ll see how it plays out. I’m not a huge fan of a team finishing eighth place winning the tournament and then getting an automatic bid to the (NCAA tournament). It just hasn’t been in my DNA, but I guess we’ll have to adjust."
Savage made his opinions clear again in multiple interviews and press conferences late in the 2021 season as well. However, Savage seems to have changed his tone with the news becoming official, considering the statement he made to D1Baseball on Wednesday.
“The Pac-12 tournament is another important step that will get our programs ready for the NCAA tournament,” Savage told D1Baseball.
Regardless, the Bruins will have to try their best to finish in the top eight and stave off Cinderellas in order to clinch their fifth-consecutive NCAA tournament bid in 2022. UCLA has finished eighth or better in the Pac-12 in all but two seasons since the conference expanded to 11 teams in 2012 and in 15 of the 17 years Savage has been with the Bruins.
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