.png)
The state softball tournament is in the books. The state baseball tournament begins on Thursday at the Dell Diamond in Round Rock.
After five rounds of having the option of playing a best-of-three series or one game, the state championship games are one-game affairs. This is ridiculous.
If you’re going to have best-of-three series for previous rounds, the University Interscholastic League needs to offer this option in the state championship game. Or go to a uniform playoff format.
With 64 teams in each division in Classes 6A2A, it would be apropos to have double-elimination tournaments in the first two rounds. The state semifinal and state championship rounds would be best-of-three series.
If you break it down into four-team area tournaments, you go from 64 to 16 teams after the first weekend. With four-team region tournaments, you then dwindle down from 16 to four.
In the third weekend, neutral-site best-of-three series could be played at the Dell Diamond and Nelson Wolff Stadium in San Antonio. The best-of-three state championship series could be played at Choctaw Stadium (formerly Globe Life Park or the Ballpark in Arlington).
The region tournaments could also be played at neutral sites. For Region I, Texas Tech and Abilene Christian could host tournaments, while Baylor and TCU host the Region II tournaments.
The University of Houston and Rice could host the Region III tournaments, and Texas A&M and Texas each host the Region IV tournaments. It may sound radical, but look at the mess we’re already in.
This year was a first for the UIL—the split-division format. Under this system, the top four teams in each district in 6A through 2A qualify for the postseason—just as they have for the past 2-3 decades.
Instead of putting all four teams into one bracket, which forces the eventual state champion to win seven rounds, they split each classification into two divisions. The two schools with the larger enrollments in each district compete in the Division I bracket, while the two schools with smaller enrollments compete in Division II.
This is a similar format to the one still employed in Class 6A football. While I am not a fan of two state champions per classification in each team sport, there is one thing I like about the split-division format in baseball and softball—a best-of-three series option in the state semifinals.
The UIL is doing one thing right, but it needs to fix the rest. Under my double-elimination proposal, the state playoffs would be four weeks long instead of six.
It would also be more uniform, which means a superior team won’t suffer a fluke one-game loss to end their season. The best teams win double-elimination tournaments and best-of- three series.
It’s definitely worth thinking about.
Chlapek is the area editor of the Elgin Courier and Taylor Press. He can be reached at [email protected].
