Post by wilkyisdashiznit on May 16, 2021 14:09:50 GMT -8
Give any conference twice as many host sites as any other conference and see what happens.
6 of 11 isn't the whole story either. There has been a ton of SEC teams flaming out in the post season as well, even while living on easy street. An audit of the entire field for the last 12 years would be a much more accurate picture.
They had 6 other teams that lost in the championship game. So, 12 teams in the last 11 championship games......I'd say they're decent.
2010 SEC #2 won the National Championship.
2011 SEC #1 won the National Championship by beating SEC#2, which had won the SEC Tournament.
2012 Pac-12 #2 defeated SEC #2 in the National Championship Game.
2013 Pac-12 #3 defeated SEC #4 in the National Championship Game.
2014 SEC #5 won the National Championship.
2015 SEC #2 lost the National Championship.
2016 Pac-12 #3 lost the National Championship. SEC #4 was the only SEC team in Omaha and went 0-2.
2017 SEC #1 defeated SEC #2, which had one the SEC Championship Game. But that was after SEC #2 "beat" Pac-12 #1.
2018 Pac-12 #2 defeated SEC #2.
2019 SEC #1 won the SEC Tournament and the National Championship.
2014 stands out. #5 SEC was given a host spot. #5 SEC hosted Pac-12 #4 in a Regional and Pac-12 #5 in the Super Regional. In no damned world should #5 SEC host Pac-12 #4 in a regional. Bragging up 2014 is insipid. Asterisk. That is some rigged BS right there. The Committee set up a gold paved road straight to Omaha for Vandy. As it was Vandy had to overcome a 2-1 eighth inning deficit in the Nashville Regional Championship Game.
Florida State was the National Seed that was supposed to play Vandy in Omaha, but the Noles went two and BBQ in the Tallahassee Regional. American Athletic #1 Louisville hosted the Super Regional instead and appeared opposite Vandy. The Dores won 5-3.
The other decent team on that side of the bracket was Texas, Big-12 #5. But the Longhorns ran into UC Irvine, Big West #3. Irvine threw their ace, Andrew Morales (2nd Round, #71 overall), who out-pitched Texas' ace, Nathan Thornhill (13th Round, #382 overall). Thornhill was actually in line to pick up the win but was allowed to throw one pitch too many, allowing Irvine's best hitter, Taylor Sparks (2nd Round, #58 overall), who was already 2/3 with a double, to hit an RBI triple. The Longhorns put in their best reliever, John Curtiss (6th Round, #170 overall, won game four of the World Series last year). Curtiss gave up two singles in his first three pitches and then another six pitches later to put Irvine up 3-1. From there, Irvine would coast to victory.
In game 2, Irvine threw Elliot Surrey, who had allowed only two against Oregon State in his start, picked up the series-clinching save in the Corvallis Regional Championship Game and then allowed only two unearned runs in the Stillwater Super Regional. In the first inning Vandy scored a run and had runners on the corners. Xavier Turner sacrificed home a second run. (Turner would be ruled ineligible and never played another college game.) Irvine came back to take a 4-2 lead in the second. In the fifth, Surrey broke: 2B, 1B, GO, 2B, eight-pitch BB (to Turner) and HBP to load the bases with one out. That chased Surrey, and the reliever gave up a sacrifice fly to put Vandy up 5-4. Vandy scored another in the seventh to win 6-4.
Texas rebounded to beat Louisville 4-1, Irvine 1-0 and Vandy 4-0 (Thornhill and Curtiss combining for a shutout). In the final game between Texas and Vandy, Vandy scored first after the Longhorns could not quite turn a double play. Vandy added a second run after a fielding error by the third baseman and a throwing error on the catcher, when that runner tried to steal third. Texas tied it at two. Vandy went up 3-2 in the fifth, and Texas tied it in the sixth. Texas' C.J. Hinojosa hit a shot in the 10th to right and Rhett Wiseman ran and made a sliding catch on the warning track to rob Hinojosa of an extra-base hit. After finishing the ninth, Curtiss came back to pitch the tenth. Wiseman started off the two-out rally with a base hit. Curtiss then walked the following batter and hit the next batter to load the bases with two outs. Tyler Campbell, who replaced the ineligible Turner, got just a piece of the ball and hit a slow dribbler to short. He had just enough speed to beat Hinojosa's throw to advance to the Championship Series.
Vandy was set up against ACC #2 Virginia in the Championship Series. Virginia outscored Vandy in the three-game series. The Dores won game 1 on four unearned runs to win by one. Vandy won the Championship game on an infield single, where the runner barely beat out the throw to first. Virginia placed more players than Vandy on the All-Tournament team. Meh.
The only other time that a team below SEC #2 made noise was in 2013. Mississippi State finished fifth but had a better nonconference record than Arkansas and was given a regional host with with three powerhouses: South Alabama, Mercer and Central Arkansas. Central Arkansas was the best of the three teams. Mississippi State won game 1 5-3 before Central Arkansas came back to win 5-2. With their pitching exhausted Cnetral Arkansas lost 6-1 in the Starkville Regional Championship Game. Mississippi State won the Charlottesville Super Regional. In Omaha Pac-12 #1 Oregon State came up just short in game 1 and wilted in the heat of semifinal game.
The SEC always has two great teams worthy of regional host spots. Easy. After that, though, the idea that SEC #7 is better than Pac-12 #4 is dumb to the point of outright absurdity.