While visiting some of Heather's family in Oneonta, NY, this weekend,
I took a look at her uncle's copy of Baseball Weekly and discovered an
article on the DivI baseball format.  It seems that baseball wanted to
expand its tourney from 48 to 64 teams but wasn't able to, for the
same reason that other tourneys like hockey were unable to expand -
not enough schools competing in the division.
 
However, they were apparently able to get around this by instituting a
"play-in" whereby 16 teams who would not or might not have gotten in
will compete for a bid.  8 series will be held with the winners going
on to the regionals.  Some of the teams will be travelling quite far;
for example, I believe a team from Texas travels to play at a team
from California.  The format is best of 3, with a doubleheader the
first day and a deciding third game if necessary the second day.
 
This led me to wonder if it would be possible to do something like
this for hockey, for those who wish to expand the tourney to 16 teams.
I believe the baseball play-ins will be held in the middle of the
week before the regionals.  Hockey could have the 9th through 12th
seeds host a one-game playoff against the 13th through 16th seeds on
the Tuesday prior to the regionals.
 
Of course, this might be too many games for the teams to play, not to
mention that it would probably require missing classes in the middle
of the week.  A play-in may be more conducive to baseball since most
schools are done with classes now.  But I was wondering if someone
more familiar with the baseball format might be able to comment on
whether it could be translated to other sports like hockey.  Also, I
got the impression that the 16 teams involved came from conferences
which were DivI but which do not receive automatic bids to the
baseball tourney for some reason - but again, I am not sure.
---                                                                    ---
Mike Machnik                                             [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                     *HMM* 11/13/93
>>> Merrimack softball (45-4) 1994 NC$$ Division II National Champions <<<