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The Division I Baseball Committee and NCAA Championship Oversight Committee approved a change to the structure of the NCAA Baseball Tournament this week, according to Kendall Rogers of D1Baseball.com. Teams will now be seeded 1-16, including the regional hosts as opposed to the 1-8 previously done since the expansion to 64 teams in 1999.
BREAKING: Beginning in 2018, the @NCAACWS Baseball Tourney will seed 1-16, not 1-8. Huge news for the sport. Story https://t.co/wAWZGKuuns pic.twitter.com/e024CZC1Jl
— Kendall Rogers (@KendallRogersD1) October 6, 2017
Coach Schloss is in favor of the change:
“This is a great step forward for our sport and long overdue,” TCU coach Jim Schlossnagle said. “College baseball has grown to the point that regionalization of the NCAA tournament should be an afterthought to putting the best possible tournament structure together.”
TOURNAMENT UPDATE
— NCAA Baseball (@NCAACWS) October 6, 2017
Committee approves increasing seeded teams from 8 to 16 in the 2018 season. https://t.co/ekdTB9tvo7 pic.twitter.com/p6Yiti2Nng
Schloss brings up a good point in that the regionalization of the tournament had slowly been a growing issue over the past few years, particularly when it comes to West Coast teams. Those in favor of TCU laying a beatdown on or eliminating A&M from the postseason in some of the most excruciating ways possible will surely be saddened by the news, but the move should make the tournament much more fair and competitive by matching up the teams seeded 1 vs. 16, 2 vs. 15, etc.