The LHSAA has been tweaking the high school baseball playoff format for years and finally got to what most of the coaches have wanted for a long time – a best-of-three series in every round.
It took some schedule adjustments as the season started a week earlier to accommodate the extended playoffs, which now take almost five weeks to play.
But there was been collateral damage with the change.
In the opening round, more than half the teams get a bye while the lower seeds battle it out.
The bye is great because, obviously, that’s one less chance that you could get knocked out. It also allows the teams to let some injuries heal and perhaps adjust the playoff pitching rotation.
But after two months of playing games on a regular basis, those teams with byes have that come to a screeching halt.
When Benton takes on Ruston tonight in the Non-Select Division I second round, it will have been 13 days since the Tigers last played a game.
“It presents challenges,” Benton coach Dane Peavy said. “You give your guys a couple of days off and you play a couple of exhibition games. There are some teams that don’t have a good enough team to overcome that and get beat in the second round. We are hoping to maintain that level of confidence that we’ve had.”
When Loyola plays Haynes Academy in the Select Division II playoffs, it’s also been 13 days since the Flyers’ last game.
“You get used to playing three or four times a week and then it all comes to a screeching halt,” said Loyola coach Morgan Brian. “The bye is nice in our case to get some guys healthy because we’ve had some nagging injuries. You get a little fatigued from the grind and it gives you a chance to reset and regroup.”
The LHSAA does allow teams with a week off to play in a scrimmage against another school with a bye. “But it’s just not the same atmosphere,” Peavy said.
Loyola played Haughton, another team with a bye, twice last week in scrimmages. “I do like that we get to play those,” Brian said. “But the kids know it doesn’t mean anything. It’s uninspired baseball.”
But there seems to be another change that perhaps the LHSAA might consider (but won’t). Ditch the five-round, five-week playoffs system and eliminate the byes completely.
A quick look at the results of the first round shows why. (Lower divisions such as IV, B and C still play single games each round.)
In the Non-Select Division I bracket (where Benton, Haughton and Northwood play), there are only two teams from outside the top 16. On the Select side (Captain Shreve), there are zero teams from outside the top 16.
In Non-Select Division II, there was only one lower seed “upset” and zero on the Select side.
Only one in Non-Select Division III and zero in Select.
No need to crunch those numbers; the results speak for themselves. It’s wonderful that all these teams make the playoffs, but having a 16-team playoff would work just as well. And perhaps even better, because it would shorten the schedule by the week – boy, weren’t those 38-degree games in February fun! – and the bye week would be eliminated.
The majority of the best teams in each bracket are forced to stop playing just to wait a week and take on a team they were more than likely going to play anyway.
Before this season, teams played best-of-three all the way to the semifinals, when the semifinals and finals were single games and both played in Sulphur. Now, the semifinals are best-of-three at the home of the higher seed and only the finals are in Sulphur (and best-of-three).
Great move, because the previous system of changing formats midstream didn’t make much sense.
Now it’s time to make another move and eliminate the needless week of byes and games being played by teams that don’t belong in the playoffs in the first place.
Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com