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Post Season Play Series Part I

College baseball is all about post season play.  There is no greater experience for a college baseball player than having the pleasure of competing at the end of the year for a national title.  It’s a time of year when records are wiped clean and everyone is on an equal playing field.  The game of baseball more than any other is a game where giants can be slayed.  Every single post season in baseball is highlighted by little known programs knocking off the biggest names in the game.  Look no further than last year when Bucknell beat Florida State.  Or perhaps one of the biggest underdog stories in the history of sports when Fresno State entered the regional as a 4th seed and won the national title. 

There are 2 ways to receive a post season bid.  Every conference in the country has a conference tournament.  The winner of that tournament receives an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.  In essence, every team in the country has a chance to make the tournament through the conference tournament.  The other option is an at-large bid.  These bids are handed out to the teams most deserving of post season play that are left out after the automatic bids are handed out. 

Some conferences receive way more at-large bids than others.  It was a couple years ago now that 9 teams in the SEC received a spot in the NCAA tournament.  That includes one team that didn’t even make the conference tournament.  The conferences that routinely receive numerous bids are the SEC, ACC, Pac 10, Conference USA, and Big XII conferences.  As you can see from the table, the SEC has received 74 bids to the NCAA’s over the last 10 seasons.  That is equivalent to 7.4 bids a year since the inception of the super regional!

On the other hand, there are some conferences that haven’t received an at large bid at all in the last 10 years.  These conferences are considered one-bid conferences.  That is, the only team that will participate in the regional is the team that wins the conference tournament.  These conferences include the Atlantic 10, Horizon, MAC, MEAC, SWAC, The Summit, MAAC, NEC, Ohio Valley, Patriot, Mountain West, Ivy, and America East conferences. 

We can dive deeper into these numbers and take a look at individual programs and the bid that they have received to the post season.  There are six teams that have participated in each of the last 10 seasons.  Rice, Miami, Florida State, Cal State Fullerton, Texas, and Oral Roberts have qualified for the tournament every single year.  Although each is very impressive, it’s hard to not commend Oral Roberts for what they have achieved.  They play in a one-bid league and they’ve captured that bid in all ten years!

There’s no doubt that post season play is a huge part of the college baseball experience.  Having the ability to join a program that consistently participates is an honor and a great achievement in itself.  Educate yourself with a programs’ post season history.  It will go a long way in ensuring a great experience over the next 4 years. 

2008 High and Tight Series Coming Soon! 

The Recruiting Closer will soon be releasing our High and Tight preview series.  We'll be taking an in-depth look at conferences across the central United States.  We will take a look into the programs inside those conferences and how they might fare in '09.

We'll take a look at everything from head coaches to potential starting lineups.  We'll go inside the numbers from last season and see how that projects programs headed into the '09 season.  Articles will be available to members only so sign up today while our anniversary prices last!

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