JMU - what a shock!

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Jun 6, 2018
305
43
Pattar,

I have no issue if OU gets back and when they wet the bed Thursday I expected them to still be a tough out. They are a great hitting and fielding team with some suspect pitching.

My issue is merely this. Teams losing day 1 should have it tougher than winning 4 in 2 days or now in this case 4 in 3 days.

I mean come on these girls have probably 10+ years of double elimination tournament experience where they have had to play 4+ games in a day (sometimes at nationals 4 games back to back) and you know what it taught them? Don't lose early.

To me if OU or any day 1 losers make it into the championship game they should have had a tougher road to get there and my biggest gripe in all of this is JMU should not have been penalized for winning day 1 with potentially 2 more games against the team they beat.

That is why I think the winners should play it out for the first birth and the loser of that game should play the 1 loser team that made it through the gauntlet of 6 other teams that lost after the first two days.

In that scenario, if hypothetically speaking it was OU vs JMU and OU wins to go face Alabama then tip the cap to OU and they earned it.

On a side note, in this situation with all 4 teams being in a (if necessary game) scenario wouldn't it be better to see JMU vs FSU and Alabama vs OU? I guess I just would to see fresh matchups and no team having an advantage/dis-advantage from having played their opponent once or twice in the last 4 days.
 
Jun 8, 2016
16,118
113
Pattar,

I have no issue if OU gets back and when they wet the bed Thursday I expected them to still be a tough out. They are a great hitting and fielding team with some suspect pitching.

My issue is merely this. Teams losing day 1 should have it tougher than winning 4 in 2 days or now in this case 4 in 3 days.

I mean come on these girls have probably 10+ years of double elimination tournament experience where they have had to play 4+ games in a day (sometimes at nationals 4 games back to back) and you know what it taught them? Don't lose early.

To me if OU or any day 1 losers make it into the championship game they should have had a tougher road to get there and my biggest gripe in all of this is JMU should not have been penalized for winning day 1 with potentially 2 more games against the team they beat.

That is why I think the winners should play it out for the first birth and the loser of that game should play the 1 loser team that made it through the gauntlet of 6 other teams that lost after the first two days.

In that scenario, if hypothetically speaking it was OU vs JMU and OU wins to go face Alabama then tip the cap to OU and they earned it.

On a side note, in this situation with all 4 teams being in a (if necessary game) scenario wouldn't it be better to see JMU vs FSU and Alabama vs OU? I guess I just would to see fresh matchups and no team having an advantage/dis-advantage from having played their opponent once or twice in the last 4 days.
I get where you are coming from, but again it isn’t like the day 1 losers are doing well historically so is it really an issue? 🤷🏽‍♂️
 
Mar 4, 2015
526
93
New England
This system rewards losers and penalizes winners!

I think it's the opposite, that the system rewards winners too much by allowing them to play Friday while the first-round losers must wait until Saturday to resume play. The first-round losers must win two games Saturday (once vs. a totally rested team) and then two games Sunday just to get into the finals. If they got to play their first losers bracket game on Friday, it would be far more equitable. I think I saw a stat posted on ESPN yesterday that only 3-4 teams in history had started 2-0 and failed to reach the championship series. That's party due to the schedule, which I assume is set up so that ESPN doesn't have two Friday day-time games, which won't get the same ratings as Saturday day-time games.

I hear what you're saying about JMU having to play OU three times, but without studying it, I think sending first-round losers to the other side of the bracket would cause other problems, whether it's fair scheduling, or the fact that they're already sending the two teams to the other side late in the draw, meaning OU could revert to their original side of the draw that way. But I'd have to see the plan.
 
Jun 6, 2018
305
43
Thanks Nimrod.

I guess to me it is easy and simple and sorry I believe that the winners get rewarded and the losers have an opportunity to come back but that road is going to be difficult.

The majority of these girls have been playing for years and more than likely have been on a team that fell into a losers bracket at nationals and had to win 4+ games back to back to have an opportunity to play for the championship. You know what that taught them? Don't lose and especially don't lose early.

So to me I would start Thursday and Friday with winners advancing. Then saturday unbeatens play it out with winner making the finals. (They then get rewarded with Sunday off.) Then the first 6 losers play it out to see who is the last loser standing after 3 games on saturday. Then Sunday the one loser plays the loser from the undefeated game.

In my opinion that is the most fair way to play out this final 8 tournament. It rewards the team that wins 3 straight and it allows a loser to fight back to the finals but it makes it extremely harder for those 4 teams that lost on day 1.
 

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