Pac-12 announces changes to postseason baseball tournament

The Pac-12 hosted its first-ever baseball tournament last season, seeing eight teams compete for a conference championship. After going through a double elimination bracket, Stanford came out on top as the winner, earning an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

But now, there are going to be changes made to how the Pac-12 Tournament looks, the conference announced on Thursday.

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Nine teams will now head down to Scottsdale, AZ, and split into three pools. The winner of each pool will advance to the single elimination semifinal, while the second-place team with the best record will take the final spot.

A round-robin format will take place in the pools across three days. Three games will be played across Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, before the semifinal takes place on Friday and the championship game on Saturday.

Here is how each pool will look from a seeding perspective, based on the regular season’s final standings.

• No. 1 seed, No. 6, No. 9
• No. 2 seed, No. 5, No. 8
• No. 3 seed, No. 4, No. 7

Two of the 11 Pac-12 teams will not appear in the tournament, with Colorado not fielding a team. The 2023 edition will take place on May 23-27 at Scottsdale Stadium for just the second-ever Pac-12 Tournament. Hopefully, the changes can eliminate some of the chaos from a season prior.

Pac-12 releases statement on tournament switch

Pac-12 Deputy Commissioner Teresa Gould released a statement on the decision, saying the model creates the “best playing conditions” for both the players and fans. Plus, adding a ninth team could create an extra bid in the NCAA Tournament if they can win the Pac-12 Tournament.

“Even with the great success of the inaugural Pac-12 Baseball Tournament, we feel like these adjustments will make the event even better for both our student-athletes and our fans,” said Gould.  “The move to a maximum of three games per day will allow start times to be staggered to times that will create the best playing conditions for the student-athletes as well as the best atmosphere for our fans. 

“Adding a ninth team to the tournament also expands the postseason experience for another university while also giving that team potential access to an NCAA Tournament berth.  This also allows as many teams as possible to be well prepared to compete in the NCAA Tournament the following weekend.”