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Not sure if there is a regular season winner, the winner of the tournament will get the automatic bid and the Pac 12 baseball title. They are doing this to get more teams into regional play. 

Well, there is a regular season winner. The question is whether it means anything other than top seed in the tournament. It has been the Pac 12 practice in other sports to call the regular season winner the conference champion, but the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament goes to the tournament champ. Haven't heard what baseball will claim. 

The motivations to have a Pac 12 tournament likely vary from person to person involved in the decision. It seems unlikely to produce an extra regional entrant, but has that possibility. There are two routes for that. One is a team that wouldn't make the NCAA wins the conference and gets the automatic bid. The other is that a bubble team has a big run and then squeaks in. For the Pac 12 this year, there are five teams almost certain to get in, so one of the bottom three would have to win the tournament to add a team through an automatic bid. I don't think there's really a bubble team - maybe UW. They have series wins over Stanford and UCLA and an overall record barely over 0.500 (26-24), but an RPI at #74. Finishing with a 4-game home series vs Northern Colorado (12-35) is unlikely to help their RPI. But I guess I could see UW getting in if they sweep their final series than get to the conference tournament championship game. 

There are significant down sides to the tournament. It's likely to hurt the better teams' prospects. First of all, most teams will end the tournament with two more losses on their record - that won't help. Secondly, to win the tournament will take between four and six games in five days. That can be tough on a pitching staff (though presumably the top pitchers won't throw any more than their usual weekend workload). Finally, I suspect its destined to lose a fair amount of money. It's only being televised on the Pac 12 network (except maybe the final game? That's listed as TV tbd on the schedule). And I don't see a ton of casual fans showing up for neutral site games in the 105 degree heat.

[CTcard]

Not sure if there is a regular season winner, the winner of the tournament will get the automatic bid and the Pac 12 baseball title. They are doing this to get more teams into regional play. 

Well, there is a regular season winner. The question is whether it means anything other than top seed in the tournament. It has been the Pac 12 practice in other sports to call the regular season winner the conference champion, but the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament goes to the tournament champ. Haven't heard what baseball will claim. 

The motivations to have a Pac 12 tournament likely vary from person to person involved in the decision. It seems unlikely to produce an extra regional entrant, but has that possibility. There are two routes for that. One is a team that wouldn't make the NCAA wins the conference and gets the automatic bid. The other is that a bubble team has a big run and then squeaks in. For the Pac 12 this year, there are five teams almost certain to get in, so one of the bottom three would have to win the tournament to add a team through an automatic bid. I don't think there's really a bubble team - maybe UW. They have series wins over Stanford and UCLA and an overall record barely over 0.500 (26-24), but an RPI at #74. Finishing with a 4-game home series vs Northern Colorado (12-35) is unlikely to help their RPI. But I guess I could see UW getting in if they sweep their final series than get to the conference tournament championship game. 

There are significant down sides to the tournament. It's likely to hurt the better teams' prospects. First of all, most teams will end the tournament with two more losses on their record - that won't help. Secondly, to win the tournament will take between four and six games in five days. That can be tough on a pitching staff (though presumably the top pitchers won't throw any more than their usual weekend workload). Finally, I suspect its destined to lose a fair amount of money. It's only being televised on the Pac 12 network (except maybe the final game? That's listed as TV tbd on the schedule). And I don't see a ton of casual fans showing up for neutral site games in the 105 degree heat.