Jay from One Click Sports News, here.

This is something I wrote for Duck Sports News. Even though it’s intended for a Duck audience, I thought OSU fans might find it interesting.

Enjoy.

Duck fans, the Oregon State baseball team should be in the NCAA tournament.

And you should be as mad as hell that they aren’t.

When University of Oregon baseball makes its return next year, who would you rather play? The last team in this year’s tournament? As a bubble team, they’ve won back-to-back national championships. Not bad. Or would you rather rekindle baseball’s Civil War playing a team not among the top 64 in the nation?

I’m taking that bubble team team, with a shot at another national championship, every time. And it’s not even close.

I might be in the minority on this one, but I’m a fan of my team first and the Pac-10 second. So, if my team isn’t playing another Pac-10 team, I’m rooting for the other Pac-10 teams.

And Duck fans should, too.

Because there are bigger villains out there than other Pac-10 teams, and they are just over the horizon for the Ducks.

Gazette-Times reporter Kevin Hampton makes a pretty straightforward case for the Beavers being the NCAA.

The Beavers struggled, finished 28-24 and were passed over. No big deal, right?

It is when you’re talking about the winner of the last two NCAA titles. While holding those two trophies wasn’t enough to get the Beavers in, maybe it should have been.

Consider that the Beavers had a winning record while playing the 23rd-toughest schedule in the country. They won two of four against tournament third-seed Arizona State, and two of three against eighth-seed Georgia, as well as tournament teams Arizona, UCLA and Pepperdine.

The Beavers could have padded their schedule and most likely ended up with 38 or so wins. And a tournament berth.

Actually, I’ve seen the Beavers schedule ranked as high as 7th. Either way, it doesn’t matter. The Beavers played a tough schedule.

Duck fans, this is where it gets interesting. One of the villains this year in OSU’s snub is an institution that Duck fans are very familiar with: the University of Oklahoma. What’s the deal with these guys and the State of Oregon?

Hampton continues:

Consider that Oklahoma got in despite a 9-17-1 record in the Big 12, finishing lower than Baylor and Kansas State, two teams not in the tournament.

The Sooners, who lost three of four to Washington State in Norman earlier in the season, clearly got the bid solely because of their run in the conference tournament, which ended with a loss to Texas in the title game.

A case could be made against the Sooners and the Beavers. However, a 64-team bracket had to be filled out. It’s hard to believe there wasn’t a space for the Beavers.

No one would have questioned an OSU in and Oklahoma out scenario. It was expected in most circles. College baseball analysts around the country had the Beavers projected to get a berth.

Even though making the Sooners out to be the villains in this case is fun for Duck fans, they are only representative of a larger bias across the national landscape in baseball. And it should be all too familiar to Oregon, OSU, and Pac-10 fans.

East Coast bias. Or in this case, South Eastern bias. With a healthy sprinkling of geographical bias, as well.

Hampton notes:

This year, the committee went for nine SEC teams (no surprise since Templeton is a Mississippi State man), six ACC teams and six Big 12 teams while giving out berths to five Pac-10 teams, none from the Pacific Northwest

(Larry Templeton is the Chairman of the Division I baseball committee.)

The argument could be made that there just weren’t any good teams out West this year. Right? Wrong. More than just bias, there’s actually an institutional bias built in to the system.

Dan Zeiger of the East Valley Tribune notes that limitations for West Coast teams are part of the NCAA tournament.

Due to the way this year’s bracket is constructed, a maximum of three West-coast schools can reach the College World Series. Four such teams — ASU, UC Irvine, Cal State Fullerton and Oregon State — made it last year.

Arizona State coach Pat Murphy recognized the inequity of the situation.

“It’s disappointing that all of the West teams are paired together,” Murphy said. “Geographics plays a part in our region’s (tournament placement), but it doesn’t seem to be for a lot of other regions. I’d like to see that changed.”

And that motivated him to action. This year was Pat Murphy’s second year on the 10-person selection committee. Unfortunately, Coach Murphy wasn’t motivated to show up in Indianapolis for this year’s selection process. Instead, he decided to phone it in.

Arizona State coach Pat Murphy discovered that telecommuting is not the best way to serve on the Division I baseball committee, especially if one has NCAA tournament interests he would like to see served.

“As part of a committee, you are one of 10 voices, and sitting in Arizona, I think I might have been muted at times,” Murphy said on Monday, the day the 64-team field was unveiled. “There’s some things that didn’t happen the way I’d like, but I’m only one of 10. But the committee worked very hard.”

Muted? Coach Murphy got up to the plate twice, and fanned on both occasions.

Murphy, who Friday through Monday took part in tournament selection discussions via conference call, said that he went 0-for-2 in his goals: Getting two-time defending national champion Oregon State in and a more equitable distribution of West-coast schools around the bracket.

Like West Coast teams don’t have a difficult enough time as it is? And Coach Murphy decides to not show up? Why do sales people want to meet with you face-to-face? Because it’s more persuasive.

Coach Murphy bailed on his shot to sell West Coast and OSU baseball, and it probably cost OSU a shot at another national championship, and Oregon a shot at the champs.

And Coach Murphy isn’t planning a repeat no-show performance.

Next year, Murphy said, he will personally attend, even if it means missing an ASU game or two.

Duck fans, you might be thinking, “That won’t happen to us.” You might want to think again.

Oregon State has been passed over before, as Hampton points out.

There is a track record here. This isn’t the first time an NCAA baseball committee left out Oregon State when putting together a tournament bracket.

In 1994, the Beavers finished 35-16 and won the Pacific-10 North Division. Not good enough.

In 1998, the Beavers put together a 35-14-1 record. No bid.

Meanwhile, the committees were loading the brackets with teams from conferences such as the ACC and SEC.

Teams from the colder northern states seemed to be overlooked in favor of teams from sunnier climes.

Duck fans, Oregon is the new kid on the proverbial baseball block. Even though Oregon has history and a national championship coach, the Ducks are going to get about as much national respect as the New Kids On The Block Reunion Tour.

Oregon’s baseball history won’t be these Ducks’ history. That belongs to Mel Krause.

Oregon coach George Horton’s national championship isn’t Oregon’s. That belongs to Cal State-Fullerton.

But Oregon does belong to the Pac-10.

So, Duck fans,when you’re smiling on the inside at Oregon State’s failure to make the NCAA tournament, just remember: that smile might be turned upside down in the very near future.

Get all your sports news on the Oregon State Beavers at BeaverSportsNews.com.
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