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Friday, May 23, 2008
Meaningless game? No way
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia Tech plays Clemson on Saturday morning at 10 a.m. with both teams knowing they have no way of winning the ACC tournament championship.
But that doesn’t mean this game isn’t important. Here are three reasons it’s a big deal:
A victory gives Tech a 40-win season and should go a long way toward firming up the case for a regional in Atlanta. The NCAA announces the regional sites on Sunday. The Yellow Jackets started the week sixth in the NCAA’s Ratings Percentage Index and surely wouldn’t drop by going 2-1 in Jacksonville, with victories over RPI No. 10 N.C. State and RPI No. 24 Clemson and a loss to RPI No. 2 Miami.
A Tech victory over Clemson eliminates N.C. State from ACC championship game contention and guarantees Tech will do at least as well this week as the Wolfpack. That could be significant, as N.C. State is a rival in the competition to host one of the 16 regionals.
A victory gives the Yellow Jackets some positive momentum heading into a regional. The alternative is a two-game losing streak.
If Tech wins and N.C. State beats Miami, all three teams will finish 2-1. In that case, Miami advances due to its superior regular-season conference record. That tie-breaker is one of the flaws of the ACC tournament format. So is the fact that it leads to games in which one or more teams know they no longer have a chance to win the tournament.
It’s the price the ACC is willing to pay for a format that guarantees each team at least three games and no more than four. That’s an ideal number for coaches who care more about setting up their pitching staffs for next week’s regionals than finding the fairest method of choosing a conference tournament champion. Settle-it-on-the-field systems, such as an eight-team double-elimination tournament or two four-team double-elimination brackets with a single championship game, can wreak havoc on pitching.
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