By Jordan Long
This year, the Junior College World Series (JUCO) starts on May 23rd and goes through May 29th or 30th depending on how many teams are left. The National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) changed the format for the 1st set of games.
The tournament will still be double elimination with ten schools representing districts. Those are Plains, Appalachian, East, South Atlantic, Midwest, South-Central, South, Mid-South, South West, and West. In years past, the 1st-round rotated matchups every single year. For instance one year the East faced Midwest and the next year West took on the East and so on for the ten regions.
The NJCAA decided they needed to relook at the seeding and not rotate the districts for the 1st set of games for each school. This year when teams qualify they will be seeded 1-10 based on rankings from the NJCAA Baseball committee. The, 1 seed takes on 10 seed, 2 seed plays 9 seed, 3 seed meets 8 seed, 4 seed faces 7 seed, and 5 encounters 6 seed. Once the 1st set of games are over, teams are not reseeded for the rest of the tournament. It is still the same format with the winner and loser brackets.
What also changes is if there are 3 teams left going into game 18. In years past, the bye would go to the team with the most games played. If two teams were tied, then it would be a coin flip and the winner of the coin flip receives the bye. Starting this year, the team with the most games played receives a bye to the championship game. If there are two teams tied for that, then it is who won the head to head matchup. Say that is also the same, then the highest remaining seed will advance to the championship game.
This makes a lot of sense. The seeding has never been by ranking. There were times where the two higher-ranked schools faced each other in the 1st round. This keeps it more balanced and a chance to see the top schools play each other in game 15 if they both stay undefeated.
The only other adjustment the NJCAA should make is when there are two teams left. In Division 1 baseball of the NCAA, they have the best 2 out of 3 series to decide the National Championship. The Grand Junction tournament is called the Junior College World Series but there is not a series to determine a winner.
They should make it a series of the best 2 out of 3 when there are two teams left. They can still have double elimination until 2 teams are still in it. This may end up extending the tournament for a few more days but at least it would be a series. The NJCAA needs to take a good hard look at changing the final to a 2 out of 3 and not just a single game.
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