The budding hopes of a Super 8 tournament return have been tempered, at least for now.<\/p>\n
The MIAA\u2019s Tournament Management Committee on Tuesday decided to table a recent discussion for bringing back the Div. 1A tournament for baseball until February. This decision came one week after the sport\u2019s own committee voted for approval with a resounding 14-1-1 count.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think, for me, it\u2019s kind of about us trying to make sure we get everything right,\u201d Burlington athletic director and TMC chairman Shaun Hart said. \u201cI know that excitement is important, and I think people are excited to get to some things that we used to do, and try to do again. But again, I\u2019m trying to make sure that if we\u2019re putting a road map of how to get something great, that we\u2019re taking the time to go through it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Baseball would become the first sport to implement a new Div. 1A tournament since the concept was disbanded by the MIAA in 2021. Under the revised proposal, schools would be selected for the Super 8 based on their overall MIAA power rating, regardless of which division they were in. The first round would be double elimination, and teams would be guaranteed at least two games. The championship would be a single final. Schools would not have a choice to opt out as part of the new format.<\/p>\n
Most of the TMC members on the call seemed to be in favor of how the proposal was presented and felt it should be considered. However, no official vote was made for implementation.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be honest, I wasn\u2019t thinking next week,\u201d Haverhill athletic director and baseball committee chairman Tom O\u2019Brien said to the TMC. \u201cI was thinking today you\u2019d vote on it. We\u2019ve already done a lot of the work for the districts. We\u2019ve got the feedback from the districts. That\u2019s what the baseball committee\u2019s job was. That\u2019s why we have representation. We sent that out, and we feel we\u2019ve done all that work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hart later gave more insight to the Herald about the TMC\u2019s collective choice.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we started these conversations, the conversation was about bringing about a product that is going to enhance, that\u2019s going to make things better,\u201d Hart said. \u201c\u2026 I want to make sure we\u2019re doing the right thing for kids, and I want to make sure we\u2019re doing the right thing for coaches.\u201d<\/p>\n
Had there been a Super 8 tournament last spring, one Div. 2 school and two Div. 3 programs would have made the Div. 1A field. This list includes St. Mary\u2019s (Lynn), which finished the regular season atop the Div. 3 power rankings at 19-3.<\/p>\n
Spartans coach Derek Dana has fond memories of the Div. 1A playoff, and is hoping for a resolution.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was disappointed to see it go,\u201d Dana said. \u201cI thought it was a great tournament. A lot of people, not just baseball people, were talking about it, going to it. \u2026 What I liked, and what I had heard about (the proposed format), is that it\u2019s no longer just (based on) a committee. If you go by power rankings, and you play a good schedule, it\u2019s a strong schedule, and you do the winning part \u2013 you get rewarded with that. I think that\u2019s a great idea.\u201d<\/p>\n
Should the TMC decide to make a vote next month, as O\u2019Brien and his colleagues are clamoring for, a Div. 1A baseball tournament could be installed in time for the 2027 season.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey want to take their time, and do the right thing,\u201d O\u2019Brien said. \u201cIt is a big decision.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The budding hopes of a Super 8 tournament return have been tempered, at least for now. The MIAA\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":533444,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[5,3329,3263,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-533443","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baseball","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-high-school-baseball","10":"tag-high-school-sports","11":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115941314651063879","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=533443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/533444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=533443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=533443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=533443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}