When it comes to postseason baseball, the Pac-12 no longer is experiencing FOMO.
There was always some degree of FOMO — fear of missing out — this time of year while other leagues were conducting attention-grabbing and RPI-boosting conference tournaments. Those days are over.
The inaugural Pac-12 Tournament begins at 9 a.m. Wednesday at Scottsdale Stadium when No. 5 seed Arizona faces No. 4 seed Oregon. The eight-team, double-elimination event will run through Sunday, and the winner will earn an automatic berth in next week’s NCAA Tournament.
What prompted the Pac-12 to finally conduct a conference tournament? What can fans and players expect this week in Scottsdale?
We spoke to four executives with the league via Zoom to get the lowdown on the Pac-12 Tournament: Cheryl Wong, assistant commissioner, sports management and championships (who's the tournament director); Drew Seidenberger, assistant commissioner (the sport manager for baseball); Sean Peters, manager, business operations (and a former outfielder at Cal); and Will Hunter, vice president, operations. The conversation has been lightly edited.
What was the main reason the Pac-12 decided to join other leagues in running a conference tournament?
Seidenberger: “What I heard from the coaches and the administration side was they wanted to enhance exposure to the conference’s programs. They felt like having potentially up to 15 games in this tournament can help raise the profile of our teams. It also could give a pathway to a team that's trying to get an AQ (automatic-qualifier spot) that might not already be in the field.”
Wong: “We have been proud of our history in baseball and softball — baseball for so many years. And for a little while, we were the top programs. We were getting a lot of teams in the tournament. We had that exposure nationally.
“Credit to the game of baseball: There’s just starting to be a lot more parity across the country. We couldn't just (rest on) ‘Conference of Champions.’ We can't just sit on what we've been doing to stay successful. So we took a really strategic view from our coaches and our administrators. What's our next step to stay ahead?”
Peters: “The student-athlete experience. Baseball players in the Pac 12 have never been to a Pac-12 Championship before. So creating that experience for them should be awesome.
“The same thing with fans. Our fans have never had a baseball tournament. Fans in other conferences around the country love these tournaments.”
Stanford caught fire in the Pac-12 after being swept by Arizona, and is the No. 1 seed for the conference tournament in Scottsdale.
How important was it to get the championship game on ESPN2?
Seidenberger: “It offers great exposure. We'll have a lead-in from ‘Sunday Night Baseball.’ Hopefully we can capture fans from around the country. Hopefully people from Philadelphia and New York and other parts of the country that maybe have never seen Pac-12 baseball, they will now get to see it. And a really meaningful contest for a championship. It’ll be a pretty cool day of baseball on ESPN2 — ACC title game, SEC title game, ‘Sunday Night Baseball,’ Pac-12 title game.”
What do you hope will be the impact of this tournament in terms of the NCAA Selection Committee?
Seidenberger: “It gives them an opportunity to watch our teams in a tournament setting. It's just a different experience when you're watching regular-season games the last week of the season. It gives them an opportunity to see the depth of our conference (as well). That's something that is sometimes taken for granted.”
How did you figure out the format for the tournament?
Wong: “We're membership-driven. When (this) became a growing priority for them, they thought strategically through all the things we've talked about. We have 11 teams, but the coaches were pretty firm that an eight-team, double-elimination tournament was going to be best for all the things that we've hit on as priorities.
“From the administration side, we looked at other people's brackets to see what other conferences (have been doing). We did some of that research and offered them different options. We also spent some time going through with our scheduling consultant some kind of evaluation on possible impacts on RPI. So really trying to include a lot of feedback.”
What has been the biggest challenge in putting this whole event together?
Wong: “We were originally approved to host this in 2020. We obviously know everything that happened since then, and it's still going on. It feels like a long time coming. Our programs have been (through) a lot. Our staff has changed a little bit. The desire, the passion, all of our priorities have stayed consistent, which has made a lot of things easy considering.
“Knowing what we don't know ... this is our first time. We pride ourselves on a lot of firsts in the Pac 12. So we're always up for that challenge. But along the way, new elements come into play.”
When you hold an event like this for the first time, are you keeping notes as you go?
Wong: “I already have a two-page Google Doc, single-spaced.”
Seidenberger: “Our coaches, operations people and administrators are great. They're really a collaborative group. They obviously want to make this the best event they can. As does our staff. So they've been great to provide constructive feedback on ways to help this thing grow.”
Why Scottsdale?
Hunter: “We went through an RFP (Request for Proposal) process and put it out to a number of cities. We had intimate talks with entities and cities, minor-league affiliations. Scottsdale (stood out) from a city standpoint and from a facility standpoint — and also just thinking about teams, thinking about fans, thinking about access to resources. The city stepped up to the plate. It really wanted to make this not only a destination for our teams but for our fans and wanted to build a foundation for things to come.”
Was any consideration given to using multiple ballparks?
Hunter: “Very early on. But From a fan experience and with brackets and the seeding ... you're not going to get that until very late. We just wanted to ... be more specific, more clear-cut: ‘This is where you're going to be.’
“(For) fans that are looking to buy tickets, that's two different ticket manifests, two different ticketing systems that you have to work in. From a logistics standpoint, I don't think it was going to be a good experience for our coaches, student-athletes or our fans.”
Oregon State's Justin Boyd is hitting .351 this year for the Beavers, who are seeded second at the Pac-12 Tournament.
What do you hope the fan experience will be like?
Hunter: “We're hoping to build something that becomes a destination event. Something that you circle on your calendar a year out if your team is the eighth seed or the No. 1 seed because the experience in Scottsdale is so great. And with our in-game entertainment group coming up with some cool giveaway ideas and ways to feature our student-athletes.
“But also the local flavor. We want the people that are in Scottsdale or in the greater Phoenix area to say, ‘Hey, they put on a nice show over there, it's a nice party over there, we're gonna go next year.’ And we want people that are coming from out of town to say, ‘Hey, I went last year. Next year, let's make it a guys’ trip, let’s make it a girls’ trip. We're gonna go out for some Pac-12 baseball and get wild and crazy in Scottsdale for a few days.’ ”
What are you looking forward to the most this week?
Seidenberger: “Just getting a chance to be around the coaches and student-athletes. There's some coaches I haven't met. I have tried to get around to as many Cal and Stanford games as I can throughout the year, but just being able to see it up close — even if it's just a few minutes in passing to catch up with some of the student-athletes and coaches. And getting to see how excited the fans are for the event.”
Wong: “That first pitch. Being able to see our student-athletes ... I'm already imagining (them) hanging over the edge of the dugout and being on the grass — and that's just getting going. And then when games start, we get to take a step back and it's really all about our student-athletes and highlighting their hard work. It’s so cheesy. I’m literally getting goosebumps.
“We stay up late, we work hard, like so many people do. But at the end of the day, we get to hand out that trophy, and that's gonna mean a lot to a team for the rest of their lives.”
Peters: “I'm most excited to see a dogpile on our field at the end of the tournament. It's probably the most unique thing in baseball, especially in college baseball. Anytime you win a conference tournament, you win a regional, you make it to the College World Series, they do that. A team will never do that after winning a regular-season title or a big three-game series, even though the win could be just as meaningful.
“In a tournament environment, it brings it up another level. Those games are so much more exciting. Even though it's double elimination, it's basically win or go home. For our fans, staff, student-athletes, coaches, they never have that. Some of them have made it to NCAA championships before, but we've never been able to do that as a conference.”
Hunter: “It's always the celebration at the end. We're in the business of creating memories. That dogpile at the end, it's gonna be special now. Twenty years from now, when they have that reunion and all the guys come back and talk about it, it's gonna be even more special. That 340-foot home run is now going to be a 540-foot home run when they tell the story. It’s just creating those memories that are going to be lifelong, that'll never be forgotten.”
