Meeting set to discuss baseball’s postseason seeding and format
AURORA — CHSAA on Friday scheduled a meeting to discuss the playoff format and seeding procedures used by baseball.
The meeting is set for Sept. 10 at the CHSAA office, according to Bert Borgmman, the Association’s assistant commissioner who oversees baseball. Every member of a seeding committee in each of the sport’s five classifications was invited, and most have already responded that they will attend.
At issue will be examining the current system used to seed and determine the playoff fields — in 3A-5A, that’s the Wild Card points. The end result of the meeting will most likely be a move away from that system.
Wild Card points were put into place prior to the 2012 season, with virtually unanimous approval from the high school baseball community. The change was proposed by a league, championed by some members of the media, and ultimately approved by the Legislative Council.
However, in recent years, many flaws have been exposed in the system.
On Tuesday, CHSAA assistant commissioner Bert Borgmann indicated an interest in moving away from Wild Card points.
“We know that no one system is perfect,” he said then, “but we do know that the current system may have more flaws that previously anticipated.”
The meeting, which will be held at the CHSAA office, is the first step toward change. It should give the baseball committee some direction on what to do when they next meet in November.
In addition, there is a separate meeting set for May 28 which will discuss proposals that would expand the baseball season past its current 19-game regular-season format.
