When is a Big 12 Champion not a champion?

[daytonhorn]

I just sent the below message to Big 12 Customer Care. Am I screwed up in my thinking? Comments invited.

"Why does this Big 12 website say that a tournament champion is the league champion. For example, Texas is the Big 12 Softball Champion. Oklahoma is the Big 12 Softball TOURNAMENT champion, not the Big Softball Champion. You do the same in other sports. Can you please explain why you do not distinguish between a Big 12 championship and a Big 12 tournament championship. "

 

[Horn87]

maybe cuz the tourney champion gets the automatic invite to any post-season tourney?? dont like it, regardless...

 

[scottsins]

Because the Big XII Commish is a ruh-tard.?

 

[Orangeblood90]

but ray man took over a casino and he was a ruh-tard

 

[4th_and_18]

I believe this was the last tournament for softball anyways...so in the future, for softball at least, this won't matter. There will be only the regular season champion and that team will get the auto-bid.

 

[n64ra]

good luck getting an answer....i sent a question and am still waiting...by the way - i sent that question in 2008

 

[torre]

Take solace that OU was not selected to host a regional and must travel to Syracuse. Should they advance, they are matched with UWash, last years NCAA Champ and favorite this year and would travel. They will need those B12 Tourn Tshirts for their tears.

If the Lady Horns win their regional, I believe they would host a super against probably Arizona or Okla State. See you at McCombs on Thursday!

 

[Texas Jack]

The regular season determines the Champion, the tourney is superfluous.

May 17 release

"Texas clinched its sixth Big 12 baseball regular season championship with a 17-2 victory at No. 20 Kansas State on May 8. UT has posted a 21-3 record (.875) with three league contests remaining. The Longhorns, who have earned four of the last five regular season crowns, also claimed the Big 12 title in 2002, ‘04, ‘06-’07, and ’09."

 

[Horns11]

Maybe I'm the only one who thinks the tourney champion should be crowned the conference champ. Having a "regular season champion" is like saying that the Cleveland Cavaliers are somehow a champion, which is stupid.

If you don't win the "superfluous" conference tourney, then you're probably not the champion. Plus, the whole auto-bid thing kind of settles that too. I don't know why the Big XII hands out "regular season" champion trophies, because the regular season doesn't really prove anything. It's like the President's Trophy in the NHL... worth about as much as the cost of the nameplate on it.

 

[UTEE]

Wow, I'm not sure I can agree with even a single word that Horns11 posted above.

I, and many others, believe the regular season is what matters and the tournaments are irrelevant for several reasons:

1) This isn't the NBA or the NFL or the NHL or even B12 football, where all teams do NOT play each other in the regular season. In the B12 baseball, softball, and basketball regular seasons, ALL schools that field a team in that sport play each other. So there is no need for a tournament to determine the champion, every team has already faced each other on the court/diamond and the head-to-head results are clear, the champion has already been determined. No tournament needed.

2) The tournaments are held to make additional money and that is it. There's a reason the softball tournament is being discontinued.

3) The tournament winner receives the auto-bid because the regular-season champion is already HIGHLY likely to receive an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. So, by tying the conference's auto-bid to a meaningless tournament, the conference gains at least a slim chance to get an additional team into the NCAA tournament if one of the bottom-feeders somehow gets on a roll and knocks off the better teams, including the true league champion as determined by the regular season. Getting additional teams into the NCAA tournament means that the league makes more money, so once again, it's all about the money.

Anyway, as I recall, the wording on the regular season trophies specifies that they are for the regular season, and the tournament trophies say "tournament champions" on them, and not just "champions."

The B12 website recognizes both:

The Link