That preliminary game of the baseball tournament that's been played since 2012 between the two wild card teams in each conference has a tension that's missing from almost all other games in the tournament. Only a rare single elimination final game of a series compares.
So what if the baseball tournament were structured like the college basketball tournament? Here are a couple of scenarios.
Teams could play once a week, which has the added benefit of letting the best pitcher start each game. That would be more like football. The pent up tension could make that one game per round seem like the NFL tournament.
Another approach, especially if two new teams were added bringing the total to 32, would be an NCAA type single elimination tournament. Put all 32 baseball teams into the tournament and have each round decided by just one game. One and done.
There would be 16 teams in each conference with the two conference champions meeting in a final game. The one seed plays the 16 seed. Two plays 15, etc. In the NCAA basketball tournament no 16 has ever beaten a 1.
16 teams become 8, 4, 2. That's four games for the team that makes it to the championship game for a total of five games.
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