BBF Playoff format and NBC structure offers enticing prospects

This week, the British Baseball Federation formally announced the playoff structure and the National Baseball Championship programme, that will take place on the August Bank Holiday (25-27 August).

Following the wet weather of the past fortnight it now gives even more impetus to those who haven’t been able to play recently to kick-start their efforts and hit the ground hard when they return to action over the weekend. No one will be eliminated anytime soon, so there’s all to play for.

Making the most of the three-day event (depending on the weather), the NBCs will return to double elimination for the NBL, with the top three teams from the top tier qualifying automatically for the BBF spectacular, with a playoff between the fourth and fifth placed teams on Sunday 19 August (who’ll go in as fourth seeds).

The top team will play the fourth placed, with second playing third, on Saturday. On Sunday, the winners of the first game on Saturday play the winners of the second game, and the winner of that contest makes the final.

The losers of the games on Saturday face off on Sunday, with the loser of that game going home. The winner of that match plays the loser of the earlier game on Sunday (between the two Saturday winners), for the right to go to the final.

And then on Monday the two remaining teams face off – if the first game is won by the winners of the first game on Sunday (the winner of the winners of the two games on Saturday), then they’re crowned champions. Otherwise it comes down to another fixture afterwards to determine the 2012 NBL Champions.

Teams can only lose once over the weekend, but will have to win three times to take the crown.

Now let me get my breath back before going forward to explain the rest!

AAA sees an intriguing scenario, where only one team qualifies from six in the north, while three from the eight in AAA South will make the NBCs. 1st plays 2nd in AAA North on Sunday 19 August in a winner-takes-all (pennant and playoff place), while the Pool A and B winners from AAA South will automatically join them at the finals. The last berth will be played for on Sunday 19 August by the teams with the third and fourth best record in AAA South (regardless of Pool).

But it’s much simpler to work out the finals structure; on Sunday 26 August, there are two semi-finals (winning percentage deciding top three seeds, fourth seed will be the winner of the AAA South playoff), and then the winners of those two games play for the AAA title on Monday 27 August.

Simples.

Single-A and Double-A both have longer roads to the NBCs, with playoff games and pennant deciders taking place well before the final matches on Monday.

Starting with Single-A (as there are slightly fewer teams!), Sunday 12 August has the Pool A and Pool B winners from Single-A South hosting the third and fourth best records (regardless of Pool) respectively. The winners of these contests will then face off on Sunday 19 August for the right to represent Single-A South in the NBCs.

AA North and AA Midlands sees third place against fourth place in each instance on Sunday 12 August, with a regional playoff to decide who represents the teams further north than Luton at the NBCs the following week. The winners of that contest will face the best of what the south has to offer.

Double-A sees a semi-final format similar to the AAA finals at the NBCs, but to get there requires more playoff action.

The teams finishing first and second in Pools A and B in the South will host the teams finishing fourth and third respectively in the opposite half of the division on Sunday 12 August. The following week will see the seedings take effect – the lowest remaining seed takes on the highest remaining seed, and the other two teams face off. The winners of these games will then take up the two places in the semi-finals of the NBCs.

In the North/Midlands, first and second play off against the opposite divisions on Sunday 19 August, simply with the winners going through to the NBC semis against the southern sides.

Because seedings for the NBCs, and all playoffs, are based on winning percentage following or in some cases instead of final standings (e.g. looking at AA South now, the Thames Valley Bisons’ 2-0 record would play the London Mammoths’ 3-0 standing while the Poole Piranhas (3-0) would play the Kent Mariners (0-2)), there are some potentials for controversies, but it is by far one of the most intriguing and exciting playoff formats for years across the board.

It is also one that all teams have a chance to take part in given how many positions are available (outside of AAA North – who have been screwed a little on previous form when only one team tended to travel to the finals and has as such unfortunately restricted them to only one NBC position).

Five of eight teams in the NBL, five of 14 in AAA, 16 of 25 in AA* and four of 11 in Single-A will at least make it to the stage of the season where they will be invited to continue playing competitively (30 out of 58 – a little over 50%). And that’s just the senior sides. I am sure the playoff structure for junior teams will be announced shortly and further updates will be available throughout the season.

*Four of these teams go to the Single-A playoffs