Pac-12 Conference announces first ever postseason baseball tournament, to be held in Scottsdale

For as long as It’s existed, the Pac-12 baseball champion has been decided in the regular season, the team finishing the campaign in first place wins the title. While a regular season champion will still be crowned, the conference announced Wednesday morning that it will follow the lead of other Power Five conferences and implement a conference postseason tournament.

The five day battle for supremacy will take place in Arizona State’s backyard at Scottsdale Stadium, the spring training home of the San Francisco Giants, from May 25-29 2022.

New pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff had this to say about the inception of the tournament:

“The Pac-12 Baseball Tournament is a marquee event that will serve to enhance the exposure of the Conference’s baseball programs with competitive, late-season matchups prior to NCAA Tournament selections.”

The tournament will serve to bolster resumes for bubble teams, while also potentially knocking down squads who excelled in the regular season and are tripped up early in the double elimination tournament. The tournament champion, not the regular season champ, wil receive the PAC-12’s one and only automatic bid. This format allows the conference to potentially add a dark horse tournament winner to the field of 64, given that the top 4-5 teams generally qualify anyway. Last season, six pac-12 teams earned a ticket to the dance, the second highest total in the history of the conference.

As for ASU, the location couldn’t be better. Just five miles from the Sun Devils’ home at Phoenix Municipal stadium, expect to see Scottsdale Stadium packed with Maroon and Gold during ASU tournament games.