Sun Belt Fall Meetings Bring Baseball Tournament, Ejection and Basketball Seating Changes
Sun Belt leaders wrapped up fall meetings in New Orleans with changes to the baseball tournament, ejection rules and basketball seating, while the site of the 2014 baseball tournament awarded to South Alabama remains unsettled.
The Sun Belt Conference concluded its fall meetings Thursday in New Orleans with changes to its baseball tournament format, its ejection policy, basketball crowd seating and the start of conference basketball play. The meetings also left open whether the 2014 baseball tournament, previously awarded to South Alabama, will still be played in Mobile.
Baseball Tournament Format
The 2013 Sun Belt Conference Baseball Tournament will return to the double-elimination format the league used from 2000 through 2010. The tournament, scheduled for May 22-26 in Lafayette, La., will keep an eight-team field split into two brackets, with the bracket champions meeting for the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Further changes are coming in 2014, when Sun Belt baseball will split into two divisions while continuing to play a 30-game conference schedule. The conference said more details will be announced later.
The 2014 tournament had previously been awarded to the University of South Alabama, whose baseball team plays at Eddie Stanky Field. Whether the event will still be held in Mobile under the new structure has not been determined.
Ejection Policy
Beginning with the 2013-14 academic year, ejections of student-athletes and coaches will be handled on a case-by-case basis, and Sun Belt Commissioner Karl Benson will have the authority to impose additional penalties. Ejected student-athletes and coaches will no longer be automatically suspended for the following game unless the ejection is for fighting, which is governed by the NCAA manual.
Basketball Seating and Scheduling
Student seating will no longer be permitted directly behind the opposing team’s bench at Sun Belt basketball games. Conference officials cited concerns about how close the benches are to the crowd, including the danger to students and student-athletes if a player charged the stands in response to verbal abuse from fans.
Also starting in 2013-14, men’s and women’s conference basketball games will not begin until after the Christmas holidays, a change that could require teams to play three conference games in a single week.
League Leadership Comments
Sun Belt Conference President Jack Hawkins Jr., the chancellor of Troy University, spoke about the league’s direction at the close of the meetings.
“There is more excitement today about the Sun Belt Conference than there has ever been,” Hawkins said. “Our teams are winning and becoming household names. As we continue to win and identify our value as a brand we will show the world who we are and the strength that we have.”
“We are striving to become the best of the non-automatic qualifying BCS conferences,” Hawkins said. “New leadership present throughout the league, along with our new member institutions and the attitude that every dimension of the Sun Belt Conference is open to examination is going to make us stronger.”
Benson is in his first year as Sun Belt commissioner. South Alabama is playing its first season of Sun Belt Conference football this fall.
