The MIAA baseball committee has voted to bring back the Super 8 tournament. What would it look like?

FRANKLIN — The MIAA baseball committee is moving forward with a Division 1A/Super 8 tournament.

Now it waits to see if the state association’s tournament management committee is on board.

On Tuesday, the baseball committee voted, 14-1, with one abstention, to approve an “All-State” tournament, essentially bringing back the Super 8 with a tweaked format. But it will still need the approval of the TMC next Tuesday, and possibly the full board of directors after that. The target for introducing the new format is spring 2027.

The proposal takes the top eight teams by power ranking across all divisions and seeds them 1-8. They then play a best-of-three first-round series with the game dates coinciding with the first three rounds of the tournament.

The four winners, with no re-seeding, would play single-elimination semifinals, followed by the state championships, both on the same dates as the traditional tournament.

“This takes the best teams and puts them in a bracket together where they belong,” said Framingham AD Paul Spear. “To me, this is the best solution to the problem.”

Over the past four years, five Division 2 teams would have qualified, as well as three Division 3 teams (St. Mary’s and Norwell last year, Austin Prep in 2022). No Division 4 or 5 teams would have qualified. Of the 32 teams, 18 were public and 14 were private.

Addressing concerns that teams in the regular tournament are not guaranteed two games, as the “All-State” entrants would, former Oxford baseball coach Justin Richards noted that of the 32 teams that would have qualified the past four years, all but one (Taunton last spring) played at least two games.

The only point of contention among the committee was whether to allow teams to opt out of the “All-State” tournament at the start of the season. While some felt lower-division schools might want to remain in their division for a better chance at a state title and should be given the opportunity to do so, others worried it would lead to gamesmanship.

“I would be concerned with who opts out,” said Richards.

Softball would not have to adopt a similar tournament structure, as they are considered separate sports, as opposed to boys’ and girls’ ice hockey.

The baseball committee also:

• Voted 13-0 with three abstentions to make margin of victory one run in all extra-inning games. It was noted that visiting teams had a power-rankings advantage in extra innings, as they could win by the maximum MOV of five, while the home team, barring a home run, could only win by 1 run. The MIAA’s Jim Clark said the power rankings could accommodate the change, as long as schools properly mark all extra-inning games in Arbiter. The issue will be presented to the TMC on Tuesday.
• Clarified a discrepancy between the rulebook and the pitch count Frequently Asked Questions document, which stated that a player couldn’t pitch in both games of a doubleheader if they exceeded 50 pitches in the first game. That was not in the rulebook, and it was compared to a rain delay where a pitcher must wait, then can resume pitching. The committee voted 16-0 to remove the language about doubleheaders.
• The baseball finals will be back at Polar Park on June 12-13, and semifinal locations have been secured at Westfield State, Frazier Field, Holy Cross, LeLacheur Field, and Monan Park. MIAA liaison Keith Brouillard said there have been talks about holding future semifinals at Boston College, Quincy’s Adams Field, and Brockton’s Campanelli Stadium.