March 21, 2018
Vanderbilt, 87-41, competes in the fourth annual Southland Bowling League Championship this weekend at the USA Bowl in Dallas.
A different format: The SBL is a double elimination tournament using a best of three match format. This was first employed by the league last year and will be used at this year’s NCAA Championship. It is not how the regular season matches were determined.
Match 1: Five-person traditional team match
Match 2: 5-game Baker using total pin fall
Match 3: Best of Seven Baker match play (Only if teams split first two matches)
In other words, teams will first play a traditional team game, followed by a 5-game, total pin Baker game. Should one team win both, the match is over. If they split, a best of seven Baker is played to determine the winner.
Match times: Action begins on Friday at 8:30 a.m. (CDT) with the opening four matches, followed by the second round at 1:30 p.m. for the opening match winners. The first round of the consolation bracket for the opening round losing teams will also take place at this time. The championship match takes place Sunday at 9:00 a.m.
Tourney Seeds: The fourth-ranked Commodores are the tourney’s No. 2 seed (behind Arkansas State) and face seventh seed Louisiana Tech in Friday’s opening round. Other seeds are Sam Houston State (3), Stephen F. Austin (4), Tulane (5), Valparaiso (6), Louisiana Tech (7) and Monmouth (8).
Tournament admission: There will be a $15 cost for an all-session ticket (3 sessions) or $10 for a single session.
Championship website: Southland.org has an excellent link to the tournament bracket, scores and other information. For those wanting complete information this is the place to be.
Follow from afar: InsideBowling.com will livestream the tournament. Vanderbilt’s YouTube or Facebook Live streaming sites will cover all matches not covered by Inside Bowling.
A powerful league: Arkansas State is the defending champion and is ranked third nationally. Vanderbilt, Stephen F. Austin and Sam Houston have won national titles in the past. Five league teams were ranked among the nation’s top nine teams (Tulane was nine) and seven of the eight are in the Top 25.
Vandy is defending champion: Vanderbilt won the original SBL championship three years ago and repeated last year in Jonesboro, defeating Arkansas State. Katie Stark was the tournament Most Valuable Player and Maria Bulanova was all-tournament.
Automatic qualification: There is a new format to determine the NCAA Championship field. The winner of this tournament and five other qualified conferences will be automatic qualifiers. The NCAA will then select four other teams as at-large picks. Teams will then be ranked based on available selection criteria and the top six will be placed in the championship bracket while the other four will play in for the remaining two slots. The entire championship field will be announced by the NCAA Committee next Wednesday via web stream on NCAA.com.