[collegesportsfanms]

We have now come to the 16 team championship bracket, which will be played in rounds. I will go over the format and the rules briefly.

Format

1st round and Quarterfinals- Best of 5
Semifinals and Championship Series- Best of 7
Home Field advantage goes to higher seed. In first 2 series, it will be 2-2-1. Last 2 series will be 2-3-2.

Rules

I am using the same rules I did for the consolation bracket:

1. Every player must get credit for playing in a game. Credit is given when a player completes 4 innings on defense and gets 1 official at-bat. If his first AB is a walk, HBP, or something of that nature, he must bat again to get credit for playing in the game. DH is a little different, since they aren't in the field, once they get an official AB, they get credit for 1/2 game played, which basically means they must either DH 2 games, or DH 1 game and play in the field 1 game. Maybe not the most fair, but it's how I had been doing it all along.

2. No player may start more than 3 games in a row. Once a player has started 3 games in a row, he may come off the bench as a PH or PR, or late inning defensive replacement, but that is it.

3. Pitching rotations will stay the same, and if possible, I will be moving some guys from the rotation to the bullpen to get them some extra appearances. I have been trying to keep appearances even among the bullpen players. If anybody has any questions or comments about these rules, feel free to let me know.

I do have a question for you guys... since the championship bracket will be played in rounds, should rule #1 apply to every single round? For instance a guy has to get credit for playing 1 game in every single round? Or just 1 game for the whole championship bracket? I've been going back and forth on this.

Writing Format

Before every round, I will do a short preview of each series, like I was doing with the consolation bracket before I decided to speed through it. I will not report on a series until it is over, but instead I will play a game from each series then give the game scores. For instance, I have played 7 of the 8 game 1s so far. Once I play the first game of the final first round series, I will post the scores for all the game 1s, then do the same for the game 2s. Once a series is complete, I will do a series recap. This means they may not necessarily be in order. For instance, if a series at the bottom of the bracket is over before the 1/16 series is, I will still report on it. If it gets too confusing, I will just wait and do series reports in order. I hope nobody is too confused already!

Again, any questions or comments, feel free to let me know.