By By BRUCE HIXON – Sports Editor
Baseball in the Alabama Community College Conference just got a brand new look.
The three-division format is gone. So are the conference schedule structure and the playoff format.
League officials have abolished the central division and divided those members between the current south and north divisions.
Southern Union, Chattahoochee Valley, Central Alabama and Wallace State-Selma will be headed south and will join current southern members Jefferson Davis Community College, Alabama Southern, Wallace State-Dothan, Enterprise-Ozark, Bishop State, L.B. Wallace and Faulkner State.
The three remaining central division teams, Lawson State, Jefferson State and Shelton State, will join Bevill State-Fayette, Bevill State-Sumiton, Wallace State-Hanceville, Snead State, Northwest Shoals, Gadsden State and Calhoun.
Based on results, the southern division picked up three of the central division's best teams. Southern Union won the division crown this spring and went 50-12 overall. Central Alabama finished third and went 33-28 overall. Chattahoochee Valley was fourth in the central and went 32-23 overall.
The southern division schedule will remain at 30 games. Teams will now play the other 10 division schools three times. Schools had five division games against an opponent under he old format.
Under the old format, teams played a doubleheader of two seven-inning games on Tuesday, a single nine-inning game on Thursdays and a seven-inning game doubleheader on Saturdays. Under the new format, teams will play a nine-inning game on Fridays and a doubleheader of two seven-inning games on Saturday.
Blevins admits there could be some problems with the Saturday format.
Ten teams qualified for the state tournament under the old format. Two divisions qualified three teams and the third division qualified four teams. The extra team was rotated between the divisions.
Under the new format, 12 teams will qualify for postseason. The south division will have seven playoff qualifiers next year, while the north will have five. Both teams will send six teams starting in the 2008 season.