NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Vanderbilt opens play in the Southland Bowling League Championship Friday outside of Dallas at the Rowlett Bowl-a-Rama, Rowlett, Texas. The Commodores have the No. 1 seed and face No. 8 Valparaiso.
THE FORMAT
Friday
8:30 a.m. Round 1 Vanderbilt vs Valparaiso
1:30 p.m. Round 2
Saturday
8:30 Round 3
1:30 Round 4
Sunday*
8:00 Round 5
TBD Championship Match
- An “if necessary” match could be scheduled should the unbeaten team in the title match lose to the team with one loss since this is a double elimination format.
FORMAT DIFFERS FROM REGULAR SEASON
The SBL is a double-elimination tournament using a best-of-three match format commonly called a mega-match. This is the system used at the NCAA Championship and not how 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)
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.
SBL LIVESTREAM
The championship will be streamed live by Inside Bowling with Mike Flanagan and Dave LaMont providing live commentary. Matches can be viewed live HERE. Inside Bowling may not stream every match at the tournament, and in that event, Vanderbilt will stream on the Vanderbilt Athletic YouTube site.
A FOND FAREWELL TO THE SOUTHLAND BOWLING LEAGUE
With the conclusion of this championship, the Southland Bowling League will be no more. Much is owed to the Southland by the bowling community.
The SBL was formed eight years ago, spurred by Southland members Stephen F. Austin and Sam Houston State. The Southland took bowling seriously, hosting first class championships and sponsoring various student-athlete awards. The SBL quicky became the dominant bowling league in the NCAA, annually producing national championship contending teams.
National conference realignment left the Southland with no fulltime members sponsoring bowling, potentially leaving the great collection of schools without a sponsor. The good people at Southland, recognizing the predicament, agreed to sponsor the league this year even without any full-time league members and helped orchestrate a smooth transition to Conference USA. The NCAA recently announced a waiver has been approved to allow Conference…