No one is saying it is impossible to make it to the CWS just that it is more difficult. Conferences get the autobid to the Regionals. So each year there is a chance for it to happen. It is the at large bids and trying to build fan support before the conference games.

With that said I do find it funny that the B1G is complaining about a sport being unfair but has zero problems with the way football and basketball are setup. Essentially they are part of the "G5" of baseball.

(04-18-2015 02:34 PM)NoDak Wrote:  

(04-18-2015 02:09 PM)jdgaucho Wrote:  Stony Brook reached the CWS in 2012. Since then:

2013: 25-34 overall, 15-15 in America East. 24 home games, 29 road, 6 neutral
2014: 35-18 overall, 18-5 AEC (regular season champs). 22 home, 23 road, 8 neutral. RPI at tourney selection was 113.
2015: currently 17-11 overall, 9-2 AEC. 16 home games, 12 road.

So much for their struggle to get home games.

Kent St also went to the CWS the same year.

Pitching is the name of the game, and top Northern pitching goes south and west, as cold weather pitching is more likely to lead to injury and less play time and practice.

Kent St dominates the MAC in baseball and has won either the regular season or tournament every year since 2000 except for 2005 when they had a coaching change. It is a great time to a Kent baseball fan that is for sure.

(04-18-2015 09:22 AM)chargeradio Wrote:  Even beginning in March, it would only cross two semesters, Spring and Summer - as long as you finish by August 1, you steer clear of the Fall Semester.

Thus increasing the scholarship costs of what is a non-revenue sport for the vast majority of the programs out there. You are also increasing the financial burden on the student-athlete since the majority of them are not on full scholarship and have to make up the difference left by their fractional scholarship themselves.

There will also be a pushback by the athletes because extending the season into the summer eliminates then being able to participate in the wooden bat leagues like the Cape Cod, Coastal Plains, etc. to get ready for the professional game.

Then you run into the problem of the MLB draft being in the middle of the season instead of the postseason like it is now. What do you think is going to happen when your star player is a high draft pick looking at a multi-million dollar signing bonus? Do you really think he's going to stick around to play for free the rest of the season? It's not a problem now because you are dealing with limited teams playing a diminishing number of games where the players would only miss the first couple of games of Rookie League. It would become a problem when they would be missing most of the Rookie League seasons. With the already present scholarship and roster limitations you would see teams decimated by defections.

The draft already happens doing the NCAA tournament. This year the draft is on June 5-7 and the tournament runs May 30 - June 23. To play in the CWS is a big accomplishment and would probably be preferred over playing for a minor league team in some small town.

(04-18-2015 09:06 AM)MplsBison Wrote:  

(04-17-2015 09:25 PM)TrojanCampaign Wrote:  If you push the season back a month then wouldn't it span across three semesters? Because unless I'm mistaken college baseball ends in June and the summer semester at most schools ends in July.

But the Fall semester doesn't start until Sept. And most students don't enroll during the Summer semester.

Which is why it is ridiculous to make it a summer sport.

(04-18-2015 01:47 PM)jdgaucho Wrote:  

(04-17-2015 08:54 PM)chargeradio Wrote:  Even at a southern school like Alabama, it can get pretty cold in February. I'd think a surprising number of southern schools would support pushing back the start of the season if the logistical issues can be solved.

Bama can afford to fly west of Texas once in a while. Set up a H&H series with Long Beach State or USF. They'd gladly make the trip out to Tuscaloosa if the Bammers come to their humble abode (Yes I know, this has nothing to do with the debate).


Back on topic, Indiana was in the CWS recently and Minnesota has three national championships and five appearances in Omaha to their credit. The weather has not changed up there in the last 40 years. It sounds like the B1G just wants to cover up the fact that they really don't care about baseball as a whole, and are using the climate as an excuse.

Really.

(04-19-2015 08:22 AM)ilovegymnast Wrote:  The draft already happens doing the NCAA tournament. This year the draft is on June 5-7 and the tournament runs May 30 - June 23. To play in the CWS is a big accomplishment and would probably be preferred over playing for a minor league team in some small town.

On the day the MLB Draft starts there are sixteen teams playing. By the time the draft ends there are eight teams left.

As for the accomplishment, maybe so....but they are going to be weighing that decision not based on having won a Super Regional and just waiting to board the plane for Omaha like now but being in the early part of the conference slate if you push the season back. They will also be weighing the fact that since the season has been pushed back they are now paying for an additional semester of school that they weren't paying for before since they were typically off playing summer wooden bat league ball and all of the associated costs that entails. Let's see....going a couple more thousand dollars in debt or getting a paycheck....tough decision.

The Rookie League season starts at the end of June around the end of the CWS. Pushing the season back even a month means that they would miss at least half of the Rookie League season if they signed the day their season ended.

Could the domes in Detroit,Indianapolis and Minnesota be used for baseball?
That is even in an imperfect way with bad sight lines odd but workable dimensions.
They could have baseball tournament weekends where each team gets in four games in a weekend.Less travel and time away from school and a level playing field .

The fans of the schools that are fairly close would have a chance to see their team early in the season.

I don't know how busy these domes are but I would think not very.
Detroit for example has so many other stadium,convention and arena space available.

Cal State Fullerton played three games @ Indiana, two @ Nebraska and two @ Maryland this year. Doing their part to give you northern folks home games.


Nebraska hosted in the month of March: Northern Colorado, Indiana State and CSUF twice, Creighton once and FGCU, Michigan and Texas three times each. 16 total home games right there. They played one true road game on March 1st @ LMU (the last of a three game series in Los Angeles) and three neutral site games at Minute Maid Park in Houston.


Fordham played 21 games in the month of March. 10 home, 8 true road, 3 neutral. Their home games were all ooc (Manhattan, Stony Brook, Delaware, UMass Lowell, Hofstra and Wagner 1x, Sacred Heart and NYIT twice)

Eight true road games: @ USC on March 1st, (the last of a three game series there) doubleheader at Stony Brook, Iona, three @ Richmond (A-10) and Albany


I know it varies from place to place but those are two examples that show Northern teams can get their fair share of home games; it's not as bad as some folks make it out to be.

ND played its first 18 games on the road in Oklahoma, Texas, Georgia and South Carolina.

(This is typical, not unusual at all, for ND baseball, even when it went to the CWS in 2002).

http://www.und.com/sports/m-basebl/sched...sched.html

The result?

The Irish were 14-4 during that stretch.

Right now, ND is 26-11, 11-10 in the ACC.

So, it can be done by a Northern team on the road in February and March. No whining in baseball.

Terry gets it

Interesting to me though, that you have two games with WMU. Home in March, at their place in May.

(04-16-2015 01:18 PM)jdgaucho Wrote:  The whole top-25 Coaches poll for this week

http://sportspolls.usatoday.com/ncaa/bas...ches-poll/

Illinois at #12, Iowa at #24 and Nebraska at #25. Mizzou is #18 and Missouri State #21. Decent representation

UConn, the AAC's northernmost school, has the highest RPI in the conference and recently beat ranked UCF 15-1 in a weekend game at Orlando. AAC RPI's:

21. USF
31. Houston
33. UConn
44. Tulane
47. UCF
54. Memphis
59. ECU
185. Cincy

You might notice, by the way, that AAC baseball is pretty damned good. There are about 305 Division 1 baseball schools in the NCAA.

April 20th USA Today coaches poll.

http://sportspolls.usatoday.com/ncaa/bas...ches-poll/

Worth mentioning for this debate:

- UC Santa Barbara remains at #10. We are the only school in the top 10 who doesn't play football and is not in a power conference. Also the only western team ranked at all who's not in the Pac 12.

- Illinois moves into the top 10 at #8. Maryland moves up to #18 and Iowa to #21. Nebraska falls out and is now #28
- Oklahoma State is #15
- Dallas Baptist is #16. They are a Missouri Valley affiliate, with all other sports in D2.
- Missouri State is #19 and Mizzou #23.

Regarding whether or not Missouri and Oklahoma should be considered western and/or southern states, I'll leave that to you. I don't personally consider them to be either

(04-20-2015 02:35 PM)jdgaucho Wrote:  April 20th USA Today coaches poll.

http://sportspolls.usatoday.com/ncaa/bas...ches-poll/

Worth mentioning for this debate:

- UC Santa Barbara remains at #10. We are the only school in the top 10 who doesn't play football and is not in a power conference. Also the only western team ranked at all who's not in the Pac 12.

- Illinois moves into the top 10 at #8. Maryland moves up to #18 and Iowa to #21. Nebraska falls out and is now #28
- Oklahoma State is #15
- Dallas Baptist is #16. They are a Missouri Valley affiliate, with all other sports in D2.
- Missouri State is #19 and Mizzou #23.

Regarding whether or not Missouri and Oklahoma should be considered western and/or southern states, I'll leave that to you. I don't personally consider them to be either

Weather wise, Oklahoma is southern and Missouri doesn't have winters longer than Virginia or Maryland. Weather is the issue here, not culture.

(04-20-2015 03:14 PM)NoDak Wrote:  

(04-20-2015 02:35 PM)jdgaucho Wrote:  April 20th USA Today coaches poll.

http://sportspolls.usatoday.com/ncaa/bas...ches-poll/

Worth mentioning for this debate:

- UC Santa Barbara remains at #10. We are the only school in the top 10 who doesn't play football and is not in a power conference. Also the only western team ranked at all who's not in the Pac 12.

- Illinois moves into the top 10 at #8. Maryland moves up to #18 and Iowa to #21. Nebraska falls out and is now #28
- Oklahoma State is #15
- Dallas Baptist is #16. They are a Missouri Valley affiliate, with all other sports in D2.
- Missouri State is #19 and Mizzou #23.

Regarding whether or not Missouri and Oklahoma should be considered western and/or southern states, I'll leave that to you. I don't personally consider them to be either

Weather wise, Oklahoma is southern and Missouri doesn't have winters longer than Virginia or Maryland. Weather is the issue here, not culture.

Weather wise, it doesn't get much worse than the South Bend lake effect rain and snow.

ND just changed its entire baseball surface (mound, infield, too) to Field Turf to try to save more playing dates from bad weather.

Northern teams can get it done. I just don't see the need to disrupt the schedule.

My favorite was the quote from the Big Ten coach a couple of years back. He stated the college BASEBALL was fundamentally unfair as the northern schools did not have an equal chance to win the CWS as did southern and western schools.

My thoughts when I read it can be summed up in two words, Rose Bowl.

College baseball is unique because so many teams can play with the big schools. You have smaller schools beating big names all the time. For example, South Carolina just this season has lost to Furman, Presbyterian, Winthrop, Coastal Carolina, and College of Charleston.

As the sport has gotten more popular, more schools have invested in their programs. The TV exposure has also helped, especially with all the regionals and super regionals televised nationally now.

Just five years ago there were entire regionals untelevised. Now every one of them is on at least ESPN3.

(04-20-2015 03:51 PM)TerryD Wrote:  

(04-20-2015 03:14 PM)NoDak Wrote:  

(04-20-2015 02:35 PM)jdgaucho Wrote:  April 20th USA Today coaches poll.

http://sportspolls.usatoday.com/ncaa/bas...ches-poll/

Worth mentioning for this debate:

- UC Santa Barbara remains at #10. We are the only school in the top 10 who doesn't play football and is not in a power conference. Also the only western team ranked at all who's not in the Pac 12.

- Illinois moves into the top 10 at #8. Maryland moves up to #18 and Iowa to #21. Nebraska falls out and is now #28
- Oklahoma State is #15
- Dallas Baptist is #16. They are a Missouri Valley affiliate, with all other sports in D2.
- Missouri State is #19 and Mizzou #23.

Regarding whether or not Missouri and Oklahoma should be considered western and/or southern states, I'll leave that to you. I don't personally consider them to be either

Weather wise, Oklahoma is southern and Missouri doesn't have winters longer than Virginia or Maryland. Weather is the issue here, not culture.

Weather wise, it doesn't get much worse than the South Bend lake effect rain and snow.

ND just changed its entire baseball surface (mound, infield, too) to Field Turf to try to save more playing dates from bad weather.

Northern teams can get it done. I just don't see the need to disrupt the schedule.

Weather-wise, Cincinnati is similar to Virginia, Kentucky, or Missouri. In March there's a bigger temperature difference between Cincinnati and Minneapolis than between Atlanta and Cincinnati.

But this year in Feb/March we played 16 road games, 3 neutral site (in Georgia against Iowa), and 7 home games. The home games were against Toledo, Niagara. and Kentucky (the UK game was at the Reds' ballpark). All but 2 of the road games were in the Deep South or the Western desert (those two being at Wright State and at Tennessee).

Some people here are kidding themselves into thinking that just because a few Northern teams have done well that warm weather teams have no advantage in February baseball. Sure, it's possible to overcome the disadvantage, just like Mugsy Bogues overcame his height deficiency. But it's still a big disadvantage.

(04-22-2015 01:18 PM)Captain Bearcat Wrote:  

(04-20-2015 03:51 PM)TerryD Wrote:  

(04-20-2015 03:14 PM)NoDak Wrote:  

(04-20-2015 02:35 PM)jdgaucho Wrote:  April 20th USA Today coaches poll.

http://sportspolls.usatoday.com/ncaa/bas...ches-poll/

Worth mentioning for this debate:

- UC Santa Barbara remains at #10. We are the only school in the top 10 who doesn't play football and is not in a power conference. Also the only western team ranked at all who's not in the Pac 12.

- Illinois moves into the top 10 at #8. Maryland moves up to #18 and Iowa to #21. Nebraska falls out and is now #28
- Oklahoma State is #15
- Dallas Baptist is #16. They are a Missouri Valley affiliate, with all other sports in D2.
- Missouri State is #19 and Mizzou #23.

Regarding whether or not Missouri and Oklahoma should be considered western and/or southern states, I'll leave that to you. I don't personally consider them to be either

Weather wise, Oklahoma is southern and Missouri doesn't have winters longer than Virginia or Maryland. Weather is the issue here, not culture.

Weather wise, it doesn't get much worse than the South Bend lake effect rain and snow.

ND just changed its entire baseball surface (mound, infield, too) to Field Turf to try to save more playing dates from bad weather.

Northern teams can get it done. I just don't see the need to disrupt the schedule.

Weather-wise, Cincinnati is similar to Virginia, Kentucky, or Missouri. In March there's a bigger temperature difference between Cincinnati and Minneapolis than between Atlanta and Cincinnati.

But this year in Feb/March we played 16 road games, 3 neutral site (in Georgia against Iowa), and 7 home games. The home games were against Toledo, Niagara. and Kentucky (the UK game was at the Reds' ballpark). All but 2 of the road games were in the Deep South or the Western desert (those two being at Wright State and at Tennessee).

Some people here are kidding themselves into thinking that just because a few Northern teams have done well that warm weather teams have no advantage in February baseball. Sure, it's possible to overcome the disadvantage, just like Mugsy Bogues overcame his height deficiency. But it's still a big disadvantage.

I guess that I am just used to Northern college baseball requiring the team to be on the road (or neutral site tourneys in the South/West) for the first 18 games or so.

I have always figured that is just the way it is, the way it goes.

A number of Northern programs have adapted and done well.

I don't see any sense in delaying the start of the college baseball season because of the weather.

With all the money the Big Ten is about to bring in for TV revenue why don't they just build an indoor baseball stadium with a retractable roof. That way games will be enjoyable in February and March. Then get more people to your games and sell the content to ESPN and fill up the Big Ten Network. Would give college baseball more press and more tv coverage plus promote the Big Ten. They could also host other Northern teams in the beginning of the season