(02-23-2009 02:09 AM)CardinalBlackTrojan Wrote: [ -> ]The Sun Belt is ranked #4 in the conference rankings for baseball. The conference finished the weekend 22-13 with some nice wins. Of course this ranking can change drastically in about a week, but very good so far!
http://www.fullysports.com/baseball/2009/conferencerpi
That has alot to do with the SBC playing top level competition in the first few weeks. Kind of like football. The SEC and ACC have weak conference ratings in the first weeks of football because they all play 1-AA, SBC and MAC teams. But I think we have a pretty good league for baseball, and should stick close to the top.
I doubt this ranking will be the same in 2 or 3 weeks, but the SBC has been a strong conference every year. Usually in the top 10. It's obvious everyone is pretty strong this year after how well everyone did this past weekend.
This is more of a general comment but its a lot easier for the southern and western conferences to be rated higher in baseball than the northern conferences. I know every year NIU starts off playing their first 17-20 games on the road. That's ridiculous. I think college baseball season starts far too early and it puts all the northern teams at a disadvantage. NIU plays a total of 38 road games, 16 home games, and 1 neutral site game. That means we only play 29% of our games at home. In contrast. the southern and western conferences probably play 55-70% of their games at home.
The same happens with softball as well. The season starts too early and northern teams have to travel down south for nearly every OOC game.
That's why i call baloney everytime i hear someone try to make an argument about a college football playoff being too demanding on the student-athletes and their academics. Try being a northern baseball team and playing the first month and a half of your schedule on the road so far south and way out west.