(04-29-2013 04:05 PM)CPslograd Wrote:  

(04-29-2013 03:48 PM)jdgaucho Wrote:  if NCAA credits are ever given for the baseball tournament then look out! Even at a fraction of the basketball credit, the nature of the baseball tournament (double elimination Regionals, best of three Super Regionals, double elimination in Omaha and a best of three championships series) allows for many more televised games than basketball. And smaller conferences like the Big West - where baseball is one of the few sports where we can truly flex our muscles - could really benefit down the road from here.

I hope the Big West can maintain parity with the Pac12 in baseball. I'm skeptical they will because I think the conference networks are just too much of a recruiting advantage. But so far, the Pac12 Network hasn't done a very good job at covering baseball, so maybe the BW dodges a bullet.

Pacific leaving the BW actually strengthens it by subtraction. Except for last year, it's usually at least a 2 bid conference in baseball. Fullerton and UCI are going to be fine and Cal Poly is having a nice season so far. But it's not just about the Big West. It's also about the Sun Belt, Big South, C-USA and other smaller conferences who can also benefit greatly from tourney credits being distributed should it ever come to pass.

(04-29-2013 05:30 PM)Wedge Wrote:  

(04-29-2013 03:48 PM)jdgaucho Wrote:  if NCAA credits are ever given for the baseball tournament then look out!

That won't happen unless ESPN someday starts paying really big money to televise the baseball tournament, which as of now doesn't even have its own separate TV deal. ESPN pays the NCAA about $38 million a year for TV rights to 24 NCAA championships, including baseball, plus the NIT hoops tournaments. CBS/Turner pay about $700 million a year for TV rights to the D-I men's basketball tournament.

Good point. It doesn't quite have the same dramatics as the basketball tournament and there isn't enough demand for baseball. But as I said earlier, even if baseball credits were to only be worth a fraction of basketball credits they would still pay off due to the nature of the baseball tournament which has more tv opportunities.

(04-29-2013 04:05 PM)CPslograd Wrote:  

(04-29-2013 03:48 PM)jdgaucho Wrote:  if NCAA credits are ever given for the baseball tournament then look out! Even at a fraction of the basketball credit, the nature of the baseball tournament (double elimination Regionals, best of three Super Regionals, double elimination in Omaha and a best of three championships series) allows for many more televised games than basketball. And smaller conferences like the Big West - where baseball is one of the few sports where we can truly flex our muscles - could really benefit down the road from here.

I hope the Big West can maintain parity with the Pac12 in baseball. I'm skeptical they will because I think the conference networks are just too much of a recruiting advantage. But so far, the Pac12 Network hasn't done a very good job at covering baseball, so maybe the BW dodges a bullet.

The conference networks are not enough of an advantage to overcome the huge leveling factor in college baseball: The scholarship limit (13) is way too low for a full roster. Even the best teams can't give out full scholarships to all of their best players, and some of the best players are getting no athletic scholarship money and only need-based financial aid if any.

The D-I baseball scholarship limit is about half the size of a MLB roster. Imagine what the competitive balance would be like in college football if the FBS scholarship limit was half the size of an NFL roster, say, 27 scholarships, instead of 85.

I'm happy that college baseball is gaining more momentum nationwide, whereas before the popularity seemed to be isolated in the west coast and south. Now it's been catching on and developing a vacant spring audience for college sports, along with the latter part of the college hockey season up north to a certain extent.

(04-29-2013 11:18 AM)Wedge Wrote:  The whip-around channel sounds like fun, I look forward to checking it out.

Properly promoted, the NCAA tournament and CWS can get good ratings for ESPN, especially because it falls in June/July when there are not many top TV sports events.

The biggest thing is ESPN's lack of promotion. We have been in three straight title series and ESPN barely talked about it even though they carrying the games.

(04-29-2013 04:14 PM)hawghiggs Wrote:  

(04-29-2013 10:18 AM)Gamecock Wrote:  College baseball is super popular in the South, it would be great to see it start to catch on nationally

Couldn't agree more. Baseball in a lot of ways is more popular than basketball in the south.

I think our baseball team outdraws our basketball team, of course that's not saying much

(04-29-2013 10:48 PM)Wedge Wrote:  

(04-29-2013 04:05 PM)CPslograd Wrote:  

(04-29-2013 03:48 PM)jdgaucho Wrote:  if NCAA credits are ever given for the baseball tournament then look out! Even at a fraction of the basketball credit, the nature of the baseball tournament (double elimination Regionals, best of three Super Regionals, double elimination in Omaha and a best of three championships series) allows for many more televised games than basketball. And smaller conferences like the Big West - where baseball is one of the few sports where we can truly flex our muscles - could really benefit down the road from here.

I hope the Big West can maintain parity with the Pac12 in baseball. I'm skeptical they will because I think the conference networks are just too much of a recruiting advantage. But so far, the Pac12 Network hasn't done a very good job at covering baseball, so maybe the BW dodges a bullet.

The conference networks are not enough of an advantage to overcome the huge leveling factor in college baseball: The scholarship limit (13) is way too low for a full roster. Even the best teams can't give out full scholarships to all of their best players, and some of the best players are getting no athletic scholarship money and only need-based financial aid if any.

The D-I baseball scholarship limit is about half the size of a MLB roster. Imagine what the competitive balance would be like in college football if the FBS scholarship limit was half the size of an NFL roster, say, 27 scholarships, instead of 85.

I wonder if this is the next battleground?? With all the new TV money coming in, you can only build new facilities every so often. Why not funnel some of that money towards increased scholarship for currently non revenue sports, which would require NCAA increasing limits, and create a third or even fourth revenue sport. In the south baseball could clearly become revenue sport #3 while in the north lacrosse or hockey could become revenue sport #3. At many schools this is already happening.

Big Ten Network has been covering quite a few of the Baseball and Softball games, it's made me grow interest by being able to watch them without having to travel anywhere to watch.

(04-30-2013 08:48 AM)solohawks Wrote:  

(04-29-2013 10:48 PM)Wedge Wrote:  

(04-29-2013 04:05 PM)CPslograd Wrote:  

(04-29-2013 03:48 PM)jdgaucho Wrote:  if NCAA credits are ever given for the baseball tournament then look out! Even at a fraction of the basketball credit, the nature of the baseball tournament (double elimination Regionals, best of three Super Regionals, double elimination in Omaha and a best of three championships series) allows for many more televised games than basketball. And smaller conferences like the Big West - where baseball is one of the few sports where we can truly flex our muscles - could really benefit down the road from here.

I hope the Big West can maintain parity with the Pac12 in baseball. I'm skeptical they will because I think the conference networks are just too much of a recruiting advantage. But so far, the Pac12 Network hasn't done a very good job at covering baseball, so maybe the BW dodges a bullet.

The conference networks are not enough of an advantage to overcome the huge leveling factor in college baseball: The scholarship limit (13) is way too low for a full roster. Even the best teams can't give out full scholarships to all of their best players, and some of the best players are getting no athletic scholarship money and only need-based financial aid if any.

The D-I baseball scholarship limit is about half the size of a MLB roster. Imagine what the competitive balance would be like in college football if the FBS scholarship limit was half the size of an NFL roster, say, 27 scholarships, instead of 85.

I wonder if this is the next battleground?? With all the new TV money coming in, you can only build new facilities every so often. Why not funnel some of that money towards increased scholarship for currently non revenue sports, which would require NCAA increasing limits, and create a third or even fourth revenue sport. In the south baseball could clearly become revenue sport #3 while in the north lacrosse or hockey could become revenue sport #3. At many schools this is already happening.

It might be. By the way, to correct my message above, the baseball scholarship limit is not 13, it's 11.7.

TV money could be used to increase the scholarship limits for both baseball and softball (to satisfy the Title IX issue); if the limit was 20 it would be a huge improvement. The schools not getting big TV money would complain, though -- even with the ridiculously low baseball scholarship limit, many schools give out less than the maximum number already; if they're giving out 9 scholarships now and competing against teams that give out 12, they might still be giving out 9 scholarships and competing against teams that give out 20.

There was a rumor awhile back that MLB was interested in funding a pool of money that would finance D-I schools increasing the scholarship limit, but nothing has come of that. It wouldn't be cheap: The NCAA claims the value of an athletic scholarship is $15,000/year at a public school and $35,000/year at a private school, so make it $30,000/year to be arbitrary, and say that MLB gives each school that funds 20 baseball and 20 softball scholarships a year $30,000/scholarship to cover the extra 8 baseball and 8 softball 'ships, that's a $480,000/year subsidy for each school that commits to fully fund those sports, and if 150 schools take up MLB on that offer, that's $72 million every year that MLB would have to invest.

Sadly, the bottom line is that many schools shortchange every sport except the "revenue sports". Here's an article making that point: http://espn.go.com/espnw/title-ix/795979...men-sports

(04-30-2013 09:10 AM)DexterDevil Wrote:  Big Ten Network has been covering quite a few of the Baseball and Softball games, it's made me grow interest by being able to watch them without having to travel anywhere to watch.

Fox Sports goes above and beyond to cover Baseball and Softball games. (Even if it's just repeats).

I know the FX Midwest covers anything and everything baseball/softball for the Big XII.

I actually got to see my Golden Eagles on FX AZ over the past few days (a couple of live games and some replays of the UAB-USM game...)

PAC-12/Big-10 networks cover college softball/baseball regularly. I know quite a few SEC baseball games are on the lineup in the coming week.

I'd wager the rest of their sports networks do the same thing for college baseball/softball

Now I just need the USN (Universal Sports Network) to do something other than running/cycling races...

(PS: Those new bats are one of the BEST things that has ever been done for college baseball)

(05-01-2013 06:09 AM)DaSaintFan Wrote:  

(04-30-2013 09:10 AM)DexterDevil Wrote:  Big Ten Network has been covering quite a few of the Baseball and Softball games, it's made me grow interest by being able to watch them without having to travel anywhere to watch.

Fox Sports goes above and beyond to cover Baseball and Softball games. (Even if it's just repeats).

I know the FX Midwest covers anything and everything baseball/softball for the Big XII.

I actually got to see my Golden Eagles on FX AZ over the past few days (a couple of live games and some replays of the UAB-USM game...)

PAC-12/Big-10 networks cover college softball/baseball regularly. I know quite a few SEC baseball games are on the lineup in the coming week.

I'd wager the rest of their sports networks do the same thing for college baseball/softball

Now I just need the USN (Universal Sports Network) to do something other than running/cycling races...

(PS: Those new bats are one of the BEST things that has ever been done for college baseball)

I've seen USM on FSN+ a few times, never actually watched the games, just used them for background noise.

College baseball is one the most crooked and flawed sports around. You have teams that barely leave their state to play games competiting against schools who play their first 30 games on the road. Teams are good and become power houses merely based on their location (warm weather.) Look at Arizona or Arizona State or LSU's history and just see how many home games they usually get per season. Its astronomical.

(05-02-2013 01:10 PM)darkdragon99 Wrote:  College baseball is one the most crooked and flawed sports around. You have teams that barely leave their state to play games competiting against schools who play their first 30 games on the road. Teams are good and become power houses merely based on their location (warm weather.) Look at Arizona or Arizona State or LSU's history and just see how many home games they usually get per season. Its astronomical.

The academic calendar forces baseball to start in late February. Much of the country cannot host baseball games that time of year. That is the primary reason some teams have so many home games and some so few. It is a problem but it isn't caused by "crookedness", its caused by weather.

(05-02-2013 01:10 PM)darkdragon99 Wrote:  College baseball is one the most crooked and flawed sports around. You have teams that barely leave their state to play games competiting against schools who play their first 30 games on the road. Teams are good and become power houses merely based on their location (warm weather.) Look at Arizona or Arizona State or LSU's history and just see how many home games they usually get per season. Its astronomical.

Flawed yes, crooked no... Crooked would imply that there is some kind of weather control machine out there that makes Feb and March poor baseball weather in the north.

There is literally nothing you can do about it. Even if you waited until say april to start the season there is still the issue of practice.

I wish more teams in the north would make their IPF's big enough to play baseball, that is about the only think you could do to level the field.

Moving the season isnt the answer I agree. Cant be playing games during the summer when the players are supposed to be off and there's no students at the games. One thing you can do it limit the amount of home games you can play. Force teams to go on the road. For example, right now St. John's is playing Miami(FL) in a 3 game series in Miami and its nice weather in NY now so theres no reason that series cant be played in NY. Oregon and Georgia Tech are playing 3 game series at Ohio State this May. Try to get more of that going. Make teams like Arizona and LSU go on the road more instead of them playing 32 of 56 games at home.