(07-22-2019 11:42 AM)HerdZoned Wrote:  

(07-22-2019 10:23 AM)herdfan129 Wrote:  I agree with that as well. Need to recruit 4 year high school players and build an actual program. That might get easier to do with a new stadium and actual support. Baseball might have to resort to JUCOs because of the lack of support for the program.

We have pretty good baseball in this region. I would think with a new stadium we could also recruit some of those northern recruits. We can pitch them getting to play in a southern based conference and CUSA is actually a pretty respectable baseball conference.

We will always be at a disadvantage being the northern most baseball team. Luckily the IPF and other things helps with this. Guess the best way around it is to go after northern kids and offer them the opportunity to be relatively close to home while playing in a southern/national based conference against good competition.

I don't buy the facility issue as a reason to recruit mostly Juco's. Did you ever see where Marshall played softball before Dot Hicks Field opened in 2008. It was basically an empty lot with a fence around it and maybe room for 100 to watch. And yet Stanton was able to recruit players like Rachel Folden, Amanda and Jessica Williams, Rebecca Gamby and others. Waggoner has had a 4600 seat minor league stadium to sell to recruits.

One of the best pitchers in the state, Scott High School's Carter Lyles grew up a Marshall fan and Waggoner and his staff never contacted him the 4 years he was in HS and he is now headed to WVU to play.

Where was the old softball field? For some reason, I cant remember.

The best team is the defending champion until proven otherwise. This is true for all sports.

(07-22-2019 02:52 PM)UAB Schnauzer Wrote:  The best team is the defending champion until proven otherwise. This is true for all sports.

Well said! I think you might have just pushed some Marshall fan over the edge with that comment!

(07-22-2019 02:41 PM)THUNDERStruck73 Wrote:  Where was the old softball field? For some reason, I cant remember.

It was around the twin towers, I remember listening to broadcasts and HRs being hit/roll in the twin tower parking lot a lot.

(07-22-2019 09:56 AM)WKUFan518 Wrote:  

(07-22-2019 08:31 AM)Up2stuff Wrote:  

(07-22-2019 08:05 AM)WKUFan518 Wrote:  College baseball is run by one conference the SEC....When you have every single SEC team make tournament and last place team 14 games under .500 you know college baseball is a joke..

College sports are run by ESPN/SEC - the rest of us (including the other so-called P5 teams) are just in if for the ride.

Baseball they get by with even more than usual because no one cares about college baseball....Basketball they cannot get by with a team below .500 overall making NCAA tournament....Football they may run but basketball is the only hope any of us have to make national noise...

Yeah, no one cares about college baseball. That's why ESPN spends three weeks covering the Regionals, Super Regionals and the CWS. After they've broadcast several conference tournament games.

Unfortunately, conferences and teams get little/nothing in money from this. ESPN pays almost zippo--even with those three weeks of ads.

My list of the composite votes to that point is roughly how I would form my list:
Marshall and USM are sure things
Tech, UAB, WKU, NT, and MT are the 5 teams battling for the next 4 spots.
I would tend to put Tech in because I'm not biased at all and it's my totally objective opinion backed by facts and data :)
MT would probably go in because of the strength of their Mens BB and they have been stronger in Football than they get credit for.
UAB won the conference in football last year so that is hard to ignore, but killing the program for a bit makes me want to leave them off (and I'm kind of butthurt about our recent football and basketball history against them- not biased)
NT was strong last year and looks to stay strong in FB for a bit
WKU is a few years removed from their football strength so I probably leave them off hanging in the 7 spot.

Baseball is nice and could win a tiebreaker, but Football and MBB drive the bus. A truly dominant baseball team would provide a boost similar to a really dominant WBB team IMO.

(07-22-2019 11:50 AM)WKUFan518 Wrote:  

(07-22-2019 08:41 AM)EagNBran Wrote:  

(07-22-2019 08:05 AM)WKUFan518 Wrote:  College baseball is run by one conference the SEC....When you have every single SEC team make tournament and last place team 14 games under .500 you know college baseball is a joke..

10 SEC teams made the tournament this year, the most that's ever made it. Of those ten, seven were national seeds and three were placed elsewhere. Of those two, Tennessee was 14-16 in conference with an overall record of 38-19 and Texas A&M was 16-13-1 in conference with an overall record of 37-21-1. Florida was 13-17 in conference and 33-24 overall. Florida is the only team most would say was not worthy of a NCAA bid and got in on name recognition alone.

Of those ten teams, six made it to Super Regionals and four made it to Omaha.


I'm not saying there shouldn't be a requirement of a positive conference record to get into any NCAA tournament (barring conference tournament title), but to say that it's a joke because a conference was better than other conferences means nothing. Michigan got to the Finals this year, a northern team with no inherent advantages whatsoever in baseball.


Now, should seven SEC teams have been hosts? Debatable. But to say those ten teams didn't deserve a postseason berth is a bit silly. The only really questionable one was Florida. Reality is that other teams need to win games and stop making excuses. Same as any other sport.

My bad that was softball I was thinking of, but still same thing applies...Either way college baseball is run by P5 more than any other sports, at least basketball we all have a chance...

Not even close to Football, small schools can compete baseball. Wichita State, Fresno State, Rice, Cal State Fullerton even Dallas Baptist has been ranked in top 25 in Baseball.

(07-21-2019 03:02 PM)NTTHOR Wrote:  why is baseball so important for the 7-10 fans that demand it? are you jealous of the money spent by your school on a small time sport? does it improve your bottom line (make money for your school)?

Southern Miss makes money on baseball, but few schools do. You need to have consistent high attendance. I personally don't care if UNT fields a baseball team. If they did it would be bad for a long time and we would have to play that bad team. I would rather be able to schedule a team that can help our SOS.

(07-22-2019 09:56 AM)WKUFan518 Wrote:  

(07-22-2019 08:31 AM)Up2stuff Wrote:  

(07-22-2019 08:05 AM)WKUFan518 Wrote:  College baseball is run by one conference the SEC....When you have every single SEC team make tournament and last place team 14 games under .500 you know college baseball is a joke..

College sports are run by ESPN/SEC - the rest of us (including the other so-called P5 teams) are just in if for the ride.

Baseball they get by with even more than usual because no one cares about college baseball....Basketball they cannot get by with a team below .500 overall making NCAA tournament....Football they may run but basketball is the only hope any of us have to make national noise...

How do you figure basketball isn't run by P5 as much as baseball? Out of 64 slots, only 1 CUSA team gets in. We consistently get more baseball teams in NCAA tournament than basketball.

I don't disagree that basketball has a bigger audience than baseball.

I’ll go with Marshall as 1.

(07-22-2019 02:52 PM)UAB Schnauzer Wrote:  The best team is the defending champion until proven otherwise. This is true for all sports.

To be the man, you gotta beat the man - Ric Flair. Truer words have never been spoken.

Realignment talk on CUSAbbs: