(05-21-2020 03:00 PM)Kaplony Wrote: (05-21-2020 02:38 PM)dbackjon Wrote: (05-21-2020 02:16 PM)Kaplony Wrote: So we'll potentially have teams losing top players at the end of the season because they were high MLB draft picks in the second week of June and their organization doesn't want to risk a major injury for the additional month of the college season?
MLB does the draft still after the season. With the consolidation of the minors, no need to rush the draftees into a short season rookie league - let them play college ball for free, start the pro career in an end of summer/fall league.
And if the MLB doesn't go along with this, then what?
You team is on the road to the conference title and a chance to host a regional when suddenly on June 11th your leading batter and Friday night ace leave the team because they were second and third round picks. You don't win the conference, become a three seed on the road and are two and que in the sweltering heat of a July regional. Was it worth it then?
Or even better. When your school holds it's May graduation ceremonies the five senior leaders you have on your team decide that it's better to get on with their lives and get a paying job to cover the massive school loans they have accrued over the past four years since they were only getting 25% of a scholarship instead of playing baseball for free for the next two months.
I think MLB is inherently going along with this since that's exactly what they're planning: the short-season leagues are getting axed under their desired (demanded?) restructuring plan for the minor leagues. So, I don't think the draft getting pushed back is an issue because it's likely going to occur, anyway.
As for the second scenario about non/partial-scholarship seniors leaving for jobs, that seems like a strawman scenario. That same argument could apply to the current College World Series schedule that doesn't end until the middle of June.
As I've stated earlier, if schools want to argue that moving the start of the baseball season later is problematic simply because the new end of the season would extend too far beyond the end of the academic school year, then I completely understand that position.
However, if we're talking purely about what's best for the game of baseball itself, then I can't see how anyone can defend starting the season in February outside of Southern schools looking for an artificial weather advantage over Northern schools. It's not an accident that all other levels of baseball don't start until late-March at the earliest: prior to that point, you physically *can't* play baseball in half of the country.
Plus, from a financial standpoint, the NCAA benefits if the College World Series is pushed later into July when it's not competing with the NBA Finals, Stanley Cup Final and/or U.S. Open at the same time. The College World Series could essentially *own* the Fourth of July weekend in a way that could never happen with its current June dates. All of the conferences that have their own TV networks (plus Texas with the Longhorn Network) also come close to becoming year-round TV networks if the baseball season is pushed out an additional month. ESPN and other TV networks are more likely to pay higher rights fees for college baseball games if they're filling time slots in the programming-starved summer months as opposed to the super-competitive spring stretch that includes March Madness, The Masters, the start of the MLB season, the NBA and NHL playoffs, Kentucky Derby, French Open, PGA Championship, etc.
If schools can wring some more revenue out of baseball in a way that it didn't exist before, then that's going to be more compelling in this age where the pandemic is decimating college budgets. That's exactly why the proposals being floated in the OP article seem to be getting much more traction in today's environment. The bottom line: every school is going to look to cut costs... and, by the same token, every school is going to look to squeeze out more revenue anywhere that they can. Leaving money on the table isn't an option anymore.