(02-11-2021 06:35 PM)TexasTerror Wrote: (02-11-2021 03:43 PM)PojoaquePosse Wrote: I don't know how good SLC baseball is. But I can tell you that NMSU, GCU and Sac State are solid programs.
The Southland in recent years has been a multiple bid NCAA league. Since 2013, the SLC has been a multi bid league on four occasions in seven years (over 50%).
The biggest complainers in our fan base about the WAC have been about baseball fanatics. SHSU plays a non league schedule annually built for an large bid if they can hit 40+ wins. The WAC is simply not as strong a league in conference RPI as the SLC.
SHSU has eight regionals and a Super Regional in last 13 years
The WAC baseball RPI has been deceiving and the conference is better than the "complainers" think:
1. Chicago State & Northern Colorado hurt the conference RPI. Chicago State has dropped baseball as of 2020 and Northern Colorado is moving to the Summit in 2022.
Neither school produced much talent, with a total of three players drafted from these two schools in the past seven years.
2. The talent in the WAC is equal to that of the Southland. The 2019 MLB draft had 18 players drafted in their 10 team conference. The Southland had 20 players selected in their 13 team conference. Nine of the twenty players came from the Texas Four. GCU led the WAC with five selections and NMSU had the highest player drafted in Joey Ortiz in the 4th round. The 2020 MLB five round draft had two WAC players selected, with Nick Gonzales selected 7th overall in the first round and pitcher Kade Mechals of GCU going #112 overall in the 4th round. The Southland had three 5th round selections, none from the Texas Four. In 2019, CBU extended their streak to ten years of having at least one pitcher selected in the draft. They had 15 pitchers selected in that ten year period. CBU has a reputation as a pitching factory and that was built at the D2 level. CBU has only played one complete season at the D1 level in baseball.
3. CBU, Sac State, GCU, NMSU, UVU, Seattle and UTRGV have all won a regular season title or post-season title in the WAC over the past seven years. It is a competitive conference. With two California schools in the conference, you have the best market for baseball talent in the nation. Arizona is a rising hotbed for baseball talent. Gonzales is from Arizona and Ortiz from California.
I think baseball is going to be a really good sport for the WAC starting in 2022 with the Texas Four coming in and Chicago State and Northern Colorado going out. Dixie State had good baseball teams at the D2 level and hopefully Tarleton will raise their baseball game in the WAC. With the baseball talent in places like California, Texas and Arizona, this conference has a a lot of potential and should easily be a two bid conference.