Playing SWAC teams in baseball

[bulldogcountry1]

I noticed that we only have one of those games on the schedule this year in Alcorn. Last year, we played Alcorn, Valley, and Grambling once each. The typical in the past was probably 3-5 of those games. I see poeple talk about how it kills our RPI to play those games, so why do did we do it? With a tough SEC schedule, was it worth it to get some easy W's or are we just pressured to play them to to spread the wealth?

[Political Hack]

I like playing less of those games. we can just beat USM or OM in the Governors cup and help our RPI much more.

[Political Hack]

plus... it draws more fans to play "name" teams from other BCS schools and mid-major conferences.

I do think we could play a just a few more regional games. They do a great job of it, but having these teams visit Starkille is great for PR and recruiting. (ULaLa, LaMonroe, Troy, UAB, USA, USM, Tulane, Memphis, Ark St., Georgia Tech, GaState, and a few other should rotate on and off every 2-4 years).

[messageboardsuperhero]

RPI and SOS mean way more than they used to- they're without a doubt the biggest component in deciding who hosts, who gets a national seed, etc. It used to not be that big of a factor back when we played more SWAC teams, but as we saw with Arkansas last year, you can't get away with that scheduling anymore and still expect to host.

I'm glad we don't play many games against those type of teams, and personally, I wouldn't mind dropping them all together.

[bulldogcountry1]

Seems like Polk would always have 5-6 regular season games against them, and we'd end up playing a couple more make-ups because of his late starting schedule.

[Coach34]

Seems like Polk would always have 5-6 regular season games against them, and we'd end up playing a couple more make-ups because of his late starting schedule.

College baseball has evolved and we just cant do that anymore. RPI and SOS are too important

[ScottH]

RPI and SOS mean way more than they used to- they're without a doubt the biggest component in deciding who hosts, who gets a national seed, etc. I wouldn't mind dropping them all together.

Correct.

An increased emphasis on RPI and SOS. Even beating a really really bad RPI school can actually hurt your RPI. Boyd and I traded emails a couple of years ago and he showed me the math where it might be better if we didn't play Valley in a late season game or at worst only play one of two scheduled.

Also, there is an increased need to play a road non conference series. The "committee" said last year doesn't look favorably on all home games except conference games. You need pack your bags for some games. I'm sure there was some veiled northern team bias in that decision but it's a factor going forward nonetheless.

[Political Hack]

RPI should throw out the weakest opponent across the board so teams can keep local matchups and help the smaller schools in their state earn more revenue.

I like the idea of injecting additional income into Alcorn, JSU, etc... but not at the cost of our RPI.

[Will James]

I like having one a year and dropping 20+ like we used to. Harder now with the bats.

[Johnson85]

Also, there is an increased need to play a road non conference series. The "committee" said last year doesn't look favorably on all home games except conference games. You need pack your bags for some games. I'm sure there was some veiled northern team bias in that decision but it's a factor going forward nonetheless.

That seems like a bad idea for the northern teams. If I'm in the SEC, I'm not traveling North for a Wednesday game during SEC season and I'm not traveling north during the beginning of the season when it's cold. That's just going to make me look for a regional road game/series in the preseason, taking away opportunities for them to get earlier games in by playing in the South.

As far as helping out Mississippi HBCs, I'm not against it but I'm not sure how we do that in baseball. Baseball is not a cash cow so we can't cut them a check like in football, so it seems like the only way to help them is to provide them a close, cheap away game. But it seems like we could help them just as much if not more by trying to coordinate schedules with them so that northern teams that visit us early in the season can get an additional game or two against a Mississippi HBC with minimal travel costs. That would seem like a way to help them and our visiting opponents out at basically no cost to MSU.

[Political Hack]

I'm sure they get a % of the gate... which is probably much more than what they'd make at a home game.

That's a terrible idea for the northern teams. Southern teams will just start traveling east and west to play and the north will all be stuck up there in OOC games with limited chances to come south. We'll just trade games amongst ourselves rather than fly north for a cold OOC series or a weekday game(s) during the SEC schedule.