Friday Night Discussion Thread - Do you want the Big 10 to get good in baseball?

With UCLA joining, they're getting what I would call a "2nd tier power" in baseball. Someone who can make Omaha some, even win the title (:(:mad:) and probably will make the Field of 64 more often than not, but not really someone you expect to be competing for national seeds and Omaha year-in, year-out. But they will immediately be the top program in the conference.

What if the Big 10 decided to care about baseball at the level the other power conferences do?

• Pros - Bring college baseball fandom to the Midwest, making the sport more prominent. It would be cool to be a national power in a sport that's broadly followed across the country. They would probably argue in favor of the same rule changes the SEC wants. If the upcoming "Power 2" breakaway, we need someone to compete against.
• Neutral - Them getting better could take postseason slots away from us. However, they're averaging about 4 bids anyway over the last decade, so we'd only be taking about them taking a few more slots.
• Cons - They'll take talent away from us. We're an elite program in a niche sport now, but if Ohio State or Michigan starts pumping money into baseball, it could hurt us. Most Big 10 fanbases can probably outspend us if they wanted to.

I'm indifferent. I just don't see the Big 10 committing to it. Those teams have the same problem that Georgia and Mizzou has. There a ton of MLB teams in the midwest in the Big 10 footprint. If you are a student at Ohio State and you want to watch a baseball game your choices are the Reds, Indians, maybe the Pirates even...or Ohio State.

Same with USC and UCLA competing against the Dodgers and Angels.

Even if they do commit to it they're so far behind it will take them about 20 years to even come close to catching up. It took the SEC about that long to catch up to the PAC 10 if you start from the time Ron Polk took over at MSU to the LSU dynasty.

Spring training weather is an issue at least for another two centuries until global warming is in full swing.

I would like the popularity of the sport to spread. IMO it will be overshadowed by pro, until people get a taste of it. Once you have a team making a run in the post season, there isn't anything like it. Look at Tennessee. They used to make fun of college baseball until they were good, now they are investing heavily in it and the Vols are crazy about it.

Well at least some Big 10 teams will not have to play in the snow.

From a strategic perspective on our direct competition, Vandy is the only SEC school that heads north for players routinely. The Big 10 is a factor for Louisville in the ACC. If kids can play in Columbus Ohio, they won't go to Louisville. If you not been, it's seedy and getting seedier. It's dirty like Memphis, TN with substantial gangs and even political terrorists.

MSU does not generally get California players, so that's that.

The biggest effect could be on the newly midmajor Pac-12 teams. Arizona, ASU, Oregon, and Oregon State could become minor programs for others to pillage via Portal. Budgets could get brutal at those schools.

My take on this is that Ohio State and Michigan caring about baseball would be really good for the sport, even it meant some recruits and/or hosting slots started to them more regularly at the expense of Southern schools. I don't really know if that's feasible without extending the season back another month or so to give the Northern teams more time to get games in with good weather, but I'm all for that anyway. July is a totally dead sports month for college, so why not let the regular season go through the end of June, and have the NCAA Tournament in July?


Note that Michigan was the national runner up in 2019. They made the tournament again in 2021 and 2022, but who knows what happens to them now that Clemson has taken their coach. I don't think they are going to be able to capitalize on that success.

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Originally Posted by The Federalist Engineer

If kids can play in Columbus Ohio, they won't go to Louisville. If you not been, it's seedy and getting seedier. It's dirty like Memphis, TN with substantial gangs .

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Are you saying Louisville or Columbus is like Memphis? I've taken some short business trips to both but not enough to give an opinion. When I was Dublin, I'd hear the locals talk about how bad downtown Columbus was. But I did a self walking tour of OSU and thought it was a nice campus. But again... I did that once. Every trip to Columbus was spent in Dublin. Memphis proper is mostly a... hole. But there are pockets of nice things. I've been here 25 years. Ugh.

But to MSU baseball.... didn't we play our first ever Super Regional at Ohio State? I believe so.

was that the mid to late 90's?

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Originally Posted by Maroonthirteen

But to MSU baseball.... didn't we play our first ever Super Regional at Ohio State? I believe so.

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It was the Regionals in 1999 and 2001:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_N...all_Tournament https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_N...all_Tournament

In 1999, Ohio State was the 1 seed and we were the 3. But in 2001, Ohio State hosted as the 2 seed, and we were 1. How in the world did that happen? I'm guessing stadium unavailability?

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Originally Posted by Quaoarsking

It was the Regionals in 1999 and 2001:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_N...all_Tournament https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_N...all_Tournament

In 1999, Ohio State was the 1 seed and we were the 3. But in 2001, Ohio State hosted as the 2 seed, and we were 1. How in the world did that happen? I'm guessing stadium unavailability?

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They were trying to expand interest in the game.