2013 Valley Baseball Tournament

[tru2thaduce]

Shane Dennis said on the Friday night tv broadcast that he thought the valley should try to get the tourney back to Omaha again.I went up for the championship game last year and would agree that if it's not at Eck than Omaha gets my vote.I won't travel to Illinois next year no matter what happens.

[shocker3]

This decision is a joke. I can't believe that anyone who has actually ever watched a baseball game at Illinois St. would ever vote to hold the tourney there.

First, the outfield is just plain dangerous. It is rolly and has holes in it.

Second, the infield is awful. Balls take horrible hops and several routine outs get turned into hits every game.

Third, the stadium is small. It is new but is very small.

Fourth, they have NO FANBASE. They don't even charge for tickets, yet they can't draw more than a few hundred to view the home team. I can't imagine they will get very many people to pay to watch the tourney.

Fifth, there are very few hotels in Normal-Bloomington, IL. If there is anything else going on in the area that week, there won't even be rooms for the 8 teams let alone any of the family or fans of the 8 teams. I guess everyone can stay in Peoria and drive over every day.

This decision is just plain stupid. It even makes me madder considering that Ill. State is the school most opposed to bringing DBU into the Valley for baseball (Bradley and Creighton are the other two).

[kstarheel]

This conference seems uninterested in attaining anything near an 'elite' status in any sport. Pathetic. I have actually seen a game at this place and it's laughable; some high schools have better facilities. WSU has GOT to get off this sinking ship.

[DoubleJayAlum]

Rasmussen said Creighton didn’t bid on the 2013 tournament because it was WSU’s turn to host. Creighton hosted the 2011 tournament to open TD Ameritrade Park. The 2012 tournament begins Tuesday at Missouri State’s Hammons Field. In Rasmussen’s mind, those are the three schools that possess the facilities, fan support and history of success to deserve hosting. He said the vote went 6-3 for Illinois State, with Creighton, Missouri State and WSU against. One of the non-baseball schools (Drake or Northern Iowa) abstained and one voted for Illinois State.

Schools that don’t sponsor a sport can vote on where that sport’s championship is held.

“I’m disappointed it’s not at Wichita State,” Rasmussen said. “Too often, the vote is decided not based on quality of facilities, not based on quality of program, not based on number and quality of your fan support. It’s based on geography.”

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2012/05/18/234...#storylink=cpy

Get used to it as this is what happens when over half the conference is flat effing broke. The eastern schools are so jealous of WSu and CU's financial position right now, they won't vote for anything that benefits us. On top of that they are broke, broke, broke! They aren't going to vote for anything that causes then to incur more travel expenses, etc. (for Creighton, we literally had to threaten to put our soccer team in another conference just to host the soccer tourney, despite the fact that our soccer stadium is one of the best in the entire country and our team was final four caliber).

I've been ranting about these financial issues on the MVCfans site lately. The poor programs respond with, "our financial position shouldn't even be discussed here because it has no impact on the field or on the program". This is absolute BS. Finances impact everything. It impacts the quality of buy game opponent you will play, whether you'll agree to travel far away to play a quality home and home, ability to keep at the top due to small recruiting budgets, ability to retain head coaches (as opposed to losing them to assistant jobs elsewhere) and so on and so on.

I almost get the impression hat the poor schools don't want us in the conference anymore for fear they may not be able to keep up going forward; their actions are begging us to leave.

[WuDrWu]

You're preaching to the choir here 2JA. I applaud the comments from Rassmussen and Servais of late. It's kind of ironic given our history of competition but it's apparent our 2 schools do have respect for each others desire to move forward financially and there is more mutual respect today, I think, than at any time between our programs.

Unfortunately (for us) it would appear you guys have more viable options as far as getting out of this awful conference than we do.

[rrshock]

I teally hope that Creighton and WSU can get together and try to be a pavkage deal to another conference.

As much as the two schools dislike each other (not a rivalry), they are the best thing going for each other in this conference. The other schools are jealous and want them gone. Hopefully the administrations recognize this and are at least thinking about doing something.

The MVC IS A JOKE!

[DoubleJayAlum]

You're preaching to the choir here 2JA. I applaud the comments from Rassmussen and Servais of late. It's kind of ironic given our history of competition but it's apparent our 2 schools do have respect for each others desire to move forward financially and there is more mutual respect today, I think, than at any time between our programs.

Unfortunately (for us) it would appear you guys have more viable options as far as getting out of this awful conference than we do.

Truth be told, I'm surprised Rasmussen said what he did on the record. For him to do that, the level of frustration has to be through the roof.

As to us having more options than WSU, I'm not aware of any offers Creighton has received to jump ship. You might recall that several months ago I was posting heavily here about trying to get both teams to jump to the A10. I specifically asked for your thoughts as I wanted to know if it was viable from a WSU perspective. Since then, the A10, has added Butler and now VCU, both of which are a lot closer geographically to their existing footprint. I suspect they wouldn't have much interest in us at this time. CUSA is a flipping mess, the WAC is all but gone and I'm not convinced the MWC has any interest in non-Fb schools.

[SubGod22]

Truth be told, I'm surprised Rasmussen said what he did on the record. For him to do that, the level of frustration has to be through the roof.

As to us having more options than WSU, I'm not aware of any offers Creighton has received to jump ship. You might recall that several months ago I was posting heavily here about trying to get both teams to jump to the A10. I specifically asked for your thoughts as I wanted to know if it was viable from a WSU perspective. Since then, the A10, has added Butler and now VCU, both of which are a lot closer geographically to their existing footprint. I suspect they wouldn't have much interest in us at this time. CUSA is a flipping mess, the WAC is all but gone and I'm not convinced the MWC has any interest in non-Fb schools.

Our best shot at the MWC would have been if they dropped football in a deal to put all of their football teams in CUSA. That didn't happen and is looking less likely going forward. I doubt the A10 goes to 16 and if they do, they won't go this far West for 2 teams. I do think they may consider CU, but it sounds like SLU is as far as they want to go.

I also don't see CUSA adding non-football schools. They should still be a solid basketball conference, but I think they're still a bit behind the Valley where as the A10 and MWC have easily blown by us.

[Shocker85]

The Valley baseball tournament is a strange animal. It is not very well attended other that the games/sessions in which the host school participates. At last year's tournament there simply were not many people in attendance unless the BJs were playing. I'm not talking ticket sales - I'm talking butts in seats. The fact that the BJs made it into the Championship made the overall tournament, I'm sure, very successful economically. The same thing happens when WSU hosts, although I'd say on average more people attend games not involving the Shox. People here, especially those of us in the over 40 or so crowd, seem to appreciate baseball for baseball's sake.

I wonder if Wichita/WSU and Omaha/CU could bid to host the tournament and make it IMPOSSIBLE for the league to put it anywhere else. You know, say a $100,000 guarantee or some such thing. Outside sponsorships and promotions would put Omaha and Wichita ahead of everyone else (except maybe Springfield) and the paypack to the local economy should be an incentive. I'd say hotels alone might be in the $80-$100K realm.

Just sort of thinking out loud here, but when I first read the Illinois State hosting thing, I couldn't believe it. Do the people in Normal even know Illinois State has a baseball program? Hosting at also-ran sites has happened before and the tournament is a total flop.

Still shaking my head ...

--'85.

[WuDrWu]

Well there's no way ISUR outbid WSU this time. NO way. It's just the other 5-8 schools playing even steven in this god forsaken league. Whatever idiot decided adding Evansville and UNI (and to some extent Missouri State) should be summarily executed. It's not like it was a power conference at that point but sheesh....we're going the way of the Dodo before too much longer.

[SB Shock]

Well there's no way ISUR outbid WSU this time. NO way.

That is the real problem - MVC won't make these lesser schools pay the going rate. But if they let WSU host they will screw WSU out of every penny they can.

[shox1989]

The Valley of even names Coy to All Valley first team, Elam named to second team:

http://www.kansas.com/2012/05/21/2343547/coy-lone-all-mvc-selection-for.html

[ShockTalk]

The Valley of even names Coy to All Valley first team, Elam named to second team:

http://www.kansas.com/2012/05/21/234...ction-for.html

Pretty wild. SIU goes 28-27 (9-12) and has 3 on the 1st team, 4 on the 2nd. WSU at 35-23 (12-9) gets 1 on each team.

[vancedave56]

Unbelievable...no, wait a minute...I guess it's not.

[ShockerFever]

Rasmussen said Creighton didn’t bid on the 2013 tournament because it was WSU’s turn to host. Creighton hosted the 2011 tournament to open TD Ameritrade Park. The 2012 tournament begins Tuesday at Missouri State’s Hammons Field. In Rasmussen’s mind, those are the three schools that possess the facilities, fan support and history of success to deserve hosting. He said the vote went 6-3 for Illinois State, with Creighton, Missouri State and WSU against. One of the non-baseball schools (Drake or Northern Iowa) abstained and one voted for Illinois State.

Schools that don’t sponsor a sport can vote on where that sport’s championship is held.

“I’m disappointed it’s not at Wichita State,” Rasmussen said. “Too often, the vote is decided not based on quality of facilities, not based on quality of program, not based on number and quality of your fan support. It’s based on geography.”

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2012/05/18/234...#storylink=cpy

Get used to it as this is what happens when over half the conference is flat effing broke. The eastern schools are so jealous of WSu and CU's financial position right now, they won't vote for anything that benefits us. On top of that they are broke, broke, broke! They aren't going to vote for anything that causes then to incur more travel expenses, etc. (for Creighton, we literally had to threaten to put our soccer team in another conference just to host the soccer tourney, despite the fact that our soccer stadium is one of the best in the entire country and our team was final four caliber).

I've been ranting about these financial issues on the MVCfans site lately. The poor programs respond with, "our financial position shouldn't even be discussed here because it has no impact on the field or on the program". This is absolute BS. Finances impact everything. It impacts the quality of buy game opponent you will play, whether you'll agree to travel far away to play a quality home and home, ability to keep at the top due to small recruiting budgets, ability to retain head coaches (as opposed to losing them to assistant jobs elsewhere) and so on and so on.

I almost get the impression hat the poor schools don't want us in the conference anymore for fear they may not be able to keep up going forward; their actions are begging us to leave.

I appreciate the kind and truthful words of Rasmussen as he stuck up for WSU when he really didn't have to. It's nice knowing other schools can back up each other on issues in which screwing is occurring. It seems pretty obvious that CU, MSU, and WSU should be the only possibilities for baseball hosting.

You can't get anymore smalltime then bringing a conference tournament to a 1500 seat stadium which likely will only 1/3 full at most when the host team is playing. We really shouldn't even be surprised anymore.