The 2009 BCS Baseball Tournament

[Veritas]

Interesting read about some of the issues in the Springfield newspaper:
http://www.news-leader.com/article/2...+to+mid-majors

Here's what I don't get.

- We really don't want you -- if we could get away with it, all NCAA Tournament teams would be from major conferences.


WHY though? It doesn't make any sense. Oklahoma State is going to Clemson. They might take a few fans but not enough to make any difference. Baylor is going to LSU, which doesn't need any help selling all their tickets. The games aren't televised for the most part. What does the NCAA get out of this conspiracy against mid-majors.?

In basketball at least you can argue that major schools have more fans to watch the games on TV so they get more money.

Charlie, that's because you are a college baseball purist and not influenced by the greed of money or selfish actions. Which is a good thing.

Good luck to Arkansas - unless of course you play the Shox!

:good:

[shockfan89_]

I don't get why Wichita State fans complain about this. You guys always play a lot of home games and you get quality teams such as TCU, Pepperdine, Long Beach, etc to come to your home field.

Yes some schools have advantages when it comes to baseball. Some have better weather, some have better fields, some have more money. Wichita State has advantages over every school in the MVC. WSU has a nice field, I'm guessing the top paid coaching staff in the conference, a good amount of home-grown talent, and soon, an indoor practice facility. And, most years, you get to host the conference tournament on your home field.

Is that really fair?

Charlie - I agree but I think WSU also has to work VERY hard to make it happen and the list of teams keeps getting smaller. The teams you listed are not close geographically and when we have rainouts (like this year) we have to replace quality opponents with NAIA teams. WSU has always played a home and home with KU and KSU (even when there was no benefit to WSU) but I can foresee both of these schools also cutting back on games with WSU as they become more competitve in the Big 12.

The bottom line is the big conference schools have nothing to gain by playing a cold weather team in April or May or doing a home and home. Their RPIs are already set. If you are in the Big 12, SEC or ACC why would you play any road games against good competition? I don't blame the schools, they are just taking advantage of the system. They system needs to be changed and I think we all know that won't happen.

Also it isn't really fair that the MVC is in Wichita every year. Especially if the only bid from the conference is from the tournament winner. Although this is an issue everywhere in baseball due to cost. Should Regionals be hosted by a school that is playing? Super Regionals??

[CharlieHog]

I don't get why Wichita State fans complain about this. You guys always play a lot of home games and you get quality teams such as TCU, Pepperdine, Long Beach, etc to come to your home field.

Yes some schools have advantages when it comes to baseball. Some have better weather, some have better fields, some have more money. Wichita State has advantages over every school in the MVC. WSU has a nice field, I'm guessing the top paid coaching staff in the conference, a good amount of home-grown talent, and soon, an indoor practice facility. And, most years, you get to host the conference tournament on your home field.

Is that really fair?

Charlie - I agree but I think WSU also has to work VERY hard to make it happen and the list of teams keeps getting smaller. The teams you listed are not close geographically and when we have rainouts (like this year) we have to replace quality opponents with NAIA teams. WSU has always played a home and home with KU and KSU (even when there was no benefit to WSU) but I can foresee both of these schools also cutting back on games with WSU as they become more competitve in the Big 12.

The bottom line is the big conference schools have nothing to gain by playing a cold weather team in April or May or doing a home and home. Their RPIs are already set. If you are in the Big 12, SEC or ACC why would you play any road games against good competition? I don't blame the schools, they are just taking advantage of the system. They system needs to be changed and I think we all know that won't happen.

Also it isn't really fair that the MVC is in Wichita every year. Especially if the only bid from the conference is from the tournament winner. Although this is an issue everywhere in baseball due to cost. Should Regionals be hosted by a school that is playing? Super Regionals??

Arkansas goes on the road and faces quality teams in order to 1) play on the road and get ready for conference and 2) get return games which get big mid-week crowds.

We have gone on the road and faced major conference schools such as Arizona State and Nebraska and also mid-major conference schools like La Tech and Centenary. Plus we play Missouri State and ORU every year which are the only quality teams within 200 miles of Fayetteville.

We can't get Texas to come to our park any more than Wichita State can.


Once conference play starts, teams play OOC teams that they can bus to if they can. Most schools do not make money on baseball, they can't afford to play mid-week games all over the country. And that includes most SEC, ACC and Big 12 schools. Being in a major conference doesn't mean you want to spend a bunch of money on baseball travel when there are teams in your backyard you can bus in for less than you can take a trip somewhere.

[ShockerFever]

Several people have brought up scheduling as a big problem for non-bcs teams, what would you think of having all non-con scheduling done by the NCAA? They could force the big guys to go on the road and play teams that they wouldn't normally play.

I don't get why Wichita State fans complain about this. You guys always play a lot of home games and you get quality teams such as TCU, Pepperdine, Long Beach, etc to come to your home field.

Yes some schools have advantages when it comes to baseball. Some have better weather, some have better fields, some have more money. Wichita State has advantages over every school in the MVC. WSU has a nice field, I'm guessing the top paid coaching staff in the conference, a good amount of home-grown talent, and soon, an indoor practice facility. And, most years, you get to host the conference tournament on your home field.

Is that really fair?

The conference tournament site issue is simply about money. Trust me, if the Valley could move to another site year in and year out, they would. They've tried rotating between Springfield and Wichita, but about 400 people would show up for BEAR tournament games. They've tried to rotate it out of Wichita. No one comes out though.

Eliminating conference tournaments would be the beginning of the end. Simple as that.

[CharlieHog]

The conference tournament site issue is simply about money. Trust me, if the Valley could move to another site year in and year out, they would. They've tried rotating between Springfield and Wichita, but about 400 people would show up for BEAR tournament games. They've tried to rotate it out of Wichita. No one comes out though.

Eliminating conference tournaments would be the beginning of the end. Simple as that.

Of course it's about money. Money is also the reason some teams play a lot of home games, including WSU.

Eliminating conference tournaments would be the beginning of the end of what? What would be lost in giving the auto bid to the regular season champion? What do the conference tournaments add to college baseball?

[ShockerFever]

The conference tournament site issue is simply about money. Trust me, if the Valley could move to another site year in and year out, they would. They've tried rotating between Springfield and Wichita, but about 400 people would show up for BEAR tournament games. They've tried to rotate it out of Wichita. No one comes out though.

Eliminating conference tournaments would be the beginning of the end. Simple as that.

Of course it's about money. Money is also the reason some teams play a lot of home games, including WSU.

Eliminating conference tournaments would be the beginning of the end of what? What would be lost in giving the auto bid to the regular season champion? What do the conference tournaments add to college baseball?

I was more alluding to william's theory of just ranking the Top 64 teams. I guess I could go with regular season champions getting the automatic berth, but then baseball would be the only (or one of the only) NCAA sports that would go that way. As long as there's still automatic berths, I'm ok with it. Not William's retarded theory.

[CharlieHog]

Well I think conference tournaments in all sports should be eliminated except Olympic sports like track and field and gymnastics where teams compete against each other so irregularly that an end of season meet is the only way to crown a conference champion.

And, I guess in football where a conference has split divisions.

[William]

I think the days of the valley getting more than one invite are coming to a close, two if the shocks don't win the tournament. Baseball has become more and more popular and has drawn the focus of the big schools, we can talk about these changes all we want but small conferences are not calling the shots here. Things change over time and if you look back a decade in college baseball and realize how much has changed already you can see the writing is on the wall.

[shock10]

People love the underdog. I this case the underdog is a mid-major team if you took them out no more underdog then you have a pile of sh***.

[Ashockalypse]

Retarded theories come from William-Orange juice comes from Oranges

[Veritas]

I think the days of the valley getting more than one invite are coming to a close, two if the shocks don't win the tournament. Baseball has become more and more popular and has drawn the focus of the big schools, we can talk about these changes all we want but small conferences are not calling the shots here. Things change over time and if you look back a decade in college baseball and realize how much has changed already you can see the writing is on the wall.

I think we'll see some changes too, like k-state getting booted out of the Big XII (easy there Willie the Wildcat).

I don't think we're there quite yet William, but the BCS is certainly trying to tag the wall with graffiti that hopefully won't stick.
I think Weiser's self-serving actions this year might just backfire and actually help the non-BCS conferences in the years to come. The hubris of some BCSers will bring down the cards, and then only the true power schools such as KU, UT, and OU will stay above the fray as the pretenders such as ISU, Baylor, and a.... cough cough, fall by the wayside. :)

[William]

I think the days of the valley getting more than one invite are coming to a close, two if the shocks don't win the tournament. Baseball has become more and more popular and has drawn the focus of the big schools, we can talk about these changes all we want but small conferences are not calling the shots here. Things change over time and if you look back a decade in college baseball and realize how much has changed already you can see the writing is on the wall.

I think we'll see some changes too, like k-state getting booted out of the Big XII (easy there Willie the Wildcat).

I don't think we're there quite yet William, but the BCS is certainly trying to tag the wall with graffiti that hopefully won't stick.
I think Weiser's self-serving actions this year might just backfire and actually help the non-BCS conferences in the years to come. The hubris of some BCSers will bring down the cards, and then only the true power schools such as KU, UT, and OU will stay above the fray as the pretenders such as ISU, Baylor, and a.... cough cough, fall by the wayside. :)

uh...why do you think i'm a k-state fan?

anyway, the current system of rpi seems to be the root of all evil, the general idea isn't bad but the unintended consequences are playing into the power conf. hands. If these guys aren't going to schedule mid-majors anymore then I think the ncaa needs to set the non-conference schedules themselves.

[ShockerFever]

I think the days of the valley getting more than one invite are coming to a close, two if the shocks don't win the tournament. Baseball has become more and more popular and has drawn the focus of the big schools, we can talk about these changes all we want but small conferences are not calling the shots here. Things change over time and if you look back a decade in college baseball and realize how much has changed already you can see the writing is on the wall.

I think we'll see some changes too, like k-state getting booted out of the Big XII (easy there Willie the Wildcat).

I don't think we're there quite yet William, but the BCS is certainly trying to tag the wall with graffiti that hopefully won't stick.
I think Weiser's self-serving actions this year might just backfire and actually help the non-BCS conferences in the years to come. The hubris of some BCSers will bring down the cards, and then only the true power schools such as KU, UT, and OU will stay above the fray as the pretenders such as ISU, Baylor, and a.... cough cough, fall by the wayside. :)

uh...why do you think i'm a k-state fan?

anyway, the current system of rpi seems to be the root of all evil, the general idea isn't bad but the unintended consequences are playing into the power conf. hands. If these guys aren't going to schedule mid-majors anymore then I think the ncaa needs to set the non-conference schedules themselves.

Just remember the NCAA is on the side of the BCS. Having them do scheduling wouldn't get rid of the problem.

[William]

Bottom line and i'm done:

The Ncaa doesn't care about anything but money so small conf. schools are fxxxed.

[rrshock]

Bottom line and i'm done:

The Ncaa doesn't care about anything but money so small conf. schools are fxxxed.

This would be the first intelligent thing that you have posted in this topic. They only care about money.