(12-07-2013 02:04 AM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(12-07-2013 01:50 AM)LastMinuteman Wrote:  

(12-06-2013 07:24 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(12-06-2013 02:43 PM)NBPirate Wrote:  We have 8 teams that compete in baseball. WTF? Can we even function as a league with that many teams?

Maybe that would be a nice excuse to add VCU and Wichita. Does UMass play baseball?

Yes. Badly.
And if UMass was ever invited to the AAC, we would probably consider cutting baseball like Temple anyway. Not softball though, as that's a big legacy sport here and we have possibly the best facility in the northeast. We're also big on women's rowing (relatively speaking). But any time a cold weather school has to consider athletic cuts these days, baseball is going to be on the chopping block. Having to wait until the season is half over before you can host your first home game is nonsense. Even the Big Ten is considering "de-emphasizing" baseball or possibly moving to a summer league format and simply not participating in the NCAA tournament (they'd all be ineligible). Plus that would give them some summer content for their cable channel.

Yeah, the southern schools enjoy a built in baseball advantage in both early home games and superior recruiting grounds (due to weather that allows nearly year round play for kids growing up).

What a north-south divided conference ought to do is change the conference schedule so that the northern teams can satisfy their road game obligations to the southern members in February and March, while the southern members travel to the north in April and May. In the north we get double-whammied because we can't play home games in February and March, and then when the weather turns the conference schedule starts and we're still on the road half the time. There's never an opportunity to catch up on the home/away split. Southern teams don't come up here for non-conference games.

The north would still be at a disadvantage in practice conditions, but that's the best we're going to do short of subdividing the NCAA. Southern colleges not wanting to air condition their players in June and July when school isn't even in session is a valid concern.

The other idea the Big Ten is pushing is allowing a month's worth of games to be played in the fall, and then those teams could skip February. But in the case of either fall games or summer games, they'd need another conference to go along with them so that there'd be an opponent to play. If the old Big East hadn't scattered to the winds, they'd have been the obvious candidate to partner with the Big Ten. Maybe we need to form a single sport conference like in hockey, and grab a mixture of baseball teams from the ACC, AAC and elsewhere. A share of Big Ten television revenue could make it work.

(12-07-2013 12:12 AM)Pony94 Wrote:  

(12-07-2013 12:06 AM)aTxTIGER Wrote:  

(12-06-2013 08:41 PM)Gray Avenger Wrote:  

(12-06-2013 08:20 PM)aTxTIGER Wrote:  

(12-06-2013 08:19 PM)JHG722 Wrote:  Thanks

Sorry. I am a cup half full guy. Dont dwell on the negatives for the most part.

Despite small numbers, the AAC can and will be a strong baseball conference.

I hope our Tigers can compete despite wearing the wrong shade of blue.

You like two girls one cup

You seem to have an intimate knowledge. hmmm.

The latest Tulane baseball recruiting class was ranked Number 23 by Baseball America and another leading publication. Should be a great league in AAC baseball next year. I wish that we could add Rice to the league.