(05-31-2020 08:38 AM)SkullyMaroo Wrote:  

(05-30-2020 11:36 PM)AllTideUp Wrote:  

(05-28-2020 02:26 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  Maybe we won't see the season pushed back an entire month, but pushing it back by, say, 2 weeks so that the season starts after March 1st could reap a lot of the weather-related benefits nationally without having to push the back end of the calendar (such as the College World Series) too far into June/July.

Two weeks is better than nothing, but I would really prefer college basketball to be wrapping up when baseball starts.

Of course, that doesn't really happen until the first week in April so that's probably not tenable.

Just my way of thinking, but I think another option would be to create more preseason tournaments in warmer climates. A lot of people are heading to the beach in March anyway and so I think some teams could help themselves by forgoing home games altogether around that time of year.

Instead of spending time bouncing through road sites, we really should have hotspots in warmer states where teams from all over the country can gather and get several games out of the way before the meat of the schedule. Would probably save everyone on travel costs if nothing else and be an interesting mix of match-ups. I think the fans would love it too. There are tons of minor league parks and small to large colleges in that part of the country.

I mean, if people travel for MLB Spring Training then you could get a similar atmosphere in locales where people might be congregating anyway.

What about the overlap with basketball and football? Basketball overlaps with regular season football in November and then conference championships and bowl games in December and January. If we have overlap there why should we be so concerned with the overlap of baseball and basketball?

I don't particularly care for overlap there either. I'm not alone as there are people who discuss moving the basketball season from time to time.

Nonetheless, we were talking about baseball and not basketball so I didn't bring it up.

In fairness to the basketball schedule, it would be harder to move it past the end of the football season because football drags out so far past the end of the regular season.

Additionally, it's not really apples to apples anyway because these baseball programs are fighting for a smaller number of people. Basketball crowds are smaller than football crowds, but people tend to be willing to travel long distances for a football game. They are social events just as much as athletic events so fans will make a whole weekend of it and come from out of town, sometimes from quite far away.

It's less so with basketball and so you're depending on locals more and more. That effect is even more true in baseball...it's the locals that will carry your attendance for the most part. So that being the case for both basketball and baseball, I think it would be better if they weren't lined up against each other. It's less competition.

Now, it's also true that March Madness will take up most of the early season of baseball and those games aren't on campus. When it comes to that though, most sports fans are home watching a weekend full of NCAA tournament games...especially if it's cold outside.

So the baseball(and softball teams for that matter) are competing for fans when it's not really necessary.

(05-31-2020 08:44 AM)SumItUp Wrote:  Summer baseball isn't just the Cape Cod league for the elite players. There are 30+ established summer college baseball leagues plus dozens more that may not exist if the regular seasons are pushed to June/July. D1 rosters have 35 players. Most of those players do not see the field for any meaningful playing time during the season. Summer baseball gives them the opportunity to play and gain game experience against collegiate caliber competition.

If the season gets pushed to the extent that it limits the summer season, it would be better for many talented players to go the JUCO route or find smaller schools where playing time is available. Even with the best training facilities available at the top schools, it's better to play for four years than to just watch the game. Summer baseball allows this as players who play limited or not at all during the season are still able to play a season in the summer.

They don't care about the players, and they don't care about the smaller programs that this will negatively impact. The Big Ten just wants to put everyone else at a disadvantage because they have refused to invest in baseball like their peers in the south and west.

The Big Ten could always share some of its revenues with us poor heathens. And/or let us host them in basketball and volleyball. Make it worth our collective while to change the baseball schedule.

Otherwise, see you in sunny Santa Barbara, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio State, Purdue and the lot of ya's

Exactly.

This is still just a few Big Ten baseball folks fixated on "leveling the field" in weather but not "leveling the field" financially. Each of their schools' athletic departments rake in over $100 million/year, and they act like UC Santa Barbara or Coastal Carolina or Dallas Baptist are the ones with an "unfair advantage".

They can't level the field financially Wedge. Because then we'd be using "their money" to pay them for 1 and done games in hoops at OUR place.

And even if the baseball schedule was tweaked - the weather in Santa Barbara vs East Lansing? Honolulu vs Piscataway? San Diego vs College Park? Advantage still to Big West locales.