Opinion: Why the Big-10 is Falling Behind in Baseball...

[sports fan]

Do you agree with the article?

 

Opinion: Why is the Big Ten falling behind in College Baseball? - Penn State Student Media

BELLISARIOSTUDENTMEDIA.PSU.EDU

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When it comes to college baseball, which conferences do you think of the most? Normally, fans would say the ACC, the Big 12 and, of course, the kings of the NC

 

[30Duck]

Made some good points in the article. I don't know, maybe there's a huge lacrosse fan base? I know we all want to watch football, but...

 

First, Big Ten Network and Fox Sports 1 could showcase more baseball games instead of constantly pushing old football game reruns.

[Charles Fischer]

Thank you for bringing this article, as it is an important discussion. He acknowledges that the only B1G teams ranked are the "teams in their first year" in the conference. (Those pesky west coast teams!)

 

He brings up a couple of good points; the B1G Network prioritizes football reruns over current baseball games.  Baseball being streamed by B1G+ is only being seen by a very few people, as even most Oregon fans who are even remotely interested in Oregon baseball will not purchase the streaming.  I thought that considering how many baseball games there are each month--it was a good value for the eight bucks per month.

 

But most will not watch unless it is on TV, and that is a massive factor.

 

His other points about cold weather is legit, and while Oregon State has shown that a cold weather team can still win, the truth is...our cold weather in Oregon--as frigid as a game at PK Park is in February and early March...it is not as bad as the cold weather at other schools in the B1G.

 

He made a passing reference to non-conference performance, and Coach Waz stated yesterday that Oregon's NON-CONFERENCE ranking in RPI was in the top-10, thus we are dragged down by the weak conference.  Adding the four west coast schools was the best thing that could happen to B1G Baseball, IMHO.

 

In that recent interview....Waz also flat-out stated that the long-term goal at Oregon Baseball....was to win a 'Natty!  So maybe Oregon can help rescue the conference?  That ties into the young writer's conclusion that I agree with...

 

"In short, Big Ten baseball can be saved. There just needs to be a bigger effort from athletic departments, fans and national broadcast networks."
 

Great catch by Anson Aroz!

 

[Jon Joseph]

 I think the article would be better titled: 'Why Did Big Ten Baseball Fall Behind?'

 

In the 1960s, the 'traditional' B1G teams were championship regulars: Ohio State 1966; Minnesota 1960 and 1964; Michigan 1962.

 

UCLA was the last 'current' B1G team to win the title in 1998. USC has 12 championships and ruled the baseball roost for decades, including five consecutive titles from 1970 through 1974.

 

As Charles so noted, 'bad-weather teams' can win baseball titles, but Oregon State is the exception and not the rule. 

 

Would more baseball on BTN matter? (I do not know whether more baseball is shown on the ACC and SEC networks than on BTN?) But a young man with MLB potential, if offered by a warm-weather team down south, is probably going to leave the north to play ball. And money matters.

 

I don't know the money situation, but Mason Neville, who played high school baseball in Las Vegas, signed with Arkansas before transferring to OBD. I note that BTN has covered Neville in depth, as well as catcher Burke Lee Mabeus, who also played high school baseball in Las Vegas. Buke signed with OBD out of Bishop Gorman High School. 

 

Neville is one of 14 baseball players on Oregon's 2025 roster who transferred in. So, I think some NIL money has to be involved. 

 

According to Google's AI, SEC baseball teams annually average $820K to $920K in NIL deals. It is estimated that the top SEC teams have rosters with $1 to $4 million in NIL deals; see, Texas.  AI does not have an NIL average for Big Ten baseball programs. 

 

The pending House settlement does not curtail NIL (in theory, it does so, with every NIL deal $600 and over being reviewed, but this will not withstand a court challenge). It is estimated that direct payments allowed by the settlement to college athletes will see 75% to football, 15% to men's basketball, 5% to women's basketball, and 5% to all other sports. 

 

Do B1G programs across the board, and their NIL collectives, have the desire to pay for championships in baseball when the conference hasn't won a men's basketball title since 2000?

And no B1G program in the Midwest and the Northeast can pay its way out of bad weather.

 

From the cratered Pac-12 prospective, what happened to USC and UCLA. It's not like the Conference of Champions beyond the Beavers was winning baseball championships.  

 

The B1G as a whole will likely negatively effect NCAA tournament seeding, but it will not hold back an excellent group of OBD baseball players making a run at the title.

 

And, what BTN lacks in coverage is made up for at least in part by Charles,' aided by 30 Duck's, excellent coverage of the sport. 

[spartan2785]

It's just never going to be a baseball conference.  The weather makes it so, you don't have the recruiting base, the weather, the backing, basically everything you need to be a power.  It can get better, I think it will get better with the additions of the west coast schools, but when you are going to a recruit's home it's difficult to convince them to come up to Ohio to practice in freezing conditions in January as you get ready of for the season, no amount of indoor facilities is going to make up for all year weather that is conducive to baseball.

 

The northwest is able to get by since we only have rain, but snow basically means the field will be not be usable.  

 

Oregon can still be successful, you only have to look at teams like Coastal Carolina, UC Irvine, East Carolina to see teams that do well coming from lesser conferences, but they'll need to maximize their non-conference schedule, and they might have to win on the road in the tourney since the SEC is going to always have about 6 of the top 8 seeds.  

[Charles Fischer]

A cold weather baseball team can become a national champion if the financial support is there, and the coaching is there. Oregon has both, and we are going to be a growing power to reckon with!