Ideas to grow BIG 10 baseball.

[BuckeyeStu]

College baseball is a rapidly growing sport that is already big in the southern and western United States. But here in the Midwest it still remains an afterthought at best. Most of us that post here are already fans of College baseball so I thought I would dedicate a thread to ideas for growing Big 10 baseball. Here are some of the things that I came up with feel free to critique my ideas or throw out your own.

1. All Big Ten schools need to field a baseball team! I think it is pretty embarrassing to the Big 10 that Wisconsin, one of the largest schools in the conference with its massive athletic budget doesn't have a baseball team. It is hard to be taken serious a baseball conference when our own institutions don't bother to field a team. Also Title IX is a pretty lame excuse for a school that still has scholastic men's X country, golf, rowing, soccer, swimming, tennis, track, and wrestling. I'm not saying any of those sports should be eliminated, but if Wisconsin can have all of those non-revenue men's sports they can find a way to do baseball.

2. Aggressive scheduling policy. This one really hits home for tOSU, but if you want to be considered one of the big boys you have to play against the other big boys. The Big Ten should try to exclusively schedule against teams from the SEC, ACC, Pac-10, C-USA, and Big 12 in the early part of the season. Sure we will likely take a beating at first but in the long run it will greatly improve the level of play in the Big 10 and pave the way for multiple NCAA bids for each season. Please note this is strictly for the pre-Big 10 non-conference schedule. Midweek games against local schools from the MAC, Horizon, A-10, etc. are necessary but those game should all be played at home.

3. Improved facilities. We are kind of spoiled here at tOSU because Bill Davis stadium is top notch. But many other Big 10 schools play on poorly conditioned field in small run down stadiums. The rest of the conference needs to step up to the plate and invest money in building some nicer baseball facilities.

4. Pushing back the start and finish of the NCAA baseball season. The uniform start date for college baseball was a great first step for northern baseball, but the late February start is still too early. Baseball is a late spring and summer sport and needs to be treated so by the NCAA. A later ending date would keep the length of the season the same and allow for as many or more games. I know that this will not happen overnight because of resistance from the southern schools and issues with summer league baseball but it is something that the Big 10 needs to continue to strive for.

I'll post more ideas later as I think of them.

[jhick40]

Marketing and TV coverage could obviously improve a lot, because with popularity comes more exposure and vv.

[tibor75]

Global warming is probably the only thing that can help.

2040 - OSU NCAA champs. Runner up - Michigan State

[coastalbuck]

I know a little bit about this topic. I'll give my thoughts when I can.

[DaytonBuck]

See if a sun belt city will build us a stadium and move the team?

[Pheasant]

Build a big roof over the midwest and not have winter.

[coastalbuck]

OK

No. 1 Correct but I don't know how you'll change it. If they're not interested in having it by now, I don't see it in the future. The Big Ten is still a pretty solid baseball conference.

No. 2 I agree, for the most part. Only thing I'd challenge is that the ACC, SEC, Pac-10, c-USA ect. are the only place to find quality baseball teams. OSU has played in one of our tournaments down here at the beach before against quality competition. It's out there, you just have to go find it.

No. 3 Again, probably true but it is a money issue again. Possibly some Big Ten teams could partner with a minor league team to make this a possibility. The kids don't come for the facility for the most part, they come to face quality competition and get to the regionals most years IMO

No. 4 Houston, we have a problem!!! Smaller schools, like where I am, cannot afford for the season to go any further into the summer. It is almost killing them now. Our season could potentially last until almost 2 MONTHS after graduation. Who do you think pays to house and feed the athletes for that time? See where I'm coming from. College World Series is around the last week in June, then we have 4 or 5 weeks of tournaments, camps ect. and the kids come back first week in August! It's almost as bad as golf and soccer where they play a fall season before Christmas and a spring one in Feb. March, and April. I really don't know how to address this problem any more than the NCAA has already done, with a Max. number of games and a modified start date.


All that being said, the one single thing that a northern team can do to make its situation better is to play quality opposition on a weekly basis. I really think that will help more than anything else.. Just my .02 cents..

[CleveBucks]

Why not move back to a later uniform start date and cut the preseason games by a couple weeks? OSU's conference schedule doesn't start until basically the beginning of April. The SEC conference is 10 weeks of 3 games each, whereas the Big Ten is 8 weeks of 4 games each. If the SEC followed a similar 8-week conference schedule, they could move back the starting date 2 weeks and not cut out a single game or push back the CWS.

[coastalbuck]

Conference wise it makes sense, The issue is quality of schedule and that comes with OOC games, it has to. Cut the OOC schedule, you hurt the strength. Cut the year down, OSU plays fewer quality games, and you hurt the SOS. Mac and Independents won't cut it. Very few will leave in the middle of conference and go play a top 10 a three game series on the road. Unfortunately, we are doing just that this year. Just building strength of schedule.