Minnesota baseball coach wants B1G to break away from NCAA

[Nexus]

(AP) - Imagine a warm June night, a packed baseball stadium and two of the biggest names in college athletics battling for a championship.

 

The College World Series comes to mind, right?

 

How about Michigan and Ohio State with the Big Ten title on the line?

 

Minnesota's John Anderson, the winningest baseball coach in Big Ten history, is pushing for his conference to break away from the NCAA's traditional February-to-June schedule and play when the weather in the northern climes is more favorable. In short, the Big Ten's boys of summer would be on the field in summer.

 

Such a move would cost the Big Ten schools any shot at playing in the NCAA tournament. That doesn't bother Anderson.

 

"There were four SEC teams in the College World Series last year. We're never going to catch those people," he said. "The system works for them, and they're not going to want to change it. People are going to criticize this idea, but we need to get people talking about it."

 

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[Omaha-Husker]

To make B1G baseball even less relevant? May as well just call baseball a club sport and get it over with.

[Nexus]

Erstad will vehemently vote against this proposal. He basically called out the entire B1G baseball league at the fundraiser luncheon a few weeks ago about scheduling tougher non-conference opponents for RPI sakes.

 

This proposal is a defeatist mentality. It also shows lack of commitment to the sport.

[Nexus]

Sure enough a comment from Erstad on this proposal just came through via Twitter:

 

Darin Erstad on the Big10 considering moving baseball to summer "I couldn't be any more against that idea..."

 

LINK

 

Erstad, " I am here to go to Omaha and play for a real national title, I just think that's ridiculous" #Huskers, #BIGTEN

 

LINK

[Omaha-Husker]

Exactly.

 

The mood about baseball in the B1G is pretty damn embarrassing for the conference in my opinion.

[jsneb83]

Yeah, people in Nebraska take pride in hosting the CWS. Why would we want Nebraska to be in a league where wouldn't be able to compete in it? That is beyond stupid.

[PaulCrewe]

Dave Winfield wants to punch that guy in the face after those comments.

[Omaha-Husker]

Yeah, people in Nebraska take pride in hosting the CWS. Why would we want Nebraska to be in a league where wouldn't be able to compete in it? That is beyond stupid.

 

If it ever did happen like that(it wont just playing out a hypothetical) I would want Nebraska to join C-USA or the MVC for baseball.

[huskerswrkhavoc]

No way in hell they could even allow this to happen. The recruiting base would be GONE for baseball.. The kids you would get would have little to no pro potential, and that's saying a lot in baseball.. Why would you have your season immediately after the draft and only be able to play each other? Yea.. Makes a ton of sense. Glad John Anderson opened his mouth to prove himself the idiot of B1G baseball.

[gratefullred]

one problem with Big10 baseball that the Big10 can fix, over-signing. fix it.

[VectorVictor]

one problem with Big10 baseball that the Big10 can fix, over-signing. fix it.

 

+1

 

Seriously, though, people don't realize how the new scholarship limits that Delaney has in place for Big 10 baseball hamstring the schools in the conference. If Delaney were to implement the same scholarship rules as the Big XII and SEC do, it would go a long way towards helping the Big 10 schools compete with everyone else. It's an 'artificial' constraint that Delaney has saddled the conference with, and he's the person that needs to fix it.

 

Granted, Coach Erstad's comments on the B1G scheduling tougher opponents are dead-on. And yes, there will still be a climate disadvantage northern schools will need to overcome until something is done about sport scheduling (e.g. pushing start dates to sometime in March, extending season through to July or August). But that doesn't mean that we should just hike up our skirt like Minnesota here and effectively neuter our baseball programs.

 

---

 

Related to this, there are discussions/proposals floating around at the NCAA level to increase the number of baseball scholarships significantly, as it seems the NCAA (finally) realizes there's revenue in college baseball, and that it doesn't make sense to piss away summer months when you have frothing NCAA sports fans clamoring for greater exposure for the sport product.

 

It seems rather myopic to piss away baseball at a time where it may have a chance to spread its wings and find a larger audience. Plus, it would stand to reason that the Big 10 would want more quality live product to put on its network during the summer months. If college baseball finds an audience, the Big 10 would want to have an expanded, quality library of live games to show, or they'll be left behind.

 

As for an audience being there for college baseball, there is one--if you folks will recall from a few years ago when the NHL was on strike and NCAA Baseball was used to fill the void on ESPN, that games like Texas @ Nebraska got better TV ratings than the NHL contests they were airing in the same timeslot.

[Comish]

one problem with Big10 baseball that the Big10 can fix, over-signing. fix it.

+1

[95huskers]

The B1G needs to take a good long hard look at getting their programs on the +$ side. I think it can be done, but maybe its because I'm Nebraskan and I'm bias, and I'm a huge college baseball fan. There is a model that can be used to get these programs relevant again. You guys have hit it. Obviously the scholly restrictions need changed. ITS BROKEN.... FIX IT! Hopefully the surge of the sea of red will help change Delanys mind! Maybe he has never been to a CWS. DE, send him an invitation NOW!

[VectorVictor]

The B1G needs to take a good long hard look at getting their programs on the +$ side. I think it can be done, but maybe its because I'm Nebraskan and I'm bias, and I'm a huge college baseball fan. There is a model that can be used to get these programs relevant again. You guys have hit it. Obviously the scholly restrictions need changed. ITS BROKEN.... FIX IT! Hopefully the surge of the sea of red will help change Delanys mind! Maybe he has never been to a CWS. DE, send him an invitation NOW!

 

Let's let Coach Erstad get the kids to Omaha before we start sending invites.

 

But wouldn't it be funny if, while Minnesota bitches and moans, Erstad takes Nebraska deep into the tourney...or even to Omaha. That would completely invalidate the points the Minnesota coach made, yes?

[95huskers]

The B1G needs to take a good long hard look at getting their programs on the +$ side. I think it can be done, but maybe its because I'm Nebraskan and I'm bias, and I'm a huge college baseball fan. There is a model that can be used to get these programs relevant again. You guys have hit it. Obviously the scholly restrictions need changed. ITS BROKEN.... FIX IT! Hopefully the surge of the sea of red will help change Delanys mind! Maybe he has never been to a CWS. DE, send him an invitation NOW!

 

Let's let Coach Erstad get the kids to Omaha before we start sending invites.

 

But wouldn't it be funny if, while Minnesota bitches and moans, Erstad takes Nebraska deep into the tourney...or even to Omaha. That would completely invalidate the points the Minnesota coach made, yes?

I was meaning just send him an invite weather we get there or not so he can experience "The Experience"