Big Ten Baseball - Do people even care?

T

Tvismylif

Well-Known Member
Yesterday, Nebraska fired their Baseball coaching staff for failing to reach the Big 12 Tourney for the third straight year. Mike Anderson had decent success in the early years, but as the team faltered, the attendance fell.

My questions are - Is baseball in the Big Ten a dead or dying sport? Does anybody care (fans or AD's)?

According to one site the Big Ten as a conference, comes in at 17, well below many smaller conferences.

NCAA Division I Baseball -- Conference Pseudo-RPI's

So I am just curious what the take is on collegiate baseball in the Big Ten.

Thanks.
 
Nebraska has a solid history so I understand the move.

Most of the Big Ten does not, however. Location is the primary challenge and always will be. That doesn't mean so decent teams cannot be fielded, but you won't see much consistency.
 
Yeah, Jon, I can understand the move , also. Fans in Nebraska were getting antsy for the old days of hosting Regionals and at least having the chance of going to the CWS. I think looking at the RPI, anyone would have to expect Nebraska to compete for the Big Ten title next year. And if they did, it would make it awfully hard to fire the coach at that time.

And why is it Big Ten softball seems to be more successful than baseball? Same locations, yet more competitive teams. Is it tradition? A few good coaches who stick around long enough to develop programs?

Just curious.
 
Have a buddy that lives near Lincoln and follow Husker baseball pretty closely. He told me that the natives were restless after a few tough seasons. He was glad to see Osborne make the move now.

I too would think that Nebraska wil be near the top of the Big 10 standings next year. Even being a "cold weather" team, they historicaly seemed to put some good talent on the field. They have one kid from Cedar Rapids currently on their team, and another one slated to go to Lincoln next year. It will be interesting to see how they do in the Big 10.
 
I really like college baseball. However the BTN seems to get the score in by snail mail. They update con standings about once a month.
 
Nebraska baseball is one of the sports I have covered over the last 30 years, and I can tell you, there were games in the 80's & 90's where our crew was larger than the crowd attending. Talk about dismal, uninspiring television.
 
Tvismylif said:
Nebraska baseball is one of the sports I have covered over the last 30 years, and I can tell you, there were games in the 80's & 90's where our crew was larger than the crowd attending. Talk about dismal, uninspiring television.
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This is true, however, part of the problem was playing ball at Buck Beltzer, which in all honesty, was worse than some of the high school fields you will see. That, mixed in with mediocre results, gets you little exposure and fanfare. The last 3 years, playing at Haymarket Park with mediocre results and pretty poor weather, they still drew a few thousand a game.

One of the biggest obstacles to overcome for DoNU baseball (and the entire B1G for baseball) is the issue of over signing. Without it, it is putting all of the B1G baseball progams behind the curve, even more than the poor weather situation.
 
In the long run, the only thing that may save Big Ten, northern college baseball is moving the season to April through July with the College World Series in mid-August. That way recruiting evens out since the weather is no longer a major factor.

Northern schools have called for a change like this off and on for years, but the southern schools, with a lock on things, have successfully maintained the status quo.

The college summer leagues, the Northwoods League, for instance, which has a team in Waterloo, in Madison and generally in Big Ten territory, has terrific attendance. Waterloo has averaged around 3,000 a game with a few crowds every summer in the 5,000 to 10,000 range. Madison usually leads the summer league with an average attendance of over 5,000, I think.

So if fans turn out for college summer leagues in the northland, you can be sure they would be there for Big Ten and other northern conference games. But until the season moves to the summer, it's a battle for survival for Big Ten baseball.
 
B10 baseball is, and always will be afterthought. In additional to the weather issue, which is major, you also run into other issues. Like in football SEC baseball is great. Baseball is also one of thfr few sports in which small schools like Witchita State can consistently compete at an elite level, and the B10 brand/name ,which is so important for football, is a non-factor.
 
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