Big Ten Summer Baseball - Being Studied

[ssckelley]

I don't know if they even still exist, but I assume that they do, years ago when I lived in Waterloo they had the Waterloo Bucks. It was a team made up primarily of college players who played in this league during the summer. If the college season was during the summer it would not give them the opportunity to play in leagues like this and may stunt their development.

Yes, they still exist and draw quite well. This is the model B1G needs to take. Let's face it the teams in the B1G cannot compete with the southern teams the way it is set up now. Set the B1G up to be more of a minor league and play your conference games during the summer. If 2000 people will show up to watch amateur baseball in Waterloo you would think the Hawkeyes could draw a decent number. Put a few of the games on the BTN and give the tickets away. Make the money on TV revenue and concessions (to bad no beer). Perhaps they could play a few games in Cedar Rapids when the Kernels are on the road to really give it a minor league feel to it.

 

[74Hunter]

Even with a seasonal disadvantage, the B1G does its baseball playing members no favors regarding recruiting. If had some less restrictive rules, like the Big 12 or SEC, they could be more competitive, but they won’t.

Notre Dame made the CWS once or twice in the past 10 years, DoNU has been there 3 times since 2000. In the mid 2000’s Ohio St. made a super regional but lost to SW Mizzou St. B1G baseball can compete, so this idea about breaking away from the CWS and playing in the summer is pretty bad.

 

[SEIA17]

Your friend the Wisc pitcher did the Hawks some damage over the weekend. Threw three complete games, and out-pitched both of Iowa's girls.

I still don't understand why Iowa or Iowa State didn't recruit her. Darn good pitcher.

 

[ssckelley]

Even with a seasonal disadvantage, the B1G does its baseball playing members no favors regarding recruiting. If had some less restrictive rules, like the Big 12 or SEC, they could be more competitive, but they won’t.

Notre Dame made the CWS once or twice in the past 10 years, DoNU has been there 3 times since 2000. In the mid 2000’s Ohio St. made a super regional but lost to SW Mizzou St. B1G baseball can compete, so this idea about breaking away from the CWS and playing in the summer is pretty bad.

Ohio State in 1966 was the last time a Big Ten team won the College World Series and 1965 was the last time a Big Ten team finished in 2nd place.

Last year of CWS Participation by school:

Iowa - 1972
Michigan - 1984
Michigan State - 1954
Minnesota - 1977
Nebraska - 2005 (as a B12 school)
Ohio State - 1967
Penn State - 1973
Wisconsin - 1950

Purdue, Illinois, Northwestern, and Indiana have never been to the CWS.

B1G is nothing more than a mid major when it comes to baseball and it always will be. Stanford has some pretty tough admission standards as well yet they have been in the CWS 16 times and have won it twice. Vanderbilt has tough admission standards yet they made it to the CWS last year. There is no way with baseball starting in the early spring the B1G can compete on a level playing field as the SEC/B12. It is time to take a different approach.

 

[bogeyman]

I don't follow college baseball closely, so I might be wrong, but would this hurt the kids by playing less baseball?

Kind of along the same lines of Iowa high school baseball players only playing the summer season while Minnesota kids play spring baseball for their high school and then play legion ball all year long. Unless this has changed in the last 15 years since I was in hs...most MN teams would kick Iowa teams *****, cause they just flat out played more. Because of this I always thought Iowa was a terrible state for a potential baseball prospect to grow up in.

When the spring season is over do you think that players just throw their gloves in the back of the closet and wait for next year?

I don't know if they even still exist, but I assume that they do, years ago when I lived in Waterloo they had the Waterloo Bucks. It was a team made up primarily of college players who played in this league during the summer. If the college season was during the summer it would not give them the opportunity to play in leagues like this and may stunt their development.

Most of the college players do play in some sort of collegiate summer league for more experience and exposure. There are tons of them out there, most wood bat. They do not have spring college age leagues because obviously college season is going. Therefore, if the BIG went to summer baseball, all the BIG players would have nothing to play in right now and would then miss the summer leagues, therefore they would play far less overall games than their D1 counter parts. This would hurt the kids development and exposure and I'm afraid would hurt recruiting to us northern states even more. Most really good players who are serious about giving themselves a chance to get drafted are not going to miss out on playing all the summer league games just so they can play against some other BIG teams with no shot at the NCAA tourney because its over. This summer baseball thing just won't work unless everyone else goes to it.

On the high school side, Iowa is not really at a disadvantage anymore. A kid can pretty much play from right now (many spring league games have started) until October with fall leagues. Tons of opportunities to play around the high school schedule anymore. Just crazy how many opportunities there are for the kids now days. Then throw in the awesome indoor training facilities like Perfect Game, Sportsplex West etc and the kids can pretty much play and workout all year round. The talent level of ballplayers in Iowa lately has been pretty strong too IMO. There are some darn good ballplayers out there. Iowa Recruit Calvin Mathews for instance could be top 5-6 round draft material this June and is going to have a big decision to make (go to Iowa or take some pretty good money and sign).

 

[74Hunter]

B1G is nothing more than a mid major when it comes to baseball and it always will be. Stanford has some pretty tough admission standards as well yet they have been in the CWS 16 times and have won it twice. Vanderbilt has tough admission standards yet they made it to the CWS last year. There is no way with baseball starting in the early spring the B1G can compete on a level playing field as the SEC/B12. It is time to take a different approach.

Maybe I wasn't clear, I wasn't referring to entrance qualifications. I think that the B1G has different rules when it comes to the amount of players you can have on a roster, or over-signing as opposed to other conferences. If they changed those rules, they may be able to compete a little better.

 

[tm3308]

I still don't understand why Iowa or Iowa State didn't recruit her. Darn good pitcher.

Didn't recruit Chelsea Thomas particularly hard, either. ISU offered her a partial scholarship, but not near what Mizzou was offering.

I'm confident that if Iowa had matched the offers, both Chelsea and Cassandra would be in Iowa City.

 

[ICHAWK]

Ohio State in 1966 was the last time a Big Ten team won the College World Series and 1965 was the last time a Big Ten team finished in 2nd place.

Last year of CWS Participation by school:

Iowa - 1972
Michigan - 1984
Michigan State - 1954
Minnesota - 1977
Nebraska - 2005 (as a B12 school)
Ohio State - 1967
Penn State - 1973
Wisconsin - 1950

Purdue, Illinois, Northwestern, and Indiana have never been to the CWS.

B1G is nothing more than a mid major when it comes to baseball and it always will be. Stanford has some pretty tough admission standards as well yet they have been in the CWS 16 times and have won it twice. Vanderbilt has tough admission standards yet they made it to the CWS last year. There is no way with baseball starting in the early spring the B1G can compete on a level playing field as the SEC/B12. It is time to take a different approach.

Why would a player want to play Big 10 baseball in the summer?

Just eliminate scholarships and make it a club sport if it has come to this level.

No good players would chose to play in the Big 10 if baseball switched to the summer. There are already not a ton of great players in Big 10 baseball.

 

[tm3308]

Your friend the Wisc pitcher did the Hawks some damage over the weekend. Threw three complete games, and out-pitched both of Iowa's girls.

I went to the first two games, and missed the Sunday finale for my budget meeting at the DI. Definitely pitched well enough to win all three games, just got hurt by untimely errors and a fantastic at bat by Liz Watkins. 16-pitch AB that ended with an RBI single.

 

[SEIA17]

Didn't recruit Chelsea Thomas particularly hard, either. ISU offered her a partial scholarship, but not near what Mizzou was offering.

I'm confident that if Iowa had matched the offers, both Chelsea and Cassandra would be in Iowa City.

Thomas had a hard time getting Drake to look at her and some people thought she'd end up at William Penn. It would have been nice to keep both of those girls in state.

 

[tm3308]

Thomas had a hard time getting Drake to look at her and some people thought she'd end up at William Penn. It would have been nice to keep both of those girls in state.

Hard to believe the in-state schools had such a difficult time recognizing the talent just oozing out of her arm, even when she was only just scratching the surface of her potential.

 

[ssckelley]

Why would a player want to play Big 10 baseball in the summer?

Just eliminate scholarships and make it a club sport if it has come to this level.

No good players would chose to play in the Big 10 if baseball switched to the summer. There are already not a ton of great players in Big 10 baseball.

Television exposure would be huge, which is why they would do it in the first place. If I was playing college baseball, being able to play on TV for friends and family would be neat.

Maybe I wasn't clear, I wasn't referring to entrance qualifications. I think that the B1G has different rules when it comes to the amount of players you can have on a roster, or over-signing as opposed to other conferences. If they changed those rules, they may be able to compete a little better.

Oops sorry, I thought you were talking academics.

Most of the college players do play in some sort of collegiate summer league for more experience and exposure. There are tons of them out there, most wood bat. They do not have spring college age leagues because obviously college season is going. Therefore, if the BIG went to summer baseball, all the BIG players would have nothing to play in right now and would then miss the summer leagues, therefore they would play far less overall games than their D1 counter parts. This would hurt the kids development and exposure and I'm afraid would hurt recruiting to us northern states even more. Most really good players who are serious about giving themselves a chance to get drafted are not going to miss out on playing all the summer league games just so they can play against some other BIG teams with no shot at the NCAA tourney because its over. This summer baseball thing just won't work unless everyone else goes to it.

I can see the amount of games being an issue but there is no saying the Big Ten could not play a non conference schedule against CWS schools in the spring. If the Big Ten was to switch to it and make money doing it I could see the rest of college baseball not far behind.