Should College Baseball Change its Season?

[eyekwah]

Currently college baseball season runs pretty much from March through June. Most prominent baseball programs are located in the sunbelt states. A warm climate is conducive to attending games. My thought is that moving the college baseball season to a April/May through August/September time period might bring more fan interest.

Obviously college baseball would be competing for fans against major and minor league teams, but right now it one of many spring sports.

Changing the season could steer some talent toward the cod weather programs and would fill a void during the summer doldrums. Teams could play games around different locations in a state. Example Iowa has a number of minor league parks to hold games.

Is this something you even care about? I follow the Big Tens standings and catch the diamond report on B1G Network. I just think college baseball needs to consider some changes.

 

[greenhead29]

There is a good reason Big Ten teams rarely compete in Super Regionals and the CWS. The difference in talent compared to teams from the South & West is unreal. I would be all for a more even recruiting field bit don't see it happening. Playing a season over the summer break would face many challenges, most of which would be financial burdens from the extra costs of a low revenue sport.

 

[theantiAIRBHG]

Not gonna happen, if college baseball went to a summer season would eliminate leagues like the Cape Cod league and the Northwoods League. These summer wood bat leagues are where kids really get looked at by Major League scouts, because they are essentially "All-Star" leagues, so scouts know they are going to see a bunch of talent at one time.

 

[HawkinGoferLand]

Not gonna happen, if college baseball went to a summer season would eliminate leagues like the Cape Cod league and the Northwoods League. These summer wood bat leagues are where kids really get looked at by Major League scouts, because they are essentially "All-Star" leagues, so scouts know they are going to see a bunch of talent at one time.

this was my thought as well

 

[smhawk]

this was my thought as well

Don't you think the NCAA could cordinate with these leagues and they could move to the spring?

The only thing that appears to be going for college baseball is their college baseball series. They have to come with a better way of get fans to spend money on the sport or your going to see many more schools drop baseball.

 

[hawkeyescott]

Don't you think the NCAA could cordinate with these leagues and they could move to the spring?

The only thing that appears to be going for college baseball is their college baseball series. They have to come with a better way of get fans to spend money on the sport or your going to see many more schools drop baseball.

Those leagues couldn't move to the spring, these kids that go to them are gone for 6 weeks or so out of the summer and they wouldn't be able to miss that much class to play in the Cape Cod League or any other summer league.

 

[ICHAWK]

Don't you think the NCAA could cordinate with these leagues and they could move to the spring?

The only thing that appears to be going for college baseball is their college baseball series. They have to come with a better way of get fans to spend money on the sport or your going to see many more schools drop baseball.

The MLB draft is the first week of June. There are many players who get drafted and go right to playing in rookie/instructional/single A leagues. I don't know if teams would want to draft a guy and have him spend time playing college baseball all season if the college season was in the summer. I see that causing some problems. I know position players tend to get drafted and eventually play some pro ball after being drafted. Some of the top pitchers selected don't always really make much of a pro debut due to all the innings they threw in college ball and teams don't want to stress out their arms right away.

College baseball has a good following down south and it will probably just stay that way. I don't know how you could get more interest in a place like Iowa City.

 

[theantiAIRBHG]

Those leagues couldn't move to the spring, these kids that go to them are gone for 6 weeks or so out of the summer and they wouldn't be able to miss that much class to play in the Cape Cod League or any other summer league.

The MLB draft is the first week of June. There are many players who get drafted and go right to playing in rookie/instructional/single A leagues. I don't know if teams would want to draft a guy and have him spend time playing college baseball all season if the college season was in the summer. I see that causing some problems. I know position players tend to get drafted and eventually play some pro ball after being drafted. Some of the top pitchers selected don't always really make much of a pro debut due to all the innings they threw in college ball and teams don't want to stress out their arms right away.

College baseball has a good following down south and it will probably just stay that way. I don't know how you could get more interest in a place like Iowa City.

Yea, I agree 100%. That's a whole lot of jockeying around with Summer Baseball leagues just so some northern colleges can compete better. Baseball is a warm weather sport and warm weather schools are just going to be better at it, period.

We have a Northwoods League team in Waterloo, and our players arrive as soon as either A) School is out for summer break, or B) Their respective teams are done playing in the Regionals, Super Regionals, what have you. Generally kids arrive in late May, early June and the playoffs are over in mid-August.. so that would be something like 8-10 weeks they would have to miss of school. Also, I don't see a lot of the bigger baseball schools willing to send their guys to a "Spring League" if they have to come back and play a full summer college schedule. That's a lot of extra innings on arms and knees. The logistics of summer college baseball just aren't there.

 

[Ronco]

Simple reasons why you can't do this.
Seniors graduate.
Sports can not span two academic school years.
Players get drafted.

 

[theantiAIRBHG]

Simple reasons why you can't do this.
Seniors graduate.
Sports can not span two academic school years.
Players get drafted.

I'm not sure this one matters. The NCAA Clearinghouse gives student athletes 5 years to complete 4.. so you basically have 5 years to complete your 4 years of eligibility from when you first enroll in a school.

Didn't Christian Ponder graduate from FSU in some ridiculously small amount of time? Like 2 1/2 years or something?

 

[CAARHawk]

Financial Aid is really limited in Summer. That is why a lot of college towns are ghost towns in Summer.

 

[bws258]

Not gonna happen, if college baseball went to a summer season would eliminate leagues like the Cape Cod league and the Northwoods League. These summer wood bat leagues are where kids really get looked at by Major League scouts, because they are essentially "All-Star" leagues, so scouts know they are going to see a bunch of talent at one time.

never heard of either of those

 

[bws258]

The MLB draft is the first week of June.

which is completely stupid ... the MLB draft should be in the off-season like every other sport