We're in elite company
- Thread starter Seth53
- Start date
I'd like to see that included bowl games tooWasn't sure where to put this.
All credit must go to Barta.
Fryowa
Administrator
Huh?
BigD
Well-Known Member
Apparently that slipped by him some how. Usually bowl games is football.
Out of the three mentioned the baseball achievement was the best successful story line. Everyone and their uncle goes to some kind of a bowl game, and what is it now in basketball almost seventy teams that get invited?
I’m not saying it’s not nice to be invited to the basketball tournament or to play in a bowl game , I just think the baseball achievement is a little more special. Having done all three in one year is nice also,
Everyone goes to a bowl and Ferentz has made generational living out of beating 3-4 tomato cans and going.500 in the b10 west AAA division. And then benefits off the negotiated b10 deals. In hoops, the b10 regularly gets 7-9 members in so again, not the accomplishment it appears…especially considering the vast amount of support and resources each getsWasn't sure where to put this.
All credit must go to Barta.
Seth53
Well-Known Member
Boy, tough crowd today
Go look at this year’s schedule. Absolutely patheticBoy, tough crowd today
Fryowa
Administrator
This is a stupid fucking post right here. I'm no Ferentz fan boy, but this is just dumb as hell.
Big Ten West record since its inception:
2014 3-3
2015 6-0
2016 4-2
2017 3-3
2018 3-3
2019 5-1
2020 4-2
2021 4-2
2022 4-2
Total: 36-18, .667
Since 2019 he's 17-7, that's .708 if you're challenged in the brains department, which appears to be the case.
Sorry I saw the pic on my phone and it was hard to see.
NorthKCHawk
Well-Known Member
Why? Baseball essentially made it to the equivalent of the second round of March Madness. Making it to the finals of the regional means there were 32 teams left in the round when Iowa was eliminated. That is the equivalent of winning your first round game in March Madness and then losing your second game. Fran has done that and he makes it to the tourney almost every year. Iowa MBB has made the tourney twice under Heller I think?
In football, yes, there are 42 bowl games, but easily half on them are garbage games for the MAC and academy schools to face off. More often than not, Iowa is playing in a Top 15 overall bowl against a top half opponent from the SEC, Little 12 or Pac 14. We all know that KF has had multiple Top 10 and many Top 25 national finishes during his tenure.
Rick Heller is an amazing coach, and I am not diminishing what he does especially from a conference that does not value baseball all that much. But, just because he did something that, largely speaking, KF and Fran have done for a long time, does not vault him ahead of those achievements. Heller is close in achievement to Fran, but short of it, and a long ways from KF's impressive track record IMHO.
B1G basketball and football have significantly higher ability to recruit at upper levels than B1G baseball does. It is 2-3Xs harder to make postseason baseball than basketball and prob 4-5 Xs harder than making a bowl in football.
And conversely for wrestling IA should never be outside of top 2, maybe 3 teams every year.
NorthKCHawk
Well-Known Member
This is and is not a fair point.
Overall, yes, it is harder for a Northern school to recruit the same talent that Southern schools in baseball. But, with NIL, more access to early season travel, and more conference money for recruiting and facilities that gap can and should be closing. Also, another way to look at this is that the Big10 is ripe to be dominated by a coach and a program that can get some momentum going and be the kings of the Midwest in baseball. The conference gets 2-3 teams into the tourney most years, and Iowa is not always one of them. They could be. Over half of the conferences baseball teams are complete jokes. Iowa needs to finish in the Top 3 in the conference most every year and it will make the tournament most every year.
On the flipside, football recruiting to the North has also gotten much harder the last 20 years. The Big 10, Big 12 North, Notre Dame, etc used to dominate recruiting. With the rise of the SEC, the South has overtaken the advantage and is keeping the talent where the talent is generally found.
As for basketball, its all about who has the best bag man. Anyone can be awesome. See Michigan State, Gonzaga, Kansas, etc. Its all comes down to the HC and $.
HuckFinn
Well-Known Member
Yeah. Let’s play baseball in the ”spring” in the Midwest. Duh.
They rarely play Michigan and ohio st. That’s the point. And play in the incredibly weak west. So from the weak non conference to a weak b10 west, he’s able to live off the system the b10 has negotiated with the bowl alignments
MelroseHawkins
Well-Known Member
Add into that the wrestling success.
HuckFinn
Well-Known Member
Yawn
NorthKCHawk
Well-Known Member
And so? Scott Frost couldn't replicate KF's success under the exact same parameters. He had all the resources in the world and fell flat. Same with Riley before him. Row row row your boat is still stuck in mediocreville. Brohm bailed. Fitz has had intermittent success at best and seems stuck in the shit of late. Illinois has a pulse with Bert, but has been largely irrelevant for a generation.
Wisky and Iowa have had consistent success in the West. That is it.
If it were easy, more coaches could do it. Give KF credit. Whatever the advantages he has been handed by being in the crappy West, he has succeeded where many others failed. He is about to get his third West title.
Maybe he breaks the streak in the West's last year in existence?