[Ill flame]

ECU cutting. AAC schools struggling.

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/coronav ... story.html

I just received an email, from ECU. They are cutting men's swimming/diving. women's swimming/diving and men's/women's tennis. i am glad they didn't give baseball or softball the ax.

ECU also gets a pretty good amount of support for their baseball program. It seems like I no brainier for them to keep baseball around.

[flamesfilmguy]

Some valid points. I was told in last 2 years rawlings and i believe wilson provided most of bats and gloves (at least at LU). Is that not accurate? I knew the uniforms had changed. Turf while yes there is main. Theres nowhere near the same cost to maintain ( again assuming its already installed) as grass.

Forgot about balls and yes that can be a big expense as game balls become bp balls quickly.

My pt is not that baseball isnt expensive. Just that its not as expensive as it would appear with a 35 man roster but limited scholarships and not a fully paid staff. I guess im just saying if im furman i could find other less visible sport that costs a similar amt to ax.

Yes Liberty does have a deal with Rawlings catchers gear,BG's Bats and Gloves etc. but a. thats not the norm anymore and b. they still have to pay for some equipment because from what I know about the contract its not enough to not have to buy more on top of what is in the contract. its still a lot of money especially for smaller less affluent schools.
The Turf field isn't really a huge argument as it does save money but most of that money is saved in product treating the field. That money for dirt, grass treatments, fungicide, seeding etc comes from a different budget than baseball. Mos grounds crews operate on a separate budget that covers all facilities. Finally, in the case of furman there were not any sports on campus that would have come remotely close (outside of basketballs and football) that would have equaled the amount they will save from cutting Baseball and Lax. Like I said in the other post, Baseball is typically #3 or #4 in operating cost on most campuses. you would almost have to eliminate 2 sports to equal it.

[flamesfilmguy]

ECU cutting. AAC schools struggling.

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/coronav ... story.html

I just received an email, from ECU. They are cutting men's swimming/diving. women's swimming/diving and men's/women's tennis. i am glad they didn't give baseball or softball the ax.

From what I heard and have seen Baseball makes money at ECU. They are one of the few mid majors(along with teams like CCU and a few others) that operate in the black. it would make no sense to cut them.

[olldflame]

Equipment is almost all donated by the brands for sponsorship including gloves and bats. Sometimes uniforms as well but some of those are paid. The turf has almost zero maintenance on it compared to grass

Travel yes. There is some more travel but not much depending on the sport your comparing to its not that much more. Almost all midweek games are bus trip with no overnight stay. So your travel is about 6 weekends.

My point is baseball is universally accepted as the 2nd to 4th most visible sport depending on the school. Cost wise there wee other sports that cost virtually the same (if you already have the facility in place) and with way less fanfare and national perception.

Wow. where do I start?

1. Equipment is by no means free or given. Sponsorship for Baseball have almost completely evaporated from the baseball only companies like rawlings, Easton and Wilson because the companies have realized there is no real Marketing ROI because they can go and sign the best pro players who will drive sales a lot more. I actually had to explain this to my head coach because he didn't understand why companies weren't knocking down our door when our Rawlings contract expired a few years ago. Yes the p5's who have Adidas,Nike,UA contracts allocate a certain amount of the promo $ for uniforms and cloth like travel suits, cleats etc. but most mid majors don't have promo money in those contracts for baseball. I know we didn't when I worked at two other mid majors. Also, Nike Adidas and UA do not produce bats and gloves any more. so the 2 most expensive pieces of equipment per player are usually paid in cash at minimum at a whole sale price and at maximum for retail price. My players go through average of two bats and two gloves a year. Thats 350 a glove and 450 a bat. on average with 16 batters you are looking at around 15K for just bats. not to mention Baseballs. Conference don't pay for baseballs. They are our largest expense outside of travel at somewhere between 35 and 55K per year. Add in gloves for 35 -40 guys you are looking at another 15K. I could go on but the numbers stack up quick for what a baseball team ends up paying. Furman and Bowling Green did not have a quarter of the promo money that we do so they were spending even more cash than we were. I have on good authority that the operating budget for furman was almost identical to ours and for a mid major that is insane.

2.Turf fields require a lot of maintenance its just different maintenance than what you would think of at a baseball field. Yes in the long run it saves money but not enough to justify no cutting a program. especially considering you are replacing the turf every year in some places and the whole thing every 5-7 years.
3. Travel for mid majors is almost always 7-8 weekends a year because its tough for them to get OOC Home series. plus they need the p5 series to help supplement the budget. I have many stories on how much teams make for those games. Sometimes they don't even involve cash. I've literally sent baseballs to a school as a payment for coming to play us.
4. Baseball (depending on what other sports on campus) is usually your 3rd or 4th most expensive sport. Football and mens basketball are 1&2 but they also make money. Baseball in a lot of cases, especially at the mid major level don't make any money and are the most expensive to operate. The only sport that is close to the operating cost is maybe lacrosse. Furman was spending 5 MIL between those two sports(Their lacrosse coach made almost 400K) That is insanity. Most schools would see that as a no brainer to cut cost.

Bowling green didn't surprise many people in baseball circles and neither will Chicago State when they cancel it(most likely) in mid june. Furman surprised people because that school has a crap ton of money. but they were also spending it at ridiculous pace so maybe its not so surprising. There are many many more cuts of sports coming. Hopefully not many more baseball teams but unfortunately there are a lot of schools spending a whole lot more on baseball than you would think while operating deep in the red, especially at the mid major level. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk

You are without a doubt the Bjorn Lomborg of sports equipment.

[flamesfilmguy]

You are without a doubt the Bjorn Lomborg of sports equipment.

I have no Idea who that is even after a brief google search but thanks. Its a fun business.

[olldflame]

You are without a doubt the Bjorn Lomborg of sports equipment.

I have no Idea who that is even after a brief google search but thanks. Its a fun business.

AKA "The Skeptical Environmentalist" He did a bunch of Ted Talks. Really smart guy.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_ ... g+ted+talk

[Cider Jim]

One of my unnamed sources wanted this article posted about college baseball:

https://www.espn.com/college-sports/sto ... hVIETZENyw

[thepostman]

I've always liked the idea of starting the college baseball/softball seasons later. The college world series already finishes after classes are out but it does delay the future pros from moving on to getting paid.

[ballcoach15]

On the surface this sounds like a good idea. But when broken down, the plan isn't good, as written.
February is too early to start, but July is too late to finish. 9 weeks of spring training is way too much. If they change anything, they should start season in March, and maybe play less games. Have college World Series first week in June.
Most years it's going to be cold up North until April, including Virginia. Some have tried to change baseball before, without success. I have heard NCAA has it the way they do now, to prevent a team with 1 or 2 shut down pitchers from dominating. It forces teams to develop deeper pitching staffs.

[Ill flame]

I think the season should start in mid March when it's starting to warm up a little bit and the CWS should be around July 4th. Mlb should hold the draft at the CWS. It would definitely improve attendance and interest for northern schools. June regional games probably wouldn't be fun for schools in the deep south though.

[Purple Haize]

With such a robust minor league system I’m not sure there really needs to be college baseball

[Ill flame]

With such a robust minor league system I’m not sure there really needs to be college baseball

People would much rather watch their local power conference team play than some random single A team or a collegiate summer league team

There's a reason college baseball is so big in the South while minor league baseball is almost non existent there compared to the Midwest/northeast

[JK37]

Gotta pay to house and feed them on campus a month longer. That’s going to rattle some mid- and low-major budgets.

[Purple Haize]

With such a robust minor league system I’m not sure there really needs to be college baseball

People would much rather watch their local power conference team play than some random single A team or a collegiate summer league team

There's a reason college baseball is so big in the South while minor league baseball is almost non existent there compared to the Midwest/northeast

Interesting hypothesis. What’s the attendance of Hillcats compared to the attendance at LU games. I don’t know. Personally I’d rather go watch the Hickory Crawdads myself than a college game but that might just be me

[Ill flame]

With such a robust minor league system I’m not sure there really needs to be college baseball

People would much rather watch their local power conference team play than some random single A team or a collegiate summer league team

There's a reason college baseball is so big in the South while minor league baseball is almost non existent there compared to the Midwest/northeast

Interesting hypothesis. What’s the attendance of Hillcats compared to the attendance at LU games. I don’t know. Personally I’d rather go watch the Hickory Crawdads myself than a college game but that might just be me

The hillcats averaged about 1,800 last year which I think is about even with LU. Of course a large percentage of LU's season is in less than ideal weather while the hillcats largely only play during the best time of year when people are looking to attend baseball games. Of course the hillcats also play double the games and generally do more to entertain fans so it's hard to compare the two.

[Purple Haize]

I dunno about the best time of year. It gets pretty hot to attend games. There have been several times I wanted to go but didn’t want to sit in 90 degree heat and 99% humidity. They do offer a lot more to attract fans which is the point I’m making. More people are attending a low A game than an LU game.

[4everfsu]

Chargers are gone.

https://www.al.com/sports/2020/05/uah-c ... virus.html

Furman dropped baseball and lacrosse.

I think Bowling Green dropped baseball

[Ill flame]

I dunno about the best time of year. It gets pretty hot to attend games. There have been several times I wanted to go but didn’t want to sit in 90 degree heat and 99% humidity. They do offer a lot more to attract fans which is the point I’m making. More people are attending a low A game than an LU game.

Minor league teams are pretty open about memorial to labor day being the most attended time of year because kids are out of school and people want to be outside. Minor league fan engagement is the best in sports so there is no argument there. The big advantage college baseball has over minor league baseball is games that matter. College seasons build towards a nationally televised playoff while minor leagues try to minimize playoffs because attendance plummets in the fall when kids go back to school.

If you push the cws back until July 4th you mostly avoid the super hot weather but still push the season back far enough that northern schools could actually play home games during the first month of the season. It would make college baseball much less of a regional sport.

[Purple Haize]

I dunno about the best time of year. It gets pretty hot to attend games. There have been several times I wanted to go but didn’t want to sit in 90 degree heat and 99% humidity. They do offer a lot more to attract fans which is the point I’m making. More people are attending a low A game than an LU game.

Minor league teams are pretty open about memorial to labor day being the most attended time of year because kids are out of school and people want to be outside. Minor league fan engagement is the best in sports so there is no argument there. The big advantage college baseball has over minor league baseball is games that matter. College seasons build towards a nationally televised playoff while minor leagues try to minimize playoffs because attendance plummets in the fall when kids go back to school.

If you push the cws back until July 4th you mostly avoid the super hot weather but still push the season back far enough that northern schools could actually play home games during the first month of the season. It would make college baseball much less of a regional sport.

To me you are basically saying that Minor League baseball competes with College baseball, especially with this new proposal. Which is my point. There is a viable option for kids who want to play baseball after high school. Instead of making College a feeder system to the pros, just make them pros

[4everfsu]

https://www.espn.com/college-sports/sto ... s-pandemic

[ballcoach15]

Not all college players end up in pros.

College baseball is about playing and winning.

Minor league baseball is about player development.

With only 5 rounds of the draft, college baseball will get better.

[Purple Haize]

Not all college players end up in pros.

College baseball is about playing and winning.

Minor league baseball is about player development.

With only 5 rounds of the draft, college baseball will get better.

But if there is no college baseball than you will have more Pros. Not all Minor Leaguers make it to the majors. And with as much class as College baseball players miss they are part time students at best. Play baseball or go to school. You can even take classes online while you are playing and during the off season. No need for Colleges to be a glorified feeder program

[ballcoach15]

I have never heard of college baseball being a feeder program.

(Unlike basketball and football)

[SumItUp]

Major college baseball is now a feeder program, but there is a small percentage of college baseball players that go on to play professionally. Locally, Arkansas averages about 8+ players to go to professional baseball each year. The attendance averages between 8,000 and 9,000 each year. If the season were moved back, they'd probably average over 10,000. I love minor league baseball, but I also like all baseball. Minor league baseball is gimmicky from a fan perspective. Major college baseball is much more fun to watch. Omaha is the best college championship environment.

[ballcoach15]

I watch a lot of minor league games each year. But I go to watch the MLB prospects.

I don't like the dog and pony shows, and those silly games between innings.