East Coast Mustang wrote:I'm a huge sports fan and I couldn't tell you who won the CWS last year. No one cares outside of the teams that are actually in it.
That's the funny thing about college baseball... the programs that actually field a team and make a real effort at being competitive tend to develop very intense fanbases. Those who don't have teams or have teams and don't really try to be competitive have fanbases that "don't care" about college baseball.
Prime example? Alabama in the SEC. Their fans all claim they don't care about baseball. Why? Because their program doesn't put any money into the sport and they're usually pretty bad. If they have a good team for a couple years in a row they'll fill their stadium and have 20,000 people claiming to be die hard college baseball fans.
RebStang wrote:That's the funny thing about college baseball... the programs that actually field a team and make a real effort at being competitive tend to develop very intense fanbases. Those who don't have teams or have teams and don't really try to be competitive have fanbases that "don't care" about college baseball.
That is true for just about every college sport.
Look at Moody this year. Hell, look at all of the people who came out of the woodwork for SMU men's golf this spring.
NavyCrimson wrote:PEOPLE LOVE WINNERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And if SMU took on baseball & GOT SERIOUS about it, they'd be there to support BASEBALL, too. It's not rocket science.
The fact of the matter is that SMU never was serious about baseball when they had baseball.
Let's get our football team to start winning more than 10 games per year before we even think about adding baseball. If the AAC were to get a sweeter TV deal come negotiation time and we happen to get $10-12M a year on TV...then maybe
If we join Big 12 conference with the $40M per year deal, then definitely
NavyCrimson wrote:PEOPLE LOVE WINNERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And if SMU took on baseball & GOT SERIOUS about it, they'd be there to support BASEBALL, too. It's not rocket science.
The fact of the matter is that SMU never was serious about baseball when they had baseball.
Let's get our football team to start winning more than 10 games per year before we even think about adding baseball. If the AAC were to get a sweeter TV deal come negotiation time and we happen to get $10-12M a year on TV...then maybe
If we join Big 12 conference with the $40M per year deal, then definitely
Please. Let's compete in a low/mid tier conference or play competitively against any opponent that the casual fan has heard of before we start asking for 10+ win seasons...
NavyCrimson wrote:PEOPLE LOVE WINNERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And if SMU took on baseball & GOT SERIOUS about it, they'd be there to support BASEBALL, too. It's not rocket science.
The fact of the matter is that SMU never was serious about baseball when they had baseball.
Let's get our football team to start winning more than 10 games per year before we even think about adding baseball. If the AAC were to get a sweeter TV deal come negotiation time and we happen to get $10-12M a year on TV...then maybe
If we join Big 12 conference with the $40M per year deal, then definitely
My take on baseball at SMU is pretty simple: I think we would have a better chance of winning the CWS within 10-15 years of starting a baseball team than we would of making it to a BCS bowl game.
In college baseball, the deck is stacked in favor of private universities that have money. That's why Vanderbilt just won the CWS (finally). The scholarship rules for baseball play right into our hands - the state schools can only give 11.7 but non-athletic scholarship/grant money doesn't count against it.
The only thing we're missing is a facility and, the way SMU does things, any facility we build would be first class.
I like lacrosse (there's something to be said for a sport where hitting other guys with a stick is ok) but the reality is that baseball fits the areas where our students come from better. SMU seems to target states like California and Florida heavily. Guess where a lot of the top baseball talent comes from... California and Florida. Start handing out full rides based on need and "unique talents" to baseball players and we'd have a top flight program in short order.
