There was a very interesting article in yesterday's Ann Arbor News about college baseball and the great disparity between teams in harsh, northern climates, and those in sunny locales...
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College baseball needs climate control
NCAA committee zeroes in on regional inequities
Sunday, April 18, 2004
BY MARK HELLER
News Sports Reporter
Basking in the balmy blue skies rare for early April, Brandon Roberts stood on Fisher Stadium, staring at the sun through his sunglasses.
His solo home run helped spark a Michigan victory over cross-town Eastern Michigan, but he didn't much care to talk about it.
"You can't help but appreciate this weather," he said, his face crinkled from squinting at the sky. "Even if you went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts you've got to enjoy a day like this, man."
Three days later, Eastern's game against Ohio at Oestrike Stadium ended overcast with a temperature of 38
degrees and a stiff wind.
No surprises there.
This is early spring in the Upper Midwest. But after decades of cringing climate changes and national champions from California, Texas and Florida, the NCAA may take action.
For the first time, the NCAA has formed a committee to look at problems with college baseball's seeming lack of competitiveness, with weather woes taking center stage.
Last fall, the 10-member Division I Baseball Issues Committee was formed by the NCAA to distribute surveys nationally, to get perspectives from various players, coaches and athletics directors on what could help
resolve college baseball's tilted scale of on-field equality. The committee will send out surveys in the next month, and hopes to have results in tow by the College World Series in late June.
The committee is headed by Big West Commissioner Dennis Farrell, and includes Mid-American Conference Commissioner Rick Chryst, Bernard Muir of Notre Dame and Robert Todd of Ohio State. The Southern-school contingent
includes athletic directors from LSU, Florida State, Auburn and Southwest Missouri State.
They'll gather results and make recommendations of their own, then pass them onto the NCAA Championships Committee for more formal legislation in the fall.
The major topics of discussion include:
n Establishing a concrete starting date, likely sometime
between mid-February and
before April 1 - "or wherever the rubber meets the road," said Farrell. Most teams in the Sun Belt and out West are playing games or tournaments as early as January, when Northern schools must go on the road to play. The result is that most Northern schools spend well over 50 percent of their season traveling.
"Things I'm teaching, Southern schools' kids already learned on their own from playing hundreds of games," said Wolverines coach Rich Maloney. "Our kids are lucky to play from May until September or October, then it's off for seven months."
Case in point: freshman Brad Roblin. In-part because of Massachusetts's weather, the
talented but raw outfielder only played 14 games during his senior year in high school.
"So I have to teach them, and with that comes growing pains," Maloney said.
"It'll always be growing time, that's the difference. It's not that they're more talented, they've simply played more."
Shrinking the number of games teams are allowed to play. The NCAA currently allows a maximum of 56 games in a
22-week period, but because of travel during school and cold weather, the vast majority of Northern schools don't get close to that number, and practically no Northern school can play even 40 percent of its games at home.
By the time Eastern Michigan played its first games of the season (against Oklahoma State, Kentucky, Tennessee and No. 1 Texas), the Longhorns were already 20-2.
"They had a lot of games
under their belts," said senior outfielder Todd Kimling, who came to Eastern Michigan from Scottsdale, Ariz. "We're just
trying to see who's going to be where and who's pitching."
Splitting the country with two different leagues: one for the "Northern" teams, one for the "Southern" teams, divided geographically or by conference. Each of the two regions would formulate their own schedule and have their own College World
Series. Northern teams would play other Northern teams, and wouldn't be forced to play Southern teams just to get games in during February and March.
Any rules the NCAA decides to enact wouldn't take effect
until 2006 at the earliest. Either way, many schools from each side of the Mason-Dixon Line are already digging in.
"Fifteen to 20 teams have a chance," said Minnesota coach John Anderson. "The rest of us are window dressing, just along for the ride."
Only one school north of Georgia - Wichita State in 1989 - has won the College World Series since 1966. Eastern Michigan reached the championship game in 1976, the only current MAC school to reach the final game since Western Michigan in 1955.
The Wolverines reached the World Series in 1984, and joined Northern teams like Minnesota to win one championship each in the 1950s and 60s before reaching the World Series in 1977.
This year, Michigan managed only one outdoor practice before its home opener March 26th. The Gophers played their first home game outdoors at Siebert Field on Wednesday.
That, Southern schools say, isn't their fault. They don't think it's fair to be punished for what Mother Nature created.
Besides, if the season gets pushed later in the summer, heat can become a problem in states such as Texas or Arizona.
Then there are potential costs of keeping kids on campus longer, and those wishing to travel, play summer ball or find summer jobs would get squeezed.
"(The NCAA) is trying to please everyone, and you can't," Texas A&M coach Mark Johnson said. "So you're going to try and make a bunch of changes and confuse things and still end up with unhappy people somewhere no matter what. It's wasting time chasing your own tail."
Said Farrell: "I don't want it to become a regional sport like hockey. It's our national pastime."
Although most schools see this committee as a long-overdue starting point, it could lead to a baseball civil spat: The North demands that the South reforms, the South demands that the North conforms.
Mark Heller can be reached at
mheller@annarbornews.com or (734) 994-6812.
© 2004 Ann Arbor News. Used with permission
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So what does everyone think? Should there be reforms in college baseball to make up for the vast differences in climate and playing conditions faced by teams in different parts of the country?
yesnoI can see both sidesShow results ******************************************************
Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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