OT: Adding a Baseball Team?

[pfister1]

ACC Baseball
Historical College World Series Appearances:

Miami - 24x - 4x NCAA champion, 2x runner up
Florida State - 21x - 3x runner up
UNC - 10x - 2x runner up
Clemson - 12x
Ga Tech - 3x - 1x runner up
UVA - 4x - 1x NCAA champion, 1x runner up
Duke - 3x
Wake Forest - 2x - 1x NCAA champion, 1x runner up
NC State - 2x
Notre Dame - 2x
Louisville - 3x
Syracuse - 1x
Boston College - 4x
Va Tech - none
Pitt - none

 

[creatorsgam]

Syracuse would have to work extremely hard to have a competitive baseball team in the ACC. Just getting recruits would be a challenge when the good ones have a choice between playing in the south vs the snowbelt.

And these kids don't stop playing down here in NC. Seems to end in November and begin again in March, with weekends on the field in January/February if the weather is nice. Rec ball, all-stars, travel, summer league, etc.

Last July I was visiting my parents in Utica and drove down to Cooperstown one morning to watch a team of players from the town I teach in, supporting kids I know from school and their parents I work with or know from the community. Small world, but the point is these kids were traveling 12 hours from a sleepy, rural North Carolina town to play baseball in Cooperstown for a weeklong tournament. It would be incredibly difficult for Syracuse to compete with these southern players. Just cannot play like that in NY.

How these kids don't burn out or blow their shoulder/elbow, I have no idea. It's a crazy workload for these children.

 

[rrlbees]

The bigger problem would be the fact that ACC schools are in warm weather climates for the most part and spring time in CNY starts around June

Except LeMoyne and OCC play it.

 

[creatorsgam]

Except LeMoyne and OCC play it.

Not sure how many schools in their respective conferences would share the same type of weather advantage as the ACC schools would have over Syracuse. Is this only a minimum advantage? I would think it would play a role in season prep.

 

[CarolinaCuse]

Except LeMoyne and OCC play it.

And have had some success as well over the years.

 

[dollarbill44]

If you add 11.7 Men's Baseball scholarships, you have to maintain Title IX balance. Which Men's sport would you like to get rid of? -or- Which Women's sport would you like to add?

Do you have to add another women's sport, or can you just balance the scholarships? That can be accomplished by adding scholarships to existing teams, i.e. making partial scholarships full.

 

[dollarbill44]

And these kids don't stop playing down here in NC. Seems to end in November and begin again in March, How these kids don't burn out or blow their shoulder/elbow, I have no idea. It's a crazy workload for these children.

They do blow out their shoulders and elbows with alarming frequency. Dr. James Andrews wrote a book about the dramatic increase in ligament replacements in teenagers, even as young as 13. He blames sports specialization and year round play that doesn't allow for recovery of soft tissue in developing bodies. It's a fascinating book that every parent of a budding athlete should read.

 

[HoustonCuse]

ACC Baseball
Historical College World Series Appearances:

Miami - 24x - 4x NCAA champion, 2x runner up
Florida State - 21x - 3x runner up
UNC - 10x - 2x runner up
Clemson - 12x
Ga Tech - 3x - 1x runner up
UVA - 4x - 1x NCAA champion, 1x runner up
Duke - 3x
Wake Forest - 2x - 1x NCAA champion, 1x runner up
NC State - 2x
Notre Dame - 2x
Louisville - 3x
Syracuse - 1x
Boston College - 4x
Va Tech - none
Pitt - none

Good we are ahead of Pitt.

 

[DoubleDee]

The lemoyne and occ example is a perfect one. A lot of succes with those programs, and don't forget SU women's softball. They play their early season games on the road to until winter finally breaks.

Add it

 

[pfister1]

Except LeMoyne and OCC play it.

They do, but I don't think they recruit at the same level that Syracuse would need to in order to truly be competitive in the ACC. You might be able to retain most of the best local talent and bring some regional talent in, but you are still going to have to fight that natural desire of people to head south to play the sport.

You would also need to add a practice and/or game day facility.

 

[Dave85]

Keep in mind a lot of these schools have had a baseball team for years so when title 9 first became an issue having a baseball team was already factored in and they made the numbers work with/around them. There are many ACC schools who only have a baseball team, there's only 5 lax schools out of a large conference. Your questions are the same ones that lacrosse people are asking about schools especially in the south and west about adding Div 1 lax. Schools like Georgia, GA Tech, VA Tech, South Carolina, Clemson, FSU, Miami, USC, Cal, WSU, etc all dont have Div 1 lax teams with title 9 being one of if not the main reason.

God, the NCAA just totally sucks at times!

 

[Dave85]

A good source told me su has been asked to add baseball by the acc. We shall see.

Your avatars hurt my head.

 

[Dave85]

Syracuse would have to work extremely hard to have a competitive baseball team in the ACC. Just getting recruits would be a challenge when the good ones have a choice between playing in the south vs the snowbelt.

Gee, I think getting a scholarship to play anything at Syracuse will always be inviting. Just my opinion.

 

[pfister1]

God, the NCAA just totally sucks at times!

It's not the NCAA, its federal law that arises out of the civil rights movement and the push to eliminate gender bias and discrimination. The NCAA (and individual schools) is just the institution that the laws are being applied to.

 

[pfister1]

Gee, I think getting a scholarship to play anything at Syracuse will always be inviting. Just my opinion.

Maybe to you; but if you're talking about a kid that has lots of offers, you would be wrong.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

Do you have to add another women's sport, or can you just balance the scholarships? That can be accomplished by adding scholarships to existing teams, i.e. making partial scholarships full.

The NCAA has limits on how many scholarships you can offer in each sport.

http://www.scholarshipstats.com/ncaalimits.html

Women's Lacrosse is limited to 12 scholarships. We just can't add another 12 and call it a day.

 

[Crusty]

If you add 11.7 Men's Baseball scholarships, you have to maintain Title IX balance.

Which Men's sport would you like to get rid of?

-or-

Which Women's sport would you like to add?

Swimming.

 

[Crusty]

The bigger problem would be the fact that ACC schools are in warm weather climates for the most part and spring time in CNY starts around June

Teams in the North simply start the season by playing in Southern venues. Ithaca College is playing in Virginia to start the season. Many teams do this.

 

[Jeremy L.]

I personally would rather have them add a men's hockey team before a baseball team but I would love to see both at Syracuse one day.

 

[Dave85]

It's not the NCAA, its federal law that arises out of the civil rights movement and the push to eliminate gender bias and discrimination. The NCAA (and individual schools) is just the institution that the laws are being applied to.

WHAT?!?!?!?! What the heck. We need a lawsuit to change the law.

 

[Brooky03]

Is it a one-to-one ratio or calculated some other way? I can't imagine it's one-to-one because that wouldn't make any sense but I wouldn't be surprised either.

 

[Hoo's That]

WHAT?!?!?!?! What the heck. We need a lawsuit to change the law.

That just ain't happenin'. John Tower, while a Senator from Texas, tried to get the law modified back in the 70s/80s to exempt football from any calculations and was laughed out of the room. There is less than zero support to pass any change under any Administration and a lawsuit has no grounds and would be dismissed by a judge possibly before a hearing, definitely within 5 minutes into the hearing.

 

[pfister1]

Teams in the North simply start the season by playing in Southern venues. Ithaca College is playing in Virginia to start the season. Many teams do this.

It's a way to get a few early season games in, but how long can they actually spend on a southern swing? A week...ten days? Then they come home to battle the lingering winter. They have to move back inside or practice in the snow upon return. Meanwhile most of the other ACC schools save BC and Pitt are enjoying more moderate temperatures and likely dry ground enabling them to get outside and practice. And that southern swing costs them a good deal of money that can't go into other things that our more southern competition can invest in. Finally the scheduling would be difficult because conference games aren't typically one day affairs, they are three (3) game series. Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Zipping to Pitt for a Friday, Saturday & Sunday series isn't the same as travelling to Miami, Tallahassee or the Carolinas. It's not impossible, just not the same as if we were attempting to compete with teams in this same geographic region facing the same challenges.

By the way UVA kicked off its home schedule February 23rd this season. UNC on February 26th. Miami and Florida State both played at home on February 19th.

Ithaca's first scheduled home game is March 29th. LeMoyne's is April 2nd. OCC's is March 22nd. But those tend to be regional opponents, where its easier to cancel on short notice, as opposed to a team that has to fly in or make a major bus trip to get here just to take the chance that the weather will hold.

And really the greater challenge is probably practice time, you can back load the schedule to a degree, but the kids are supposed to be attending classes so you can't send them south for the months of January and February so that they can get the same outdoor practice opportunities in as their competition.

 

[Shenexon]

Add a "south" campus in Havana, field a baseball team of primarily Cuban scholarship players and be competitive, creating a new revenue sport. Add beach volleyball and swimming & diving on the women's side and our new Cuban campus will have a good start. Caribbean med school anyone?

 

[Fly Rodder]

The bigger problem would be the fact that ACC schools are in warm weather climates for the most part and spring time in CNY starts around June

Give it another 20 years and we'll be growing watermelons on the Tug Hill. Syracuse would just be getting ahead of climate change.

More seriously, if the goal is championships, SU will never be Miami, but recruiting enough D1 players to field a team is not unpossible. However; it will be interesting to see how the next CBA for MLB works out. MLB is making money hand over fist and expects to grow their revenue to $15 billion per year. For 30 teams. Of course, the players aren't going to sit around and let the owners take it all. Some people have suggested that minor league players could/should see a fairly sizable increase in salaries. If they're making $40-60k a year to play AA, instead of $12k, I think some higher end recruits will skip college and go to the MLB. That could greatly level the quality of recruits that college teams can field. Another suggestion has been the creation of a MLB scholarship fund (go to to the minors out HS and get your college paid for when you eventually go). A lot of high end draft picks from HS already have college funding written into their contracts, but extending it down to the bulk of the minor leagues would be a nice payout to minor league roster fillers.