Pouring millions into a money losing sport like baseball is a terrible use of resources when football drives 80-90% of athletic revenue at schools like State. Even a national championship in baseball brings in a fraction of what a 7-5 football season does in ticket sales, TV deals, ect and that’s before NIL eats into the budget. Invest in football properly, and you get bowl games, better recruiting , and even more cash flow to fund everything else. Baseball is nothing more than a feel good distraction that bleeds and wastes money that could be invested elsewhere. Redirect that NIL cash to football, and we could turn 5-7 or 6-6 into 8-4 or better, which means more SEC payouts, bigger crowds, and actual profitability. Win in football, and the whole fan base is lifted- including baseball fans.
For all those who are negative on the focus we put on baseball
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Yeah, well Will Rogers disagrees with you.
Didn't we just offer a left tackle several million dollars and above market rate to play here and he said no?
We could shut down the baseball program and use the savings to recruit a serviceable offensive line and we'd still whiff.
There are 2 reasons why our fans love baseball.
1. Because we win on a semi regular basis. If we didn't win from time to time no one would care. I remember a few years ago when people in the Cult of Vic would tell me, "I just like Women's basketball better. They play a more fundamental team game." That was a lie. They just liked it because we were winning at a high level
2. For the years we aren't so good in baseball, the reason fans keep going is because of the tailgate in the outfield. It is something that we uniquely started and it's fun so we defend it with our entire sense of fandom. LFL = The Grove to Ole Miss. If we were .500 and everyone had to sit in the grandstand and pay for concession beers, attendance would plummet.
In the big picture though baseball does not matter. College Hockey doubles the revenue of College Baseball. More people watch Women's Sweet 16 games than watched our baseball national championship final. We spend FAR too much money on it.
We spent plenty on football and basketball you dumb mother 17er. Our coaches and AD just suck.
Jans doesn't suck but he pulled a piss poor attitude this year.
Typical small minded Mississippi State thinking. Investing in baseball doesn’t cost money. It makes money.
Kinda reminds me of how some smaller private schools that usually aren’t good or suck in HS basketball, every year load up their JV team and focus more attention there just to try to win- even starting HS starters for a quarter or two. Then brag how good their JV team is.
for any other university outside of like LSU the investment would be looney tunes. Not for us.
For all the money and support we throw into baseball, our ROI is pretty poor. We’ve won just one regular season SEC championship since 1989, and we finally got a natty in 2021 to match with the likes of Georgia, Fresno State and Coastal Carolina. For all the money we throw into that program with the best stadium in the country and support the program has, we should be competing for national titles on the regular. Hopefully we will now that we went out and got a top level coach.
Here’s where someone asks the question about our ROI when it comes to football…
I've decided I'm going to enjoy myself even more knowing it burns people up I'm having fun watching baseball.
BASEBALL
BASEBALL
BASEBALL
It's awesome. It's the most fun I have on campus.
Tell me more about how mad it makes you. YUM YUM YUM.
Yeah, I'm dumb while I'm sitting in a chairback with my family in 70 degree temps watching a nationally ranked top 5 team at my alma mater. Did you hear Two Brothers is going to be serving there this year? SOOOOO Dumb.
Scream into the abyss that is your baseball relevance frustration. It fuels me.
BASEBALL
BASEBALL
BASEBALL
It's awesome. It's the most fun I have on campus.
Tell me more about how mad it makes you. YUM YUM YUM.
Yeah, I'm dumb while I'm sitting in a chairback with my family in 70 degree temps watching a nationally ranked top 5 team at my alma mater. Did you hear Two Brothers is going to be serving there this year? SOOOOO Dumb.
Scream into the abyss that is your baseball relevance frustration. It fuels me.
Did baseball haters start this thread? The abyss is baseball fans. Enjoy it. Sincerely. I hope you and your family have a great time. You will occupy just as much of my mental energy as baseball does, which is zero.
Why come back in April or May to get excited about a team with a new head coach, one who is a proven program builder and national championship winner, with a bunch of new, highly rated players, and a pre-season #4 ranking?
If I’m having a shittty week at work, but have a trip planned to a new country that could or could not be a great trip, do I just wallow in my misery and wait until the day of the flight to get excited? Hell no.
You're truly a silly 17. We're located in the poorest state in the country. A state that has way too many D1 programs. Of course we're too poor compared to the vast majority of our toughest competition you idiot.
You've posted 6 times and typed 300 or so words about something that occupies zero % of your mental energy. It's almost like you're simply full of ****...
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This is where it gets stupid. Baseball isn't a niche sport. It never has been and it never will be. As was said earlier, if DNF sat 50,000, we'd pack it. And so would many other SEC programs.
What's dumb is this moving of the goalposts.
"Baseball is a niche sport"
"No it isn't"
"Way more people love college football."
Well no ****. Way more people love college football than the NBA, too. Does that make the NBA a niche sport?
Title IX forces schools to fund niche sports. We do the bare minimum with tennis and soccer. Other schools in the conference field more of them. If we were talking about college gymnastics here, you might have a point. But if Title IX didn't exist, baseball would still be played at every program. Because it's not a niche sport.
MSU fans love baseball because how we do baseball is uniquely ours. It's what we're good at, and it's what we're known for.
MSU fans that bltch about baseball think that it's robbing resources from football, a sport we all love but have never been really good at. It's lazy and it's stupid.
The real kicker is the folks in this thread griping about it probably don't give money to either program.
The amount of money we invest in baseball is a drop in the bucket compared to football. If we dropped baseball completely & put the money to football, football would be just as bad as it is now.
Hate to break it to the slow to read the room, but the days of any school like Mississippi State or almost any school being nationally relevant in college football, is over under the current lawlessness
Yes, now. But I would be willing to bet MSU baseball wouldn't be nearly as popular and give us all those goosebump 'nostalgic' feelings if we had sucked since the 70's. The winning over the years built the fanbase.
Uniquely ours like the Grove is uniquely Ole Miss, and people on here ***** constantly about that.
And to say baseball is uniquely ours is silly in the first place. Historically we aren't even that good. We are a top 15 program in a sport where only 30 schools even care about it .
The truth is like poetry, and people 17'n hate poetry.
How much do we spend on baseball and how much do we lose? And how much of it is sourced from general funds available for anything? That could include general NIL dollars that could otherwise be directed to football/basketball as well.
Seems relevant if there's going to be a somewhat objective argument here.
Seems relevant if there's going to be a somewhat objective argument here.
If people don’t like baseball, they don’t like baseball. Why did we have to call attention to this?
Because the first lady of France is a man.
How we do baseball is uniquely ours. This isn't even a debatable point. The dude. The left field lounge. The lofts. Nobody else does what we do. Some try and they come off as inauthentic. My statement had nothing to do with number of championships. It's about the baseball experience at Mississippi State.
Let's also not forget, as a whole, MSU just came off probably the greatest decade in sports in MSU history, not just with the football team, WBB, MBB, Men's tennis, baseball....and despite the expense and travel, we've done pretty 17ing well across the board showing up and supporting. Most SEC universities have one major sport they have success in, fewer in teh span of time like the previous decade. after leach's untimely passing, most of us were just exasperated, overstretched and needed a break as fans.
If you love baseball, you love what happens at the Dude. It's as good as it gets.
In 2024, from what I’ve read, baseball’s expenses were well over 5 million and revenue was roughly the same or slightly less- resulting in a deficit of over 3 million. That would be consistent with prior years since 2010 where baseball has run annual deficits of $1–3 million every year- Even after the 2021 national title and multiple CWS trips. Baseball’s losses are subsidized by football. NIL dollars are mostly all donor driven but still part of the athletic budget ecosystem- which is money that could and should go to football.
Baseball championships may lift spirits for a few weeks, but just a winning football program lifts the entire athletic department and university, students, more fans spirits way more, along with the cash flow, for years.
It is a niche sport. VERY few school's fanbases care about it.
THANK YOU!!!! This makes me so happy you are mad about it.
I will enjoy the bottom of the 4th extra hard in your honor.
Every time you say, the word, niche, an angel get their wings and I smile.
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