Future baseball scheduling...

[57stratdawg]

After this year, is there any reason NOT to want as difficult of a schedule as possible? I know some of it is luck of the SEC draw, but it seems like we need to schedule as tough as possible. Seems like our schedule gave us some much needed margin of error, and opputunities to boost our resume.

Its not like football, and basketball to some degree, where the schedule can physically drain/wear you down.

 

[MetEdDawg]

Our SOS is so high because of our conference schedule.

We did play some pretty good teams midweek like Austin Peay, USA, Rhode Island, and played a weekend against Central Arkansas, but for the most part our nonconference didn't turn out to be as strong as we might have hoped. Purdue and Samford weren't as strong as last year, St. Joes had a disappointing year, and USM was only 3 games over .500 and didn't give us the boost some were hoping they would. But I love the midweek scheduling against good teams. We got Top 50 midweek wins against USA, Ole Miss, and Austin Peay, and we should continue to schedule that way.

I wish these Mississippi schools we play in nonconference would start posing a bit more of a challenge and help our resume more. Between USM, Alcorn, and MVSU, they won a combined total of 48 games, with USM winning 28 of those. MVSU only won 5 games total.

All that being said, I'm happy with the way the schedule played out this year. We probably played the toughest conference schedule and still finished 5th in the conference. We also played a lot of 4 game weekends early in the season. Both of these things should help in postseason play.

 

[patdog]

Not a real problem with the OOC schedule overall. But we do need to bring in a competitive team for a couple of the 4-game weekends for 3-team double round robin tournaments. I actually think we had someone like Fullerton St. or something scheduled to come in for the weekend that wound up being 4 games vs. Portland but they cancelled late. So I don't think it's entirely our fault.

 

[57stratdawg]

The problem is if we start scheduling tougher teams, we'll probably have to start hitting the road preseason OOC some. Can't say I'd be pissed about that if it was to a top 25 team. I don't want to see us play a weekend series at Austin Peay though.

Could be a good thing in the future to go on the road more. Pretty sure I remember one of the national guys saying Arkansas played "too many home games" this year.

 

[patdog]

Arkansas actually played a 4-game tournament at Arizona St. in the preseason (and got swept). I think we probably should play a 3-game road weekend against an ACC/Big 12/PAC-12/other strong West Coast team once a year.

 

[57stratdawg]

I agree. I wouldn't mind seeing us at Clemson, TCU, or Ga Tech. Not sure I'd want us going to California though.

 

[Requiem For A Dawg]

I'm pretty sure next year we are going to Arizona for a 3 game series and in 2015 they are coming to State.

 

[patdog]

That's a really good series for us. I've always liked and respected Andy Lopez a lot. He's was who I wanted us to hire when McMahon left for Florida (Manieri was my #2 choice). And of course there's the Byrne connection.

 

[MSUDC11]

According to an October article with Tyler Bratton on Scout, next year we play:

Hofstra
Holy Cross
Michigan State/Eastern Illinois
@Arizona

Those are our weekend sets.

In 2015 we are playing in a tournament versus Louisiana schools at Zephyr Field in NOLA, Arizona at home, and Oregon and UNLV in Eugene. Those two are coming to Starkville in 2016 and we will play them in Las Vegas in 2017.

 

[esplanade91]

We did play some pretty good teams midweek like Austin Peay, USA, Rhode Island, and played a weekend against Central Arkansas, but for the most part our nonconference didn't turn out to be as strong as we might have hoped. Purdue and Samford weren't as strong as last year, St. Joes had a disappointing year, and USM was only 3 games over .500 and didn't give us the boost some were hoping they would. But I love the midweek scheduling against good teams. We got Top 50 midweek wins against USA, Ole Miss, and Austin Peay, and we should continue to schedule that way.

I wish these Mississippi schools we play in nonconference would start posing a bit more of a challenge and help our resume more. Between USM, Alcorn, and MVSU, they won a combined total of 48 games, with USM winning 28 of those. MVSU only won 5 games total.

All that being said, I'm happy with the way the schedule played out this year. We probably played the toughest conference schedule and still finished 5th in the conference. We also played a lot of 4 game weekends early in the season. Both of these things should help in postseason play.

I'd say that our midweek games were top-notch compared to just about anyone else's. Ole Miss, Memphis, and some of the ones you mentioned are not necessarily teams most schools would schedule during SEC conference play. A combination of that and not getting Mizzou and UGA really helped us (hurt us?) out in SOS, and actually winning those really made our RPI skyrocket.

When was the last time you saw an MSU team with a ridiculous SOS that actually took advantage of it?

 

[Maroon Eagle]

I like those Oregon-UNLV weekend series from 2015-17.

 

[patdog]

A lot of really attractive OOC series coming up. 2015 may be one of the toughest OOC schedules in the country.