Host programs for NCAA Baseball

[bruiser.sixpack]

Just sitting here watching this Vandy-Mizzou game go to the 11th tied at one and reminiscing about the good old days when NCAA Baseball programs had to turn in bids to win a chance to HOST.

It just seems like there should be a minimum number of seats to Host. Not just for the Home fans, but for the visiting fans. Like when we went to UL-L or Cal State-Fullerton. I think we had more fans than Fullerton one year and had they had the available seats at UL-L two years ago, we would have at least matched them.

 

[tatedog]

Totally agree. Programs that want to host should invest money and build infrastructure like they want to host. It's not something that should be done on the cheap. No way in this age of college baseball investment you can tell me that you can't find 16 host quality teams that have host quality facilities.

 

[Dawgcap]

I agree to an extent but I love the fact that you have to earn it not just invest to win it. What we accomplish this year will be more special cause we deserve it.

 

[MSUDC11]

To be fair to ULL, they just opened a brand new park this year and have a much better venue for hosting than they did three years ago.

While I'm ok with facilities being a tiebreaker for hosting when you're comparing bodies of work and a team like ULL or Fullerton is on the hosting bubble, sometimes they're too good for it to matter. Fullerton was the No. 1 national seed when we played there in a Super in 2001, and ULL went 53-7 in the regular season in 2014. I think you have reward teams like that.

 

[tatedog]

There are 4 teams that have had great seasons at every regional site. I'm not sure how fair or equitable it is to reward one school (at the expense of three others) that has under invested in facilities and can barely meet the demands of its own fan base, not to mention that of the three other teams it is "hosting."

 

[Dawgcap]

How do we known they are under investing? They may be investing as much as possible and still excelling. I respect that and personally think they deserve a spot if it is deserved.

 

[tatedog]

Yes thank goodness for "fairness" in awarding NCAA hosting sites, otherwise we would not have enjoyed those many NCAA basketball tournament classics in the Mississippi Coliseum.

eta: In all seriousness though, here's a compromise. Look at ULL's seating/ticket situation from 2014. If you want to host, you must assure at least 2500 seats available for visiting fans, or 50% of your seating capacity, whichever is smaller. Better teams get to host, but visiting fans are accommodated.

 

[Dawgcap]

I like that! Baseball is so different than basketball as there are no "neutral" site games ! Ha But if a team is a top rpi team and it's legit I hope there are ways they should host. Enjoyed the back and forth! But damn I'm excited if we host this year it is earned!

 

[wpmusm]

You still have to bid to host. Just off the top of my head, there have been some cases where facilities have at least made hosting a question mark for some schools. Cal Poly, UCSB, Cal, Dallas Baptist, Coastal Carolina (the last 2 have since upgraded their parks). They don't give a host spot to just anyone.

It does seem to me that the bid matters very little now. Maybe if you're a State or LSU type program that packs in 10k+ for a regional it factors in some but that's it.

 

[Hoover Dawg]

They routinely make some teams host at local minor league stadiums, to get more people in the gate.

Either way, a host is earned. Don't be stupid just because we happen to be wiling to spend money on baseball.

 

[patdog]

It's actually pretty rare for a team to host off-campus. Basically, the only requirement is that you have a stadium with lights. But I agree, it's stupid to even suggest going back to the days when we could buy a regional as a #3 seed and be eliminated before we even got to the weekend. If we deserve to host, we'll host. If not, we deserve to be on the road.

 

[Philly Dawg]

Calling all four teams "great" is kind of like awarding participation trophies. Third seeds tend to be major conference teams with slightly above .500 records and fourth seeds are teams who've been shellacked by major conference teams but won a minor conference.

 

[bruiser.sixpack]

My original premise had nothing to do with "favoring" a 3 seed MSU over any 1 seed.

But these programs that have 1500-2000 max attendance venues and average 500 or less per game are for the most part not strong D1 athletics programs are are most often not even D1 in Football. But, they get the benefit of the 11.7 scholarship limit, play a fairly competive non-conference schedule and waltz through their extremely Top Heavy League and because they went 7-10 against the Top 100 and 24-0 in their conference and went 13-0 against the weak part of their non-con schedule they wake up with Host and thanks to the number 2 seed, they end up with 1000 fans at the game.

Look, we are still in the hunt for a possible National Seed and we have lost 17 games already and 2 of those to sub 150 and sub 200 RPI teams.

Based on our Non-con, we don't deserve a National Seed. if we win the overall SEC with 20 overall losses, but go out of the Tourney 0-2 to give us 22 total losses Inam not even sure we should get a host. I know State has overcome a lot this year, but I think the overall body of work should play a roll unless, your facilities don't meet National Tourney standards. In other words, a 36-22 SEC overall champ should get a preference over a 46-14 SOCON team that has a 2000 seat stadium and averages 500 per game.

 

[AusTexDawg]

They routinely make some teams host at local minor league stadiums, to get more people in the gate.

Those schools still put in a bid and have to earn their spot. In 2015, UC-Santa Barbara contracted to rent a minor league stadium in Lake Elsinore, which is over 2 hours away but has lights. However, several other schools just use a minor league park as their home field, like West Virginia. 2015 was also when Missouri State had to go on the road as a 1-seed to Arkansas because the minor league team that allows them to use their stadium was playing a home series that weekend. There is a chance the same thing happens to Missouri State again.

 

[thekimmer]

I agree that ticket sales should be fair. The host team already has the advantage they shoukd not be entitled to all the seats too. Each team shoukd be offered a reasonable allotment of tickets and those that are not sold go back to the host.

 

[tatedog]

I'm not sure calling a 53-7 sunbelt team "great" is warranted either. That "great" team ended 50 years of Ole Miss Omaha frustration.

 

[Hoover Dawg]

They made Coastal Carolina do that a few years ago too. I think even Purdue had to do it.

 

[HardyStreetAlumniClub]

I remember a few years ago some of the projections forwards the end of the season had us playing in the Purdue regional. They would have hosted that regional at a minor league ballpark in Gary.

 

[MedDawg]

Dudy Noble could host a regional MSU wasn't playing in & it would be top third

of that year's regional attendance.

 

[maroonmania]

My original premise had nothing to do with "favoring" a 3 seed MSU over any 1 seed.

But these programs that have 1500-2000 max attendance venues and average 500 or less per game are for the most part not strong D1 athletics programs are are most often not even D1 in Football. But, they get the benefit of the 11.7 scholarship limit, play a fairly competive non-conference schedule and waltz through their extremely Top Heavy League and because they went 7-10 against the Top 100 and 24-0 in their conference and went 13-0 against the weak part of their non-con schedule they wake up with Host and thanks to the number 2 seed, they end up with 1000 fans at the game.

Look, we are still in the hunt for a possible National Seed and we have lost 17 games already and 2 of those to sub 150 and sub 200 RPI teams.

Based on our Non-con, we don't deserve a National Seed. if we win the overall SEC with 20 overall losses, but go out of the Tourney 0-2 to give us 22 total losses Inam not even sure we should get a host. I know State has overcome a lot this year, but I think the overall body of work should play a roll unless, your facilities don't meet National Tourney standards. In other words, a 36-22 SEC overall champ should get a preference over a 46-14 SOCON team that has a 2000 seat stadium and averages 500 per game.

Best I can tell our 2 worst losses are to Marist (RPI#149) and Morehead State (RPI#122). I don't see that we have any losses to an RPI sub 150 team.