New College Baseball Model? | The Boneyard

New College Baseball Model?

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It’s a long article and probably behind payroll for most. I’ll keep an eye out for a summary from other sources...



>>A College World Series in mid-July. An NCAA tournament beginning in early July. A college baseball season beginning the third weekend of March.

Those are all things that will happen beginning with the 2022 season if a set of recommendations assembled by a five-coach panel of Power Five coaches gets approval from other Division I coaches and passes at the highest levels of the NCAA in the coming months. The panel who put together the proposed “New Baseball Model” includes Michigan head coach Erik Bakich as the headliner and a host of other Power Five head coaches. There also have been Zoom discussions with plenty of other coaches, including Big Ten coaches, Virginia’s Brian O’Connor, Ole Miss’ Mike Bianco, Cal Poly’s Larry Lee, East Carolina’s Cliff Godwin, Oklahoma State’s Josh Holliday, UC Irvine’s Ben Orloff and Sacramento State’s Reggie Christiansen. The group also has included world-renowned orthopedic surgeon, Dr. James Andrews, on some of their calls.

“This isn’t the competitive equity proposal we have seen in previous years, and the coaches who have been working on this proposal do not need changes in order to have successful programs,” Michigan coach Erik Bakich said. “This is about the sustainability and growth of college baseball for the 2022 season and beyond. Universities and athletic departments across the country are facing a financial crisis, and our sport operates at a significant financial net loss amongst teams. That’s not a good combination.<<
 
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>>Erik Bakich and Tim Corbin are both in support of this proposal.

“Regardless of geography, playing college baseball in February and early March does not make sense financially, academically and certainly not medically speaking,” he continued. “If college baseball realistically wants to increase scholarships or add another full-time coach at some point in the future, improving our fiscal bottom line is the next step. If we do nothing, we may not like the decisions that will be made for us.”

Some college baseball programs could be at a crossroads with administrations all over the country looking to trim costs. In some cases, there will be program cuts, such as what we saw with Bowling Green and Furman over the past week, while in other instances, travel budgets could be slashed, and schedule regionalization is being actively promoted.<<

>>The most important things to remember about this proposal is that it shifts the season back. The season would start the third weekend of March, and the College World Series would begin the third weekend of July. Currently, programs have five weeks of ramp up time before the season begins. Under this proposal, there would be nine weeks of ramp up time leading up to Opening Day. That’s just the tip of the iceberg to this proposal.<<
 
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So that’s the end of the Cape Cod League, NECBL and the others. I agree starting the season in February stinks for northern teams. Start the middle of March with a southern trip during Spring break and play 40 games rather than 60 and end the College World Series last week of June. Regionalization the schedule. There you go Problem solved.
 
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This is going to be a very interesting couple of years for minor league baseball.

This proposal will likely run right into MLB's proposed restructuring of minor league baseball, which could see the culling of 40 or so teams, most of which comes from eliminating both the Rookie League (Appalachian and Pioneer Leagues) and Single-A Short Season (New York Penn and Northwest Leagues). The four leagues would be combined into a single, unaffiliated league called the "Dream League." MLB team would be limited to 5 total minor league teams plus a rookie camp at their Spring Training facility (I assume they would also keep their Dominican Republic training facilities, too) with the total number of players of minor league players under contract capped at 200. The Baseball draft would take place right after the College World Series, which put this college proposal at risk, with drafted players spending the rest of the year at the Spring Training facilities while undrafted players would go to the Dream teams. Overall, its a money grab by MLB owners who want less competition for fans, fewer negotiations to deal with (MLB would take over control of their minor league teams), fewer player contracts to spend money on, and a higher return on investment in their facilities (most MLB team own their Spring training facilities now).

This proposal has already received a lot of push back from Congress as it effects so many communities and it did not help that the proposal has been pushed by 'small-market' team champion - Jim Crane of the Houston Astros.

Also, beyond this move by MLB, moving college baseball into July would not only impact the Cape and other summer collegiate leagues, but minor league teams also. A number of minor league baseball teams use college baseball stadium, such as UMass Lowell (Lowell Spinners), and Penn State (State College Spikes).
 
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