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NCAA To Set Common Start Date For College Baseball

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OSUBasketballJunkie

OSUBasketballJunkie

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1/11/06

COLLEGE BASEBALL
Todd applauds move by NCAA to set common starting date

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Mark Znidar
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH




As a college baseball coach, Bob Todd has few peers. He has won 850 games and led teams into the NCAA tournament 11 times.

One of his biggest victories, however, occurred Monday when the NCAA passed legislation that will push back the start of the season to late February beginning in 2007.

This will be the final season in which baseball will be the only NCAA sport without a common starting date. For example, Cal State-Northridge opens Jan. 27 and Ohio State on Feb. 24.

Todd is on the Division I Baseball Issues Committee that proposed the change in schedule last spring. In recent years, he received support from Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany.

"I can show you notes that go way back to 1975 and ’76 when I was an assistant at Missouri when we were talking about this," Todd said. "We talked about a regional television package that would stretch nationwide.

All we’ve ever wanted to do with this was help some colleges possibly emphasize baseball more and to grow the sport nationwide. This was never about just my teams."

The ideal schedule for Todd would be a starting date of April 1 and the College World Series pushed back from mid-June to the first Friday after the Fourth of July. That, he concedes, will never happen.

"This is not exactly a perfect schedule, but it is a compromise that will bring about more competitive equity," he said. "You have to remember that 80 percent of college baseball teams still won’t be able to get on their fields because of weather until April 1 or late March."

However, Midwest powers such as Ohio State, Notre Dame, Wichita State, Nebraska and Minnesota no longer will have to travel south in mid-February and open against warm-weather teams that have played up to eight to 10 games.

The change in schedule generally was supported by the Southeastern, Atlantic Coast and Big 12 conferences but was fought by the Pacific 10.

Southern California coach Mike Gillespie doesn’t like the change, but said warm-weather teams have had an advantage.

"I don’t think there’s any debate about it," Gillespie told the Los Angeles Times. "If you’re a baseball coach in a coldweather climate, you’re at a disadvantage relative in terms in the Southeast, West and Southwest. But Nebraska, Wichita State, Notre Dame and Ohio State, those are teams that fare well (despite the weather)."

Ohio State will play its first 17 games in Florida. Its home opener is against Toledo on March 29.

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The powers that be object to playoff system for I-A football because it would supposedly take students out of the classrooms... yet they've allowed stuff like this to go on for all this time. How much time are those baseball players spending in class if they're in Florida for most of winter quarter?
 
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Thanks, Mili! :biggrin: On my 07 calendar that would be Feb. 23, (I think:) ) That's two full weeks later than we start this year. The problem for the coaches here is that it pushes the end of the season so late into the summer. Graduation here is always around May 6th or so. When baseball lasts until well into June, the cost of housing and feeding the athletes is high, that's why they are against it. Also, it is very tough for summer leagues, wood bat leagues, AAU teams and the like to play many games when the college athletes don't finish until June, and school starts in early August. Jlb makes a good point, but it goes both ways, if you have 2 less weeks to play your alotment of games, you're playing more games during the week, where it does effect study time, rather than on the weekends, where there is less of a class room impact. JMHO
 
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jlb1705 said:
The powers that be object to playoff system for I-A football because it would supposedly take students out of the classrooms... yet they've allowed stuff like this to go on for all this time. How much time are those baseball players spending in class if they're in Florida for most of winter quarter?
Click to expand...

I don't know how they rationalize this.
 
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I agree that their should be a little help for the northern schools. Hell when I played, we were a lot of schools opening weekend. Kent,Akron,OSU used to come down at the end of Feb, and it was their first time outside of their indoor.
I know I would not have mind things getting moved back. That was my favorite time of the year when school was over, and all we had to do was play ball, and hang with my friends.
 
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