1. Welcome to SportsJournalists.com, a friendly forum for discussing all things sports and journalism.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register for a free account to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Access to private conversations with other members.
    • Fewer ads.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

The Road to Omaha: 2015 College Baseball Thread

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Batman, May 25, 2015.

  1. Batman

    Batman Well-Known Member

    Don't think we've had one of these yet, and with today being Selection Monday figured it was time.

    It doesn't matter a ton, but UCLA getting the No. 1 overall seed over LSU was a bit of a surprise. Looked like a few marginal teams winning conference tournaments (Texas, Florida International, Michigan) also sent some deserving bubble teams home.

    Thoughts? Predictions? Discuss.
     
  2. DanOregon

    DanOregon Well-Known Member

    Typical over representation of SEC and ACC teams that tend to fizzle out, but have the stadiums to put money in the NCAA bank.
     
  3. Batman

    Batman Well-Known Member

    There aren't any SEC teams in that don't deserve to be there. Alabama (No. 44 RPI in the last posted rankings) was right on the cutoff line and they didn't get in. Of the seven that made it, four were no-brainers and three were solidly in. Hell, Ole Miss even got a little screwed having to go out to UCLA. That's about right for a top-heavy conference that was competitive in the middle.

    I didn't follow the ACC that closely, but Clemson looks like they were a surprise entrant. Guess the committee figured it just wouldn't be May without the Tigers tripping over their own dick in a regional.
     
  4. Batman

    Batman Well-Known Member

    I'd also like to take this moment to point out two remarkable streaks, one of which officially came to an end today and one that continued a couple of weeks ago.

    First, Rice's conference championship streak continued when it won the Conference USA regular season title. That makes 20 seasons in a row, across three different leagues (Southwest, WAC and C-USA), in which Rice has won either the regular season or tournament championship of its conference. That's pretty remarkable considering C-USA is a decent baseball league.

    Second, South Carolina's run of 40-win seasons came to an end when it failed to make the NCAA tournament. South Carolina finished 32-25, the first time this century (the last time was in 1999) that it has not won at least 40 games in a season. As a fitting tribute, let's pour out a 40 for the Gamecocks, shall we?
     
  5. Armchair_QB

    Armchair_QB Well-Known Member

    Steve Smith getting fired at Baylor means Wayne Graham is the last Southwest Conference head coach in football, baseball or men's basketball still holding the same job from his school's days in the SWC.
     
  6. linotype

    linotype Well-Known Member

    Not sure that's true (of the ACC, anyway) because only 3 ACC ballparks will host regionals -- none in Georgia, none in either of the Carolinas, none in Virginia, and in fact only one (Louisville) north of the Florida-Georgia line.
     
  7. MileHigh

    MileHigh Moderator Staff Member

    Tough road for Cal State Omaha.
     
  8. ChrisLong

    ChrisLong Well-Known Member

    UC Santa Barbara, which doesn't have lights, is hosting a regional at Lake Elsinore.
    Lake Elsinore is the California League Class-A affiliate of the Padres. It's 175 miles from Santa Barbara.
    And two of the teams competing there are San Diego State and USC, both a helluva lot closer to Lake Elsinore than UCSB is.
     
  9. Batman

    Batman Well-Known Member

    Isn't Lake Elsinore's ballpark also a notorious launching pad?
     
  10. Batman

    Batman Well-Known Member

    Loved the all-Florida regional in Gainesville, and the nearly-all Houston regional (Houston, Houston Baptist, Rice and Louisiana-Lafayette, which won't have all that far to drive and should have just as many fans there as the Houston schools).

    Some other potentially fun matchups are LSU-Tulane (LSU will kill them, but the rivalry aspect will be fun); and Arizona State, Pepperdine and Fullerton all in the same regional.
     
  11. ChrisLong

    ChrisLong Well-Known Member

    I'm not an expert on the Cal League, but you're probably thinking about High Desert in Adelanto. The wind blows and the ball flies. Similar is the stadium in Lancaster. I don't think so regarding Lake Elsinore. Only 310 down the right-field line, but they have a tall fence. The power alley in left is 425.
     
  12. DanOregon

    DanOregon Well-Known Member

    How does a conference like the Pac-12 land half of its conference in the tournament and only the champion hosts a regional? Either the conference sucks or it doesn't.
     
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page