Road to Omaha thread

[micropolitan guy]

NCAA releases 16 regional sites. As usual, very SEC/ACC-centric and the west gets hosed. Pac-12 has won four of the last eight titles and its second-place team, which goes 39-14-1 overall and 21-9 in conference, doesn't even get to host.

Your regional sites: Ole Miss, Cal Poly, Oklahoma State, Florida State, Rice, Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisville, Vanderbilt, South Carolina, TCU, Oregon State and Florida.

Pairings and top 8 seeds announced Monday. Dollars to donuts the Oregon State and Cal Poly regionals will be paired.

 

[Armchair_QB]

There will probably be six texas teams combined in the Rice & TCU regionals

1. Rice
2. Texas
3. Sam Houston
4. Midwest or Northeast slapdick

1. TCU
2. Houston
3. Texas A&M
4. Midwest or Northeast slapdick

 

[Bubbler]

The Pac 12 was pretty down this year. I get that they sometimes get dicked. Not sure this year is one of them.

 

[Mark2010]

Wasn't one of the goals in the new system to try to keep teams closer to home? So maybe it just makes more sense geographically to send Central Connecticut State to Tallahassee, Fla. or Miami than to Corvallis, Oregon.

What's surprising to me is that Texas, Texas A&M nor LSU are hosting a series.

 

[mb]

OP only lists 12 hosts. Looks like Indiana, LSU, Miami and UVa are the four hosts that weren't listed.

 

[DanOregon]

I've got to think the ACC and SEC sites are given preference simply due to stadium size. The Pac-12 has one on-campus stadium over 5,000 seats. The SEC has nine, the ACC six. The NCAA loves to make money.

 

[Steak Snabler]

As DanOregon said, it's also largely about attendance, not deserving to host. And the teams in the South draw like crazy, always have.

Unless you count Hawaii, the only West Coast team in the top 20 in attendance this year is Arizona State, at No. 20.

http://www.collegebaseballdaily.com/2013/05/20/ncaa-attendance-report-may-20th/

 

[Steak Snabler]

Dollars to donuts the Oregon State and Cal Poly regionals will be paired.

Wrong! Corvallis and Stillwater paired up.

 

[Armchair_QB]

Can't believe the Aggies & Longhorns are in the same regional.

 

[Football_Bat]

Anybody who showed they can really play is already a pro. They showed their stuff early and took their seven-fig bonus. The CWS is full of either late bloomers, or kids who made a bad decision signing D-I, or kids just glad to get a partial ride through college.

 

[HookEm2014]

Can't believe the Aggies & Longhorns are in the same regional.

That regional is brutal with Texas, A&M and Rice. But you'll find a lot of happy people around Texas that the Aggies and Longhorns are playing again, even if it's just baseball for now.

 

[micropolitan guy]

Anybody who showed they can really play is already a pro.

Of American-born players to win baseball's top awards in this century, most (Max Scherzer, David Price, Justin Verlander, Cliff Lee, RA Dickey, Tim Lincecum, Buster Posey, Ryan Braun, Dustin Pedroia, Brandon Webb, Randy Johnson, Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi, Barry Zito, Jeff Kent) played college baseball.

 

[Mark2010]

As DanOregon said, it's also largely about attendance, not deserving to host. And the teams in the South draw like crazy, always have.

Unless you count Hawaii, the only West Coast team in the top 20 in attendance this year is Arizona State, at No. 20.

http://www.collegebaseballdaily.com/2013/05/20/ncaa-attendance-report-may-20th/

It would be nice to have at least one host in the Midwest somewhere. If that were the case in the basketball tournaments, there would be an outcry. I get that Big Ten teams don't draw as well as SEC teams, but out of 16 spots, surely they could find ONE.

Edit: I saw Bloomington, Ind., was hosting a region. Good move.

 

[Mark2010]

Can't believe the Aggies & Longhorns are in the same regional.

Not in the same conference anymore. So it's almost a no-brainer to put them together.

 

[Mark2010]

Can't believe the Aggies & Longhorns are in the same regional.

That regional is brutal with Texas, A&M and Rice. But you'll find a lot of happy people around Texas that the Aggies and Longhorns are playing again, even if it's just baseball for now.

Oh, they'll pack 'em in. They would often draw as many fans for baseball games as they would for men's basketball (especially when the teams weren't real good). They might draw more fans than a typical Astros game. Playing in Houston, with tons of alums from both schools, it will be a tough ticket.

 

[Football_Bat]

Anybody who showed they can really play is already a pro.

Of American-born players to win baseball's top awards in this century, most (Max Scherzer, David Price, Justin Verlander, Cliff Lee, RA Dickey, Tim Lincecum, Buster Posey, Ryan Braun, Dustin Pedroia, Brandon Webb, Randy Johnson, Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi, Barry Zito, Jeff Kent) played college baseball.

That's 15 out of 56 combined NL and AL MVP and Cy Youngs between 2000-13.

That's not most.

 

[Steak Snabler]

Anybody who showed they can really play is already a pro.

Of American-born players to win baseball's top awards in this century, most (Max Scherzer, David Price, Justin Verlander, Cliff Lee, RA Dickey, Tim Lincecum, Buster Posey, Ryan Braun, Dustin Pedroia, Brandon Webb, Randy Johnson, Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi, Barry Zito, Jeff Kent) played college baseball.

That's 15 out of 56 combined NL and AL MVP and Cy Youngs between 2000-13.

That's not most.

If you take out the non-Americans, it probably is. And several of those guys won multiple awards.

Ryan Howard also played college baseball, though he wasn't listed. Same with Roger Clemens.

And though he's not American, you can add Albert Pujols to that list. He played junior college baseball in the U.S.

 

[micropolitan guy]

That's 15 out of 56 combined NL and AL MVP and Cy Youngs between 2000-13.

That's not most.

Bonds won 4 MVPs. So add 3, that's 18. Clemens, who I forgot played at Texas, won 2 Cy Youngs. So that's 20. Randy Johnson has 3 Cy Youngs, so add 2, that's 22. Lincicum has two Cy Youngs, so add 1, that's 24. Verlander also won an MVP, so add 1. That's 25. Howard, who I forgot played at SWMS, so add 1. That's 26.

From 56, lets subtract Pujols (3) Cabrera (2), Santana (2), Colon, Hernandez, P. Martinez, Vlad Guerrero, Miguel Tejada, Ichiro, Gagne, Morneau and Votto, who were all born outside of the US. That 16, so 40.

26 of 40 is 65 percent, or nearly 2/3. Ie, most.

 

[Armchair_QB]

Can't believe the Aggies & Longhorns are in the same regional.

That regional is brutal with Texas, A&M and Rice. But you'll find a lot of happy people around Texas that the Aggies and Longhorns are playing again, even if it's just baseball for now.

Too bad Rice can't move that regional to Minute Maid.

 

[SoCalDude]

Spent a couple of days wondering what would happen with the Big West.
-- Cal Poly SLO finished first.
-- Long Beach finished strong and was second.
-- UC Irvine had a lock on the championship, then lost its last eight conference games to finish third, losing 2 of 3 to Cal Poly, and being swept by CS Fullerton and Long Beach.
-- CS Fullerton, preseason No. 1 by Baseball America, was crap most of the year then came on strong at the end, still finished fourth.
Of the 2-3-4, Fullerton is probably the best team, Irvine had the best record, but Long Beach actually finished second.
So the NCAA took all of them. Kinda surprising, except the Big West commissioner was the head of the selection committee.