Rutgers doesn’t make the show

[Charlesroast]

The NCAA baseball parings were just announced and Rutgers didn’t get in. No doubt there are a lot of parts to this, bid stealers, including Michigan, general northern teams difficulties & Rutgets had a weak non conference strength of schedule to name a few.

IMO the B1G lack of emphasis contributes to this instance for Rutgers and difficulties for league teams getting national traction in general. The B1G broke from the ACC, SEC, & PAC12 (I think w/o looking it up) in voting against a 3rd paid assistant. Baseball has a poor player to coach ratio and this 3rd assistant has been an issue for a longtime. I think there had been some consensus building to pushing the season back a couple weeks along with the MLB draft, which the northern teams need. I think that momentum has waned. The B1G 2021 COVID season approach had impacts inside the league and outside.

I feel bad for the Rutgers kids and their coach. They had a good season.

*clean up aisle 2

 

[ptrich]

The selection committee obviously wasn't about to put three B1G teams in the field this year and two teams in the field from the B1G are the fewest for a while (there were four teams last season.) Michigan knocked out a bubble team by winning the B1G tournament and it turned out that bubble team was Rutgers and they are not happy campers in Piscataway. Pretty much everyone including D1Baseball, whose last projection was after the B1G tourney was over with, had both Rutgers and Maryland as pretty much locks for the tournament even after Michigan won the tournament, so it was a surprise. Rutgers was hurt by a down year for the B1G and a weak non-conference SOS that was ranked 238th out of 301 teams. Their SOS overall was 149. By comparison, IU's non-conference SOS was ranked 63rd and their SOS overall was ranked 56th.

 

[kraft cheese+macaroni]

The NCAA baseball parings were just announced and Rutgers didn’t get in. No doubt there are a lot of parts to this, bid stealers, including Michigan, general northern teams difficulties & Rutgets had a weak non conference strength of schedule to name a few.

IMO the B1G lack of emphasis contributes to this instance for Rutgers and difficulties for league teams getting national traction in general. The B1G broke from the ACC, SEC, & PAC12 (I think w/o looking it up) in voting against a 3rd paid assistant. Baseball has a poor player to coach ratio and this 3rd assistant has been an issue for a longtime. I think there had been some consensus building to pushing the season back a couple weeks along with the MLB draft, which the northern teams need. I think that momentum has waned. The B1G 2021 COVID season approach had impacts inside the league and outside.

I feel bad for the Rutgers kids and their coach. They had a good season.

*clean up aisle 2

It sucks for Rutgers but this doesn’t have anything to do with the conference’s emphasis or not. The Big Ten schools that have gotten at large bids have had strong non-conference resumes. Rutgers had the opposite.

Maybe they didn’t anticipate being that good this year so they didn’t schedule accordingly. Or maybe there are other reasons their non-conference SOS was so bad but that was their issue. Plus they didn’t win a series against anyone better than Penn State.

Those are primarily Rutgers problems not Big Ten problems.

 

[ptrich]

A couple of tweets that I saw that are interesting.







7h

Replying to
@ChadLeistikow
Absolutely no respect for teams above the Mason Dixon line. However, the B1G screwed itself not playing a full schedule last year when everyone else basically did. It’s lack of commitment to

too embarrassing.

Replying to
@ChadLeistikow
How does the Big Ten have zero representation on the 10 member selection committee? That’s insane.

 

[kraft cheese+macaroni]

A couple of tweets that I saw that are interesting.

7h

Replying to
@ChadLeistikow
Absolutely no respect for teams above the Mason Dixon line. However, the B1G screwed itself not playing a full schedule last year when everyone else basically did. It’s lack of commitment to

too embarrassing.

Replying to
@ChadLeistikow
How does the Big Ten have zero representation on the 10 member selection committee? That’s insane.

So not playing a full season last year cost Rutgers this year?

and we all should know by now that committee members vacate the room when a team from their conference is discussed.

Two. Dumb. Tweets.

 

[ptrich]

So not playing a full season last year cost Rutgers this year?

and we all should know by now that committee members vacate the room when a team from their conference is discussed.

Two. Dumb. Tweets.

IMO FWIW, although it was clear it was the Rutgers snub that generated the tweet, the first one really was implying that the B1G heirarchy in general has a lack of commitment to the sport whether people agree or not, and pretty much everyone at the time last season complained that it was pretty silly to cancel the non-conference part of the season while other conferences didn't and they ended up having no problems. The school presidents played a big part in that also. Now I know there's not much the B1G heirarchy can do since the commitment situation is really at the school level and we know how difficult it is to compete against the warm weather schools around the country.

You have a point on the 2nd one, and while the B1G is not considered a strong baseball conference, you would think that they would have at least one representative on the committee even if they have to leave the room when a school from the conference is discussed, and I don't know if that's the case since that's one person's comment. Regardless, complaining about teams being snubbed after not making a tournament field in any sport is a national pastime ritual.

 

[biglewexpress]

The selection committee obviously wasn't about to put three B1G teams in the field this year and two teams in the field from the B1G are the fewest for a while (there were four teams last season.) Michigan knocked out a bubble team by winning the B1G tournament and it turned out that bubble team was Rutgers and they are not happy campers in Piscataway. Pretty much everyone including D1Baseball, whose last projection was after the B1G tourney was over with, had both Rutgers and Maryland as pretty much locks for the tournament even after Michigan won the tournament, so it was a surprise. Rutgers was hurt by a down year for the B1G and a weak non-conference SOS that was ranked 238th out of 301 teams. Their SOS overall was 149. By comparison, IU's non-conference SOS was ranked 63rd and their SOS overall was ranked 56th.

Also Rutgers only played 4 quad 1 games going 1-3. They were 8-8 in quad 1 and 2 games, with a majority of quad 3/4 wins. The non-con SOS as you pointed out was atrocious at 238, they didn’t challenge themselves out of conference and the Big 10 was rated the 8th conference this year.

 

[mk30]

100% agree the BigTen is not overly interested in baseball. Look at it this way, did Commissioner Alvarez coach baseball? Seriously, anyone who believes not having a 3rd assistant is no big deal loses their cred.

 

[kraft cheese+macaroni]

100% agree the BigTen is not overly interested in baseball. Look at it this way, did Commissioner Alvarez coach baseball? Seriously, anyone who believes not having a 3rd assistant is no big deal loses their cred.

Alvarez didn't coach men's basketball either.

I wish baseball had 3 assistants. Pretty astounding that they don't, but it's not as if the B1G is playing with 2 while everyone else is playing with 3-4.

 

[biglewexpress]

Alvarez didn't coach men's basketball either.

I wish baseball had 3 assistants. Pretty astounding that they don't, but it's not as if the B1G is playing with 2 while everyone else is playing with 3-4.

Yeah, I mean that’s essentially what the Volunteer assist position is used as the 3rd assist. They don’t get paid out of the assistant money pool. It’s a financial issue for schools that’s for sure, but you won’t find one coach or assistant across college baseball that’s not in favor of the 3rd paid assistant.

What most people don’t understand is that there are only maybe 7/8/9 schools that actually turn a profit on baseball. For the most part, it’s a deficit sport for most schools. These schools/athletic departments are business at the end of the day.

 

[Charlesroast]

The 3rd paid assistant has been an issue for years. The last attempt was watered down to try to get something passed. Under the last proposal schools would have given the option (not mandated) to convert the “volunteer” assistant to a paid position. The B1G, which was then and remains at least for now the richest conference, voted no. IIRC the volunteer assistant cannot do off campus recruiting. This is another place where southern schools, ACC & SEC, raise more “complimentary“ funds that benefit their programs and can point to this northern opposition as another reason to go south.

In looking for a Michigan explanation of the Weiss incident I found this encouraging Article regarding possible NCAA changes freeing up assistant pay and scholarship numbers. I’ll give Bakich credit he has been involved in pushing for change, including starting the season later.

 

[Seyton]

NIL for coaches? 🤷