An interesting idea was pitched by the Big Ten recently. The dean of Big Ten baseball coaches offered an opinion that the league should move it’s baseball season to the summer months.
At the very least, it would free up student athletes for practice. But that wasn’t the main idea.
The idea would save teams from playing in cold and winter-like conditions, travel during winter storms and offer the schools an opportunity to recruit players on an even playing field.
The only downside? It would leave the Big Ten teams out of the NCAA tournament.
According to a report by Eric Olson of The Associated Press, Minnesota’s John Anderson told him that he thought Big Ten teams would benefit from playing April to August.
Keep in mind, the Big Ten is rarely in the College World Series, anyway. Missing out on the NCAA baseball tournament would likely not hurt too many teams. In 2011, Illinois was the only Big Ten team still playing in June.
Perhaps an April to August season isn’t possible, but Big Ten deputy commissioner Brad Traviolia said he is considering it – and he has an idea of his own.
Traviolia told Olson that the Big Ten is “working on a proposal that would allow teams across the nation to play up to 14 non-conference games in the fall” and the results would carry-over to the spring.
Think of it as the Cingular plan to college baseball.
On top of that, the games would also be considered in the NCAA tournament selection process.
Speaking of the College World Series. The NCAA made approximately 10,000 reserved seat tickets available on Feb. 24 for those who want to go to Omaha in 2012.
Leave a Reply