2026 Baseball Mega Thread

[T-Dog]

Sun Belt got five teams in. Southern Miss, Coastal, Louisiana, Troy and Texas State all in.

[311neers]

5 in!!

Time to fund baseball. 36% of the conference playing postseason ball.

[T-Dog]

Selection committee chair heavily emphasized strength of schedule in saying why a team like Mercer didn't get in. He credited teams like Santa Barbara for going out and playing tough series (they went to Southern Miss). Troy was barely above .500 overall, but their schedule was brutally tough.

The message is clear if we want to be in at-large contention in the future.

[Stonewall]

I’m not the baseball Nostrildameus but someone told me that had we scheduled UNC and Ga Tech , even going 0-6 on the road instead of GW and PC we would still be playing.

[311neers]

Selection committee chair heavily emphasized strength of schedule in saying why a team like Mercer didn't get in. He credited teams like Santa Barbara for going out and playing tough series (they went to Southern Miss). Troy was barely above .500 overall, but their schedule was brutally tough.

The message is clear if we want to be in at-large contention in the future.

Didn’t Mercer play @Oregon State, @ fsu and beat Troy in a series? First time ever a top 30 RPI left out.

They got snubbed. It might mean they just wanted SoCon a 1 bid league. If Mercer was in a bigger conf. they’re in.

Committee gave NC State/Avent a retirement gift.

[AppStFan1]

5 in!!

Time to fund baseball. 36% of the conference playing postseason ball.

Absolutely.

[Stonewall]

With the money coming from ?

[311neers]

With the money coming from ?

Alumni.
Maybe take a dollar or two from Football.

A couple of us are trying to set up a call with Kermit to see where we can assist/gauge needs.

The program has had a few guys that made some decent money over the past 10-15 years playing professionally. Could be a start. There might be enough interest now to take advantage of a solid past few years.

[311neers]

Where did Murray State get their “money”?

[Stonewall]

Squeeze em. I have wondered how much athletes reinvest in our program. Football is sacred. So far.

[ASUFan4863]

With the money coming from ?

Alumni.
Maybe take a dollar or two from Football.

A couple of us are trying to set up a call with Kermit to see where we can assist/gauge needs.

The program has had a few guys that made some decent money over the past 10-15 years playing professionally. Could be a start. There might be enough interest now to take advantage of a solid past few years.

Let’s continue to rob Peter to pay Paul. It has worked great so far. Will probably have to make a change to increase the excitement to give, although that is not the answer you want to hear

[JTApps1]

Football, mens basketball, baseball, and to a lesser extent softball are the sports that can actually get us recognition on a national scale. They need all the resources we have give. I hate to be that way, but that's reality.

People around baseball know our coaches are overachieving with what they have. The SBC teams in the NCAA have full scholarships and several have a decent amount of NIL. We have neither to offer players.

[Stonewall]

Who in the conference has NIL at a significant level?

[311neers]

Who in the conference has NIL at a significant level?

Probably just USM and Coastal.
But I'm sure other teams will start picking up the slack.

As most of these football schools have now realized they have no shot at competing for national relevance...just like us. We're all in the same boat now. We've been priced out of competing in football.

[Stonewall]

From Applebees ?

[Saint3333]

Would be great to get a couple into the Super Regionals.

USM best chance with CCU and ULL next I'd assume.

[AppSt94]

With the money coming from ?

Alumni.
Maybe take a dollar or two from Football.

A couple of us are trying to set up a call with Kermit to see where we can assist/gauge needs.

The program has had a few guys that made some decent money over the past 10-15 years playing professionally. Could be a start. There might be enough interest now to take advantage of a solid past few years.

Are those guys more likely to give one time gifts versus annual investments? Outside of Springs, I can’t think of anyone making needle moving money.

[AppFan11]

After spending some hours comparing the five teams that got in the regionals to Apps, using the Warren Nolan site, what T-dog and others said is that you have schedule a better more competitive schedule….. but what would that look like? 1- goal is to have a SOS of at least 30 ( not 113) 2- need to schedule at least 17 games that qualify for quad 1 (not 9) 3- the second most games can’t be in quad 4 (not 21)…. This would be a really good start for a schedule upgrade.

[AppDawg]

After spending some hours comparing the five teams that got in the regionals to Apps, using the Warren Nolan site, what T-dog and others said is that you have schedule a better more competitive schedule….. but what would that look like? 1- goal is to have a SOS of at least 30 ( not 113) 2- need to schedule at least 17 games that qualify for quad 1 (not 9) 3- the second most games can’t be in quad 4 (not 21)…. This would be a really good start for a schedule upgrade.

Confirmed by selection committee here:

“Troy kind of got our message,” Alford said. “They did not get into the tournament last year for the same reason and this year they had a very strong out-of-conference strength of schedule and won some of those games, a lot of those games. That was something we’ve emphasized for the last few years, going and scheduling aggressively.”

Read more at: https://www.sunherald.com/sports/colleg ... rylink=cpy

https://www.sunherald.com/sports/colleg ... 9f271w_Z2Q

[JTApps1]

Who in the conference has NIL at a significant level?

Probably just USM and Coastal.
But I'm sure other teams will start picking up the slack.

As most of these football schools have now realized they have no shot at competing for national relevance...just like us. We're all in the same boat now. We've been priced out of competing in football.

Yes, those two. Also UL and I believe USA may be in the mix some.