SouthSideRyan

Local radio in MSU reporting Lucas is out about 2 weeks.

It's really a 3 team dogfight for that 5th spot. If they're lucky, and none of the 3 have bad losses, the Big Ten might be able to steal a 6th bid, but that's gotta be the max. Northwestern has the easiest road (1 game against the top 4), with only 1 game they should lose, and one toss up. On the downside they have the worst current record at 4-6, and don't have a lot of opportunities for statement wins. (With only Purdue as a win over a tourney team) They are 1-2 against their competition (1-1 vs. UI, 0-1 vs MN) Minnesota has an easy road, with only 2 games against the top 4, but is without Al Nolen for the rest of the year and are sitting with a below 500 record at 4-5. They have a win against Butler to support their win vs OSU. They also have a bad loss to IU. MN and NU play each other a week from Sunday, and if MN wins that they should slot ahead of them barring a collapse. Illinois has a brutal road, playing the top 4 teams 6 times (3 home, 3 road) They've got good wins at Clemson and against Vandy, but have bad losses to Utah, Bradley, and a not good loss at GA. They have the best record of the 3 at 6-3, but that was built up by beating the dregs. They are 1-1 against their competition with a home game vs MN left at the end of February. Their remaining schedule is a double-edged sword in that they are favored in 2 games the rest of the way (according to Pomeroy), but it also gives them a lot of opportunity for marquee wins to separate them from the other 2, and no real chance for bad losses (after tonight) I'll say UI and NU make it, MN to NIT.

Your friend and you don't: -Have the bodies of professional athletes -Have the training regimens of professional athletes -Have acces to the type of drugs a professional athlete does. There's really no comparison between what you guys did/felt and what a pro athlete would.

And I think connecting the thrown bat to roid rage is a tenuous link at best. Clemens is just a prick.

It should give you a pretty last 10(or 12) record. I don't think they put nearly as much weight on that anymore but I believe it's still a factor. Gun to my head, I'd bet you lose one of those roadies, probably to PSU. NU should still make it though, as long as they don't blow it in the cupcakes.

I'm really pissed I didn't get home in time to bet on this.

I've given up on pretending I know what kind of money a player will get. That's twice as much as what I figured was the high end for Gregg.

Northwestern stepping on Michigan's throat. This team should be looking at a top half finish next year(not to say they can't this year) They lose only Nash, but gain Coble. (Plus obviously a year of experience for everyone else.

Fandom, at least among alumni, is built from going to the games, being a part of the atmosphere while you're there. Having nobody go to the actual games makes a pretty big difference IMO. Football's an event sport, people only have to pay attention 12 Saturdays a year while they're hungover on the couch or getting drunk in a parking lot. Regarding Oregon St., they're in a unique situation having a program that plays the majority of their away games vs. California and Arizona schools doesn't hurt. I'd have to think the in-depth minor league system of MLB hurts quite a bit as well. A non-alum isn't going to bother paying attention to a sporting event full of guys that don't stand a chance at making the pros. College basketball and college football are the highest (US) levels of the sport after the pros. College baseball is nowhere close.

I think location/timing plays a huge role. The Big Ten is the most profitable conference for basketball/football, has almost exclusively huge schools with huge alumni bases, and nobody from those schools gives a [expletive] about college baseball. So much of the US population is built up in areas where college baseball is a non-entity due to weather. People will casually watch the CWS, but I'm not going to become a big LSU or Texas fan just because they're on TV. Without a rooting interest, there's little reason to follow for most people.

I didn't really understand this part either. Or this. As legitamate as I'm sure your softball game was, I'm not really seeing this as a comparable situation.

I feel awful for Mark Prior. Not just the injuries, but the way he was treated by the media and fans, and turned into a really stupid punchline for awful jokes.

I don't know how you guys can keep up with football recruiting. I keep tabs on basketball, but you're talking 5 committs at most in a given year. It also helps that I can watch a lot of Illinois's recruits in person when they're in my area. I'll check my teams' ranking after signing day and that's about all I can handle.

Babel was stupid.

People will still watch because it would be part of the Dance and thus they would pick one of the teams in their bracket. If the round of 96 didn't happen consecutively with the round of 64, I'd imagine most people would run their brackets after the field was narrowed to 64. The only people that will care more about a tournament of 96 compared to 65, are fans of those 31 teams. I have yet to see how 96 improves the tourney.

Explain this one to me. Do you think there's a tipping point where adding teams becomes a negative to the tournament? 64 creates a rapid fire atmospher dropping it from 64 to 16. There's going to be burnout with this number of games, especially with so many crappy games to start things off. You can duplicate that atmosphere though. Have the play in games on Saturday/Sunday then have the tournament proceed on the schedule it is now. Bit of a layoff for the teams with byes, but I don't think it's that huge a deal. I don't see how that duplicates the atmosphere. You think the 9-16 seeds playing the NIT teams is going to draw any sort of audience? Nobody's going to care about those games except for fans of those teams.

Exactly. They have to sign him too moving into a new stadium. That, and Mauer wanted to play in Minnesota from the 1st contract he signed, such that nobody else stood a chance to sign him away from FSU. The team has had fairly consistent success, and he has friends on the team. Unless they flat out insulted the guy(which would be death for the franchise, he was gonna re-sign.

There never should've been a play-in game to begin with. There's no reason there can't be 31 at large bids.

Explain this one to me. Do you think there's a tipping point where adding teams becomes a negative to the tournament? 64 creates a rapid fire atmospher dropping it from 64 to 16. There's going to be burnout with this number of games, especially with so many crappy games to start things off.

I said this would happen all along.

They don't have to do anything about the Great West, it's a collection of some of the worst teams in college basketball. They deserve nothing. This idea sucks out loud and will be bad for the tournament in the long run, and not even that profitable in the short run.

To hear him and the other fossils tell it, they threw at every other hitter's head. That's pretty comparable.

Fatty fat fat fat.

All the views were watching you talk about how important the college baseball (and by extension your miserable career) thread were.