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The NCAA seems to be reconsidering the decision to add a week to the beginning of the 2010 college baseball season. According to an article by the AP, over 100 complaints have come in from teams across the country. I would have to think that many of these complaints came from northern programs which a week added to the season would actually cost their school more money by having to travel down south again. The full article is available by clicking here.
6 comments
mark me as VERY for this. mark me very against rain delays.
I think that starting the season a week earlier is a good idea. The season is too compressed as it is now. I wouldn’t want to see the post-season starting a week later, and I wouldn’t want to reduce the maximum # of games in the season either.
One alternative the NCAA should look at, however, is allowing schools to start their season a week earlier IF they are competing in a tournament. If they did, you would see reinstatements of warm-weather tournaments like the one the A’s hosted in Phoenix, and the one the U. of Hawaii hosted. The season openers could become attention-getters.
No reason to start it earlier…They should be playing two mid-week games and many of the bigger schools are playing at home anyways for those weeks.
I’m also against cutting games, but I’m definitely for adding the week to the end of the season. I understand the heat argument, but heat can be combatted. If players are properly hydrated and conditioned, it is unlikely they are going to injure themselves. On the other hand, snow, while not really deadly, can not be combatted. Instead, SO much extra money is spent to send teams down south to get shelled by the home teams who have been practicing for weeks outside. It just doesn’t make sense from a “promoting fair practices” stand point.
I’m interested to see the last word on this (albeit supposedly in August) to see its affect on the BigEast/BigTen challenge which has already finalized their date with St. Petersburg (and other surrounding ball parks). If the date is pushed back, will this affect the opening tournament?
Would love to see more tournaments in Hawaii, but the pots dry. WAC Tourney just about broke even.
The 2010 season will start on February the 19th, The 2009 season started on February 20th. Where they pick up the extra week is on the back end of the season. Next year Memorial Day is on May 31st, this year it was on May 25th. They need to realize that the season is not starting early but ending later.
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