Nebraska's impact on the Big Ten baseball

They have been down the past few years, I don't really know why, Lincoln Gopher can probably provide alot more to what has happenned to there program, but I wonder what the overall impact Nebraska will have joining the Big Ten. For the Big Ten obviously it will be huge to add a program like the Huskers. It will give us four teams capable of competing on a national stage every year(MN, MICH, OSU, NEB) and will definately help the conference RPI. It would make it more difficult in a year like 2010 where we had to win the conference to advance but hopefully by adding quality to the conference, we will aloways be at least a two bid league. We've played them alot in Anderson's time at MN so it won't be that big a deal but will make the games alot more meaningful.

Nebraska

That same question has been discussed down here among baseball fans. Right now they are no better than any team in the Big 10, they lost to Iowa this year. They are down, the draft has hurt them alot the last 3 years, mostly with incoming prospects, they had 5 drafted in the top 11 rounds this year again. Their coach, Mike Anderson, who took them to the CWS in 2005 with the prior coaches players, is firmly on the hot seat. He is a very good recruiter with absolutely no coaching abiblity. I felt he should have been fired at the end of this year, but Tom Osborne gave him another year. They have the facilities, money, recent tradition and fan support (they are still averaging 2800 a game for the entire season with consecutive losing seasons) to firmly plant themselves at the top of the Big Ten. In their hayday, they averaged over 5,000 a game and actually was one of handful of schools making money with their baseball program.

In the mix with MN, MI, & Ohio St. every year

I think it would be great to have the Huskers in the Big 10. Having Nebraska in the Big 10 should definitely help the conference. However, I don't expect the Huskers to dominate the conference. Minnesota, Michigan, and Ohio St. are quality programs that are usually better than their national perception. I suspect that they will give Nebraska all that they can handle on an annual basis. Also, Michigan State and Indiana are programs that are on the rise that can't be dismissed going forward. Certainly would expect Nebraska to finish in the top 6 and make the tournament virtually every year though. On a negative note for Nebraska, joining the Big 10 is going to severely hinder their RPI. Instead of benefitting RPI wise by playing in a "power conference" they will quickly find out how high the deck is stacked against "non-power conference" teams in regards to the ludicrous RPI system that is currently used. Their days of hosting regionals and being a #1 seed (two huge factors for post season success) are going to be severely limited if not virtually finished.

This is a situation where adding southern teams like a Texas etc to the Big Ten could help our hurt the conference. Do we get more bids b/c our conference is stronger, or do we stop going b/c we can't beat out the people we end up playing in the first rounds anyhow.

I can imagine there might be more ability to recruit if the Gophers are shown down in the south, but I can't imagine that a spring sport like baseball would attract that many people up north.

Lincoln newspaper article

Here is an article from the Lincoln Journal Star about this very subject.


http://www.huskerextra.com/articles/2010/06/14/baseball/doc4c16cb7c3207b453559267.txt

The Big Ten already has elite programs that have blocked the Gophers from ... The past few decades have seen Gopher rosters that simply were not talented

jaxter said:

The Big Ten already has elite programs that have blocked the Gophers from ... The past few decades have seen Gopher rosters that simply were not talented

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What? I hope thats a joke... Welcome to the board.

Lincoln gopher said:

That same question has been discussed down here among baseball fans. Right now they are no better than any team in the Big 10, they lost to Iowa this year. They are down, the draft has hurt them alot the last 3 years, mostly with incoming prospects, they had 5 drafted in the top 11 rounds this year again. Their coach, Mike Anderson, who took them to the CWS in 2005 with the prior coaches players, is firmly on the hot seat. He is a very good recruiter with absolutely no coaching abiblity. I felt he should have been fired at the end of this year, but Tom Osborne gave him another year. They have the facilities, money, recent tradition and fan support (they are still averaging 2800 a game for the entire season with consecutive losing seasons) to firmly plant themselves at the top of the Big Ten. In their hayday, they averaged over 5,000 a game and actually was one of handful of schools making money with their baseball program.

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From what I hear, Anderson has burned some bridges with high schools in the state, even before the switch to the Big 10. In state players aren't flocking to Nebraska now. Anderson has got to go, I agree.

Nebraska coming here will definetly be a plus for Big Ten baseball. They will be in the top half of the league but they will not dominate the league. They seemed to have fallen on hard times of late.

gold04 said:

Nebraska coming here will definetly be a plus for Big Ten baseball. They will be in the top half of the league but they will not dominate the league. They seemed to have fallen on hard times of late.

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The Huskers have lost 4 of their recruits that have signed with pro teams and a junior pitcher that has signed. Anderson is still the coach, so the hard times will continue. One bright spot for them, Darin Erstad just accepted a job to become an assistant coach.

Its a good thing for the Big 10, not sure about Nebraska though. Losing regular games against good programs from Ok St, TX, TX A&M will hurt. But were happy to have them!