Many opinions on for/against meatchicken. Personally I wanted them to win because I can see a similar path for the big red. The magic bats of the Wolverines ended. Amazing run for the B1G.
Going by the little I've read about him and the quote about wanting his team to "look like America," is he just focusing more on the players who are NOT on travel squads? He was responsible for recruiting while at Vanderbilt, correct? Was he doing that there, too? Doesn't that seem like a formula for the more sparsely populated states of the country? The guys who travel are going to get noticed, but I suspect that there are very good high school baseball players in every Great Plains state who can't afford to do that, in much the same way that the inner city guys Bakich mentions. It's easier to find players with more population density, but word travels better from coach to coach in the more sparsely populated areas.I don't know if they will completely tank, but I would assume so. I really don't know what their young guns look like. The stars really aligned for them, they have two 2nd round draft picks in their weekend rotation that grew up in Michigan, another pitcher drafted, Brewer who was drafted in the 3rd round, all of those dudes are from Michigan. Nebraska has never churned out anything like that. Their stud commit from Kansas City also was drafted third round, and I believe he signed. Gonna be very tough to replicate things next year.
WIth that said, there's something to talk about with them being able to keep all those kids in the B1G. Further, developing them to what they are. Karl Kauffman was the 72nd ranked player in the country, but Tommy Henry was in the 500s. Perfect Game doesn't even have Brewer ranked, yet he was drafted 3rd round. Nwogu was in the 500s. They are certainly developing kids at a high clip.
What's interesting tho, is I give Bakich a ton of praise, but until this year, would anyone be happy that he would have been hired at Nebraska? Michigan hired him after he was 20-70 in three seasons at Maryland (in conference). He also had a losing record overall at 70-98. The last time he made it regionals he went 0-2, and the only other time he made regionals his only wins were against Bradley. He had been to 2 regionals his first 6 years. Erstad went to 3 regionals, and brought home a conference title. It's why patience is key for baseball in my opinion.
I don't know how you'd measure the effect, but it certainly can't hurt B1G recruiting to have a conference team go that far. I'm very glad that Michigan did NOT win it though. It has been my experience that every fan base has some great fans and some very annoying fans, and it is usually a matter of percentages and who you meet that shapes your opinion. On the other hand, there are fan bases that just seem to be built out of dripping @$$holes. Michigan's fits that profile for me. I've met some Michigan alums who weren't A-holes, but I've yet to meet one who wasn't arrogant. I haven't met a ton--a hundred?--so the sample size is small, but it's only SEC teams and Texas that have fit the same profile in my experiences. Most people hate the fans of the team where they live, so the Nebraska fans living in Wisconsin hate them, and the same in Iowa or Minnesota, but there's just something obnoxious about Michigan alums and almost all of their fans, regardless of where I've met them. Am I alone on that? I can't stand Iowa fans in football, but that's because they're next door. I would have had no problem rooting for Iowa or Indiana or Illinois or Minnesota to win a NC in the CWS. Definitely NOT Michigan, and close to definitely not Ohio State.I just saw it as an amazing run for Michigan. I very much doubt the Big Ten benefits at all. And I'm quite pleased the Wolverines will not claim a national title. Thank you, Vandy.
I'm fairly certain, I snorted when I read this. LOL!On the other hand, there are fan bases that just seem to be built out of dripping @$$holes. Michigan's fits that profile for me.
I don't know how you'd measure the effect, but it certainly can't hurt B1G recruiting to have a conference team go that far. I'm very glad that Michigan did NOT win it though. It has been my experience that every fan base has some great fans and some very annoying fans, and it is usually a matter of percentages and who you meet that shapes your opinion. On the other hand, there are fan bases that just seem to be built out of dripping @$$holes. Michigan's fits that profile for me. I've met some Michigan alums who weren't A-holes, but I've yet to meet one who wasn't arrogant. I haven't met a ton--a hundred?--so the sample size is small, but it's only SEC teams and Texas that have fit the same profile in my experiences. Most people hate the fans of the team where they live, so the Nebraska fans living in Wisconsin hate them, and the same in Iowa or Minnesota, but there's just something obnoxious about Michigan alums and almost all of their fans, regardless of where I've met them. Am I alone on that? I can't stand Iowa fans in football, but that's because they're next door. I would have had no problem rooting for Iowa or Indiana or Illinois or Minnesota to win a NC in the CWS. Definitely NOT Michigan, and close to definitely not Ohio State.
Agree, just as Indiana's run 7 years ago did nothing for the B1G.I just saw it as an amazing run for Michigan. I very much doubt the Big Ten benefits at all. And I'm quite pleased the Wolverines will not claim a national title. Thank you, Vandy.
His method actually reaches to the more densely populated areas, from what I can gather. So for us to compare, he could start pulling kids from Omaha Central or Omaha North who just don't have the money to get anywhere. It's funny, one of the things that is talked about in Omaha, is how the "western Omaha" high schools kids usually beat up on the Omaha Central and Omaha North programs as freshmen. The theory is that all those kids out west have played ball for so long due to being able to afford to do it. There's a steeper improvement for the kids from Central or North, and by the time they get to be juniors and seniors, many times that gap has closed. With teams like Central and North "recruiting" football players now, not sure how true that is anymore. But to Bakich's point, if he gets a kid that is just raw and can mold him, he probably has a much higher ceiling than a kid that has been playing travel ball since 5th grade.Going by the little I've read about him and the quote about wanting his team to "look like America," is he just focusing more on the players who are NOT on travel squads? He was responsible for recruiting while at Vanderbilt, correct? Was he doing that there, too? Doesn't that seem like a formula for the more sparsely populated states of the country? The guys who travel are going to get noticed, but I suspect that there are very good high school baseball players in every Great Plains state who can't afford to do that, in much the same way that the inner city guys Bakich mentions. It's easier to find players with more population density, but word travels better from coach to coach in the more sparsely populated areas.
Just another random thought that isn't really related to the above, but shouldn't schools with lower tuition rates have an advantage when it comes to baseball since we're talking about partial scholarships? I thought of that tonight as I'm watching Vanderbilt playing Michigan as those are two schools that are NOT cheap to attend (though Michigan's in-state is not horrible). Is Bakich getting Michigan kids who are under the radar because the price isn't so cheap? There have been other schools, such as Miami, that are expensive, that I wonder how they made the numbers work to be so competitive for so long. Duke is in that category, too. Nebraska has advantages there, but I wonder why their out-of-state tuition is so much higher (nearly 4x) than its in-state. As a comparison, U of South Dakota and SD State have almost identical in-state tuition to Nebraska, but Nebraska's out-of-state is 2x that of USD's. This also hurts Nebraska football's walk-on program.