College Baseball - The State of the Nation

Rivals.com has Nebraska going to Tallahassee as a #3 seed, same as last week. That hasn't changed much, but getting past FSU on their home field would be next to impossible.

They do have Missouri hosting their own regional - so someone is looking out for the Tigers. Texas A&M and Texas are  projected as having their own regional. They still show Coastal Carolina with a regional.

Rivals.com's Eight for Omaha changed slightly, dropping Virginia and replacing them with the Long Beach State Dirtbags.

Their eight in order:

• Rice
• Vanderbilt
• Texas
• North Carolina
• San Diego
• Florida State
• Arizona State
• Long Beach State

My favorite remains Texas, but Rice deserves the #1 position. Vanderbilt - if I remember correctly has never been to a CWS so I will be surprised if they get far into the final eight.

You've heard of Project 119 - the guy who's trying to visit every Division IA football stadium? You may not have heard of Going Yard, some guys at CSTV who are traveling around the nation going to college baseball stadiums. Well, Tuesday night they were at Rosenblatt for the Nebraska - Creighton game.

They pointed out that it was packed - the second-most attended game in the nation this year (second only to Georgia-Georgia Tech at 21,000), and then they interviewed Omaha mayor Mike Fahey about the possibility of a new stadium being built to replace Rosenblatt. Fahey mentioned that the Royals (Triple A) want a stadium of around 8,000

They also interviewed fans, inter-cut with Fahey, most of who were against the idea. The one that stood out was the guy who admitted he wouldn't quit attending the CWS because of a new stadium being built.

Should be interesting to see what happens in Omaha, but it's clear they need to do something to make everyone (fans, Royals, NCAA) happy.

Fahey mentioned $25 million to renovate Rosenblatt, which sounds like chicken feed to me. Here in Minnesota, we're building a new Gophers football stadium, and new Twins stadium, and they're trying to work out a deal for a new Vikings stadium. Hell, building a parking lot will probably cost $25 million here, so don't worry about the money, Omaha!!!

Eric Sorenson, our college baseball buddy over at CSTV interviewed Minnesota coach John Anderson. Anderson has some great comments about the status of college baseball, the effects of the APR next year, and the 2008 scheduling changes -  I encourage you to read the interview. Anderson has a lot to say about Minnesota's disadvantage in college baseball, and includes the comment - "What happens when there are only 50 or 60 teams left playing college baseball?"

This is a HUGE issue - the rising cost of college athletics is causing universities to drop non-revenue sports all over the place. It's not a good situation for anyone. The more sports that are dropped the less opportunities there will be for student-athletes of all types. If that's what you'd like to see, careful what you ask for because you might get it in the next few years and I can guarantee you won't like the outcome!

 Last week, I asked Nebraska coach Mike Anderson if we'd be seeing the Huskers again at Minnesota's Dairy Queen Classic tournament and he said that I should talk to John Anderson about having the Huskers back. Well, John, dadgumit - talk to Mike and get the Huskers back up here in the 'Dome next March!