Yeah, me too.Originally Posted by TYLERTECHSAS
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Yeah, me too.
I kinda like Vandy…
''Don't be a bad dagh..."
I'm pulling for Tennessee Tech and Stetson all the way.
The Stetson Mad Hatters. Gotta love that nickname!
Just to somewhat confirm what you are saying and how the SEC teams have much less success away from their comfort zone, LSU played 11 games this season against other teams form Louisiana. They won 7 and loss 4. All of their wins were at home and they loss all 4 of their games away from Alex Box!But you missed the point -
The SEC is no tougher than the Big 10, Big Xii, ACC or Pac 12
It's a biased rpi
And MID WEEK games matter as much as weekend games - cause come tourney time - those midweek pitchers are the difference between winning and losing in most instances
The tourney usually backs this up
And NO Kentucky still didn't belong
Quick trivia: What caused Hatters to become Mad Hatters?
Wasn't it mercury or some other chemical they used to work the felt for the hats?
An SEC school has won 5 of the last 9 College World Series. An SEC school has been College World Series runners-up 5 of the last 7 years. The SEC was represented in the World Series finals in 9 of the last 10 seasons, including twice where both teams were from the SEC. This year 6 of the 16 super regional teams are from the SEC. Not only is the SEC "tougher/better" than any other conference in baseball, it is not even close. Furthermore, no team with a top 30 RPI should ever be left out of the tournament regardless of which conference they are from. I could imagine a scenario where a team from outside the Power 5 with a top 30 RPI being left out. That would be garbage as well.But you missed the point -
The SEC is no tougher than the Big 10, Big Xii, ACC or Pac 12
It's a biased rpi
And MID WEEK games matter as much as weekend games - cause come tourney time - those midweek pitchers are the difference between winning and losing in most instances
The tourney usually backs this up
And NO Kentucky still didn't belong
Yes, that all could be evidence that the $ec is better.
OOOOOORRRR … it may just be evidence that the system is rigged.
How is the system rigged in favor of the SEC over the PAC 12, Big 12, ACC and Big 10, not too mention every other conference? Keep in mind this is a 64 team tournament. Seems nearly impossible to rig it for one conference to have so much success. Not to mention 6 different SEC teams have either won or finished as runners-up in the World Series during the last 10 years. I agree that the Power 5 conferences have advantages in all sports with their nine figure budgets, 100,000 seat stadiums, national television contracts, etc. But to not acknowledge the SEC is by far the premier conference in college baseball is illogical. We may not like it, but it is the truth, sorry to say.
The best predictor of wins is not conference affiliation, but number of home games. (This is also true of football & basketball, by the way.)
The obscene budgets you cite dont advantage those teams / conferences so much because they attract the best athletes. But rather because they can buy more home games. As has been explained elsewhere in this thread, the vaunted $ec suddenly looks pretty ordinary (on about the same level as Pac12, Big12, or even CUSA) when they have to play OOC road games. That is to say … When you control for number of home games, their win percentage falls pretty squarely in the middle of the pack. $ec dominance is therefore better explained by the ability of its members to buy more home games than by (objectively) better teams.
The system is flawed because it counts all games as (roughly) equal. It doesn't properly account for the relative difficulty of winning on the road, or the (again, relative) ease of winning at home. An more equitable system could, for example, diminish or 'plateau' the value of home wins greater than the average. Or could give substantially greater weight to road wins.
And that doesn't even begin to address the "homecooking" angle. The favoritism shown by $ec officials is as shameless as it is legendary, and has been well documented on this board and elsewhere. There are (practically) no consequences for the bad actors, and they're not even discreet about it. A pool of NCAA officials, not affiliated with any conference, could help. Also meaningful and public penalties for dirty refs.
The problem with this thinking is it doesn't account for how the SEC put four teams in the Super Regionals that didn't host a regional. Auburn, South Carolina, Mississippi State and Vanderbilt all went on the road to win a regional. In fact, more road SEC teams won a regional than host teams (Georgia and Ole Miss both lost at home). I'm not an SEC homer, but it's really difficult by any objective measure to argue that the SEC isn't far and away the best baseball conference.
the bold, the beautiful, theprofessor
Well of course the $ec has good teams. Even some great ones in any given year. But taken as a whole, it's just another good conference.
Ummm, yeah. Ok.I'm not an SEC homer
We'll just have to disagree that it's just another good conference. In my opinion, it's the best baseball conference. And despite what you think, that doesn't make me an SEC homer. It just makes me a realist.
the bold, the beautiful, theprofessor
Not to mention being correct. Eight of the 16 teams to host a regional this year are sitting at home now. The SEC dominance in Omaha has been incredible. But you gotta admire someone, who doesn't let facts alter his opinion.
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