The great news for Dawg fans is Fresno State (1-5) and Nevada (3-6) are off to a bad start, while SJS (3-3) appears to be inconsistent (weak hitting, but can win the occasional low scoring affair). Cal State Sac and N Mex State are likely non-factors.
Hawaii appears to be the favorite right now at 7-2, and will be interesting to watch in their first road series against an average-at-best UCSB this weekend. After that, Wichita State and Arizona (8-0) will be tough OOC series, but Chicago State and Wisc-Milwaukee look like 9 easy wins for the 'Bows.
What the hell is wrong with Fresno State? Yeah, they're playing a tough schedule, but they lost 2 of 3 to San Francisco (a regional team from '06), one to Cal Poly (an expected regional team this year), then 2 to Stanford (regional team from last year). They better turn the corner quick, because upcoming series with two respectable teams in CS Northridge and Loyola Marymount followed by two better teams in Pepperdine and Univ San Diego - they may have to win the WAC to get in the dance.
FSU struggles through that stretch, then tries to get well against Iowa and Dallas Baptist before coming to Ruston...Dawgs could start off strong.
- With the WAC conference scheduling where you play two conference teams only one series each year, having Hawaii as one of those teams appears to be a positive break.
*** Tech has their chance to a) replace Fresno as one of the two teams in the WAC, and b) win enough games to earn an at-large berth if needed.