2026 Baseball Mega Thread

[311neers]

Losing 8 of the last 12, including 4 straight would not be a meltdown?

That's comical.. we split our last 4 series. Two wins, two losses, including a sweep of Stink.
The other "loss" was to Wake Forest .. 18th in RPI..
Nice try to label it a meltdown...

Kermit piss on your cornflakes in another life?

When a coach refuses to pursue at-large bids, I’m not going to make excuses for losing in the conference tournament as a higher seed.

Kermit believes the path to postseason play is through the tournament. He’s made that abundantly clear through scheduling. I expect to not lose the first game as a 3 seed if that is your desire.

We've scheduled both ways under Kermit. The much harder schedules were killing us early on in his tenure while he was still rebuilding. Maybe he'll adjust a bit going forward to add a good OOC series. Pollard also scheduled much lighter most years save the 2012 season with LSU.

Perhaps that is why 311 feels the way he does. He was on that team that went to LSU and took the series win, probably the biggest series win in our history at the time. That served as a spring board for the season that was extremely successful. It is hard to argue with his logic, especially when we lose against the lower teams that we schedule. If we lose to a top team, it doesn't really hurt us, in fact it can improve or RPI but when we lose to lower teams then it just kills our RPI and keeps us from getting an at large.

Not just LSU but man those were some good memories.
Off the top of my head that I can remember over a 4 year stint.

We played @Miami for 3
@Arkansas for 3 with Billy
@Georgia
@NCState for 3
@South Carolina what felt like most years
@UNC
@Gonzaga for 3
@LSU for 3.
@Tennessee
@Wake
Michigan/ND
@Clemson
I think VT as well

(Interesting, when’s the last time we played an SEC school?)

There may be some others sprinkled in there that I am forgetting. To your point, they help with RPI, but those are some of the best memories a team can have together playing in front of 5-15k. Also it will prep you for the Sun Belt pitching. We used to play the big guys every year. Not sure why we’re shying away from it the past 5 years.

We finished 3rd in the SBC and have no shot an ALB but teams 4-6th in the SB have one…because they played and beat a big name team. Just one series would go a long way. Ask Hayden Cross how it felt coaching at Murray State going to a Regional at Ole Miss and winning it. “Best time of his life”.

[BambooRdApp]

It would be great opportunity for the team.. and App St fans for that matter to play better teams in the OOC schedule...win or lose.. would prefer to win

On the NCAA tournament, how many times, in the past 5 years or since App. St. joined SBC, hss more than two teams got an at-large bid to NCAA?.. not a third bid due to unexpected tournament winner..
It would be nice to be in the conversation and to be in the conversation by playing in and/or winning these OOC games against better teams. However, is the reality that the SBC is, more often times than not, a two bid conference?

From a personal fan perspective, I would rather go see App play Wake, State, UNC, EasyU, UNCW, Va, and Va. Tech no matter if we are in the conversation or not. Playing Queens, GW, ETSU, Western, etc. does not get me as excited as playing the others. Overall, I think the fans would rather play a combination of good teams from NC, SC and Va.

[BambooRdApp]

Like a Lowes Home Improvement delivery time window, App. St. will play today some time between 11 and 8 pm today

[311neers]

Thought I saw 1:30pm but yes- crap shoot! Haha.
Ton of rain, conditions are going to be soggy out there.

Beat CoastaL.

[BambooRdApp]

Thought I saw 1:30pm but yes- crap shoot! Haha.
Ton of rain, conditions are going to be soggy out there.

Yes 1.30 is the posted time

[311neers]

It would be great opportunity for the team.. and App St fans for that matter to play better teams in the OOC schedule...win or lose.. would prefer to win

On the NCAA tournament, how many times, in the past 5 years or since App. St. joined SBC, hss more than two teams got an at-large bid to NCAA?.. not a third bid due to unexpected tournament winner..
It would be nice to be in the conversation and to be in the conversation by playing in and/or winning these OOC games against better teams. However, is the reality that the SBC is, more often times than not, a two bid conference?

From a personal fan perspective, I would rather go see App play Wake, State, UNC, EasyU, UNCW, Va, and Va. Tech no matter if we are in the conversation or not. Playing Queens, GW, ETSU, Western, etc. does not get me as excited as playing the others. Overall, I think the fans would rather play a combination of good teams from NC, SC and Va.

The last 64 prediction had 32 mid majors making the tournament. Sure, half of those are probably tournament winners. But that least 15 ish teams for ALB.

SBC usually is a 3-4 bid league depending on who wins the SBC tourney.

[311neers]

Like a Lowes Home Improvement delivery time window, App. St. will play today some time between 11 and 8 pm today

We might know 1 hour before game time! Just like Lowe’s haha!

[BambooRdApp]

It would be great opportunity for the team.. and App St fans for that matter to play better teams in the OOC schedule...win or lose.. would prefer to win

On the NCAA tournament, how many times, in the past 5 years or since App. St. joined SBC, hss more than two teams got an at-large bid to NCAA?.. not a third bid due to unexpected tournament winner..
It would be nice to be in the conversation and to be in the conversation by playing in and/or winning these OOC games against better teams. However, is the reality that the SBC is, more often times than not, a two bid conference?

From a personal fan perspective, I would rather go see App play Wake, State, UNC, EasyU, UNCW, Va, and Va. Tech no matter if we are in the conversation or not. Playing Queens, GW, ETSU, Western, etc. does not get me as excited as playing the others. Overall, I think the fans would rather play a combination of good teams from NC, SC and Va.

The last 64 prediction had 32 mid majors making the tournament. Sure, half of those are probably tournament winners. But that least 15 ish teams for ALB.

SBC usually is a 3-4 bid league depending on who wins the SBC tourney.

If this is the case, it would be better for App to schedule more difficult series during the year. Do we know the reasons why we are not scheduling more difficult games with regional teams? Is it the HC having opportunities to schedule and declining? Is it not getting the opportunities at all? Is it that we do not schedule given cost constraints of the program as all of these would probably have to be road games given weather in Feb and March? Some other reason....

[311neers]

It would be great opportunity for the team.. and App St fans for that matter to play better teams in the OOC schedule...win or lose.. would prefer to win

On the NCAA tournament, how many times, in the past 5 years or since App. St. joined SBC, hss more than two teams got an at-large bid to NCAA?.. not a third bid due to unexpected tournament winner..
It would be nice to be in the conversation and to be in the conversation by playing in and/or winning these OOC games against better teams. However, is the reality that the SBC is, more often times than not, a two bid conference?

From a personal fan perspective, I would rather go see App play Wake, State, UNC, EasyU, UNCW, Va, and Va. Tech no matter if we are in the conversation or not. Playing Queens, GW, ETSU, Western, etc. does not get me as excited as playing the others. Overall, I think the fans would rather play a combination of good teams from NC, SC and Va.

The last 64 prediction had 32 mid majors making the tournament. Sure, half of those are probably tournament winners. But that least 15 ish teams for ALB.

SBC usually is a 3-4 bid league depending on who wins the SBC tourney.

If this is the case, it would be better for App to schedule more difficult series during the year. Do we know the reasons why we are not scheduling more difficult games with regional teams? Is it the HC having opportunities to schedule and declining? Is it not getting the opportunities at all? Is it that we do not schedule given cost constraints of the program as all of these would probably have to be road games given weather in Feb and March? Some other reason....

All good questions for sure.
We know we used to travel with a tighter budget than we have now, so theoretically that doesn’t seem like that’s the reason.
Other SBC teams play P4 teams early on- so why won’t they play us? Doesn’t seem like the reason either.

None of us truly know but it sounds like the decision makers are pushing for a difficult schedule so we will see come November.

Not only did the schedule used to be tougher, we also played a couple more games. I feel like we were playing a Tuesday and Wednesday midweek sometimes. But- we have to travel farther now for weekends in the SBC instead of SoCon weekend travel so maybe that’s the answer there. Just a different philosophy of scheduling it seems.

To some others points in here- maybe we were trying to rack up easy win

[Bigdaddyg1]

One of the announcers yesterday pointed out that Texas St was moving to a new conference and said that maybe we play them again some time. I know he was just talking but zero chance we spend the money traveling there for even a weekend series. This talk of scheduling is interesting. I can’t imagine many schools at our level with limited resources trying to travel very far for non conference games. Does the baseball team fly much at all? Scheduling big boys is probably easier said than done and there is the other side for scheduling- the other teams need availability as well.

[BambooRdApp]

One of the announcers yesterday pointed out that Texas St was moving to a new conference and said that maybe we play them again some time. I know he was just talking but zero chance we spend the money traveling there for even a weekend series. This talk of scheduling is interesting. I can’t imagine many schools at our level with limited resources trying to travel very far for non conference games. Does the baseball team fly much at all? Scheduling big boys is probably easier said than done and there is the other side for scheduling- the other teams need availability as well.

UNCW travels to UNC and state. EasyU does the same. Realize out travel is a little further each way. However other schools are doing it. Maybe it is funding and costs.

[Boone Goon]

Goodness...say you don't know college baseball without saying "I don't know college baseball"!

Midweeks are about reps, not SOS. There's zero value in App traveling to the Triangle or Pitt county or even Wilmington for a late season game.

[BambooRdApp]

Tell us you know nothing about RPI consideration without telling us you do not understand rpi and factoring into an at large bid.

The discussion was around scheduling a series OOC.

[311neers]

One of the announcers yesterday pointed out that Texas St was moving to a new conference and said that maybe we play them again some time. I know he was just talking but zero chance we spend the money traveling there for even a weekend series. This talk of scheduling is interesting. I can’t imagine many schools at our level with limited resources trying to travel very far for non conference games. Does the baseball team fly much at all? Scheduling big boys is probably easier said than done and there is the other side for scheduling- the other teams need availability as well.

We usually flew one time a year back in the SoCon/Early SBC days for an OOC.

[311neers]

Goodness...say you don't know college baseball without saying "I don't know college baseball"!

Midweeks are about reps, not SOS. There's zero value in App traveling to the Triangle or Pitt county or even Wilmington for a late season game.

Agreed- Midweeks to ECU/UNCW would never happen. Way too far. We have traveled to the Triangle for midweeks with UNC and Duke though.
Vs Georgia
Vs VT
Vs Clemson
Vs South Carolina

All writhing 3.5 hours drive

Our midweek schedule is okay. It’s the first 10-12 games that are in question. Midweeks can also serve a purpose to boost an RPI/SOS while providing reps.

[AppContrarian]

4 Non-Conference weekends
- 1 game vs Northeast Mid-Major in Hickory (AE/NEC/MAAC/IVY)
- 1 game vs weak regional team (NC A&T, Queens, G-W, UNCG, Elon, Presby, Radford)
- 1 game vs solid regional team (Campbell, Charleston, UNCW, Winthrop, High Point, ECU, Mercer, Liberty, VCU, Richmond)
- 1 game vs P4 regional team (UNC, Duke, Virginia, Virginia Tech, NC State, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Georgia, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, South Carolina, West Virginia, Maryland)

12 midweeks (Wake Forest x2, ETSU x2, Western Carolina, UNCA, High Point, Davidson, Charlotte, High Point, rotating weak regional team, rotating regional P4)

[Stonewall]

We would net revenue by traveling to an SEC or ACC school to begin the season. Better yet , both.

[BambooRdApp]

One of the announcers yesterday pointed out that Texas St was moving to a new conference and said that maybe we play them again some time. I know he was just talking but zero chance we spend the money traveling there for even a weekend series. This talk of scheduling is interesting. I can’t imagine many schools at our level with limited resources trying to travel very far for non conference games. Does the baseball team fly much at all? Scheduling big boys is probably easier said than done and there is the other side for scheduling- the other teams need availability as well.

We usually flew one time a year back in the SoCon/Early SBC days for an OOC.

Yes, but Spirit Airlines is not accessible now..

[AppSt94]

One of the announcers yesterday pointed out that Texas St was moving to a new conference and said that maybe we play them again some time. I know he was just talking but zero chance we spend the money traveling there for even a weekend series. This talk of scheduling is interesting. I can’t imagine many schools at our level with limited resources trying to travel very far for non conference games. Does the baseball team fly much at all? Scheduling big boys is probably easier said than done and there is the other side for scheduling- the other teams need availability as well.

UNCW travels to UNC and state. EasyU does the same. Realize out travel is a little further each way. However other schools are doing it. Maybe it is funding and costs.

From an RPI perspective, I would think that those schools are more attractive opponents than App.

[BambooRdApp]

One of the announcers yesterday pointed out that Texas St was moving to a new conference and said that maybe we play them again some time. I know he was just talking but zero chance we spend the money traveling there for even a weekend series. This talk of scheduling is interesting. I can’t imagine many schools at our level with limited resources trying to travel very far for non conference games. Does the baseball team fly much at all? Scheduling big boys is probably easier said than done and there is the other side for scheduling- the other teams need availability as well.

UNCW travels to UNC and state. EasyU does the same. Realize out travel is a little further each way. However other schools are doing it. Maybe it is funding and costs.

From an RPI perspective, I would think that those schools are more attractive opponents than App.

Agree with that. My overall point is that we need to play higher rpi schools. Early season weekend series with those schools are probably more enticing to our players and the fans