2026 Baseball Mega Thread

[311neers]

Troy’s going to Omaha.
Wow.
Invest in baseball now or it’ll be too late soon. It’s not just Coastal and USM anymore.
Good for the conference and us!

[BambooRdApp]

Congratulations to Troy!!
Memory of a lifetime for those young men!!

[JTApps1]

Who in the conference has NIL at a significant level?

Probably just USM and Coastal.
But I'm sure other teams will start picking up the slack.

As most of these football schools have now realized they have no shot at competing for national relevance...just like us. We're all in the same boat now. We've been priced out of competing in football.

Yes, those two. Also UL and I believe USA may be in the mix some.

Add Troy to this list.

[Stonewall]

Congratulations to them. As to us , again , where is the money going to come from?

[311neers]

Last year we had $499k of scholarships.
Now we have $700k.

Sizable jump, came from somewhere.

Goal is $1.1M

Might be time to think about where our donations are going. Is it worth feeding a 6-6 football program with zero chances of making a playoff? I dk.

[AppSt94]

Last year we had $499k of scholarships.
Now we have $700k.

Sizable jump, came from somewhere.

Goal is $1.1M

Might be time to think about where our donations are going. Is it worth feeding a 6-6 football program with zero chances of making a playoff? I dk.

That increase likely came from a decrease to something else. I know that you are a baseball guy but there is no way we will pull funds from the golden goose to better fund another sport.

[311neers]

Last year we had $499k of scholarships.
Now we have $700k.

Sizable jump, came from somewhere.

Goal is $1.1M

Might be time to think about where our donations are going. Is it worth feeding a 6-6 football program with zero chances of making a playoff? I dk.

That increase likely came from a decrease to something else. I know that you are a baseball guy but there is no way we will pull funds from the golden goose to better fund another sport.

I didn’t mean the school/ADepartment would stop funding football but some individuals/alumni might pull funds if we are consistently mediocre in this portal era.
I’ll still give to both as long as it’s in the budget to do so!

[311neers]

Will be interesting if Skylar Meade gets thrown into the mix for the South Carolina job.
He’s done a fantastic job.

[AppSt94]

Last year we had $499k of scholarships.
Now we have $700k.

Sizable jump, came from somewhere.

Goal is $1.1M

Might be time to think about where our donations are going. Is it worth feeding a 6-6 football program with zero chances of making a playoff? I dk.

That increase likely came from a decrease to something else. I know that you are a baseball guy but there is no way we will pull funds from the golden goose to better fund another sport.

I didn’t mean the school/ADepartment would stop funding football but some individuals/alumni might pull funds if we are consistently mediocre in this portal era.
I’ll still give to both as long as it’s in the budget to do so!

Possibly but I don’t see that happening. We don’t have anyone giving “stupid” money with the sole purpose of putting a winner on the field.

[Bootsy]

Last year we had $499k of scholarships.
Now we have $700k.

Sizable jump, came from somewhere.

Goal is $1.1M

Might be time to think about where our donations are going. Is it worth feeding a 6-6 football program with zero chances of making a playoff? I dk.

That increase likely came from a decrease to something else. I know that you are a baseball guy but there is no way we will pull funds from the golden goose to better fund another sport.

I didn’t mean the school/ADepartment would stop funding football but some individuals/alumni might pull funds if we are consistently mediocre in this portal era.
I’ll still give to both as long as it’s in the budget to do so!

Possibly but I don’t see that happening. We don’t have anyone giving “stupid” money with the sole purpose of putting a winner on the field.

Every single person here needs to own our shame around not funding Kermit’s Kids adequately. There’s only one way we can begin to atone for these sins: go out tonight, buy some scratchers and promise ourselves that if we hit it big, we’ll give half the money to App baseball.

[311neers]

Anyone else feel like there will be an arms race for college baseball stadium expansions? The sport is picking up major attention.

Not one of these parks has the capacity/infrastructure to keep up with the attendances they are getting.
I do like the standing room party areas at these venues though.

The hill at WVU is sweet.
The left field at Troy. The football stadium too.
The “backyard” at Kansas.
The Green house in Athens…
The parking deck in Auburn.

Etc.

[BambooRdApp]

The reports of the demise of SBC baseball was greatly exaggerated.
Good luck Troy. Hopefully, you win a few games along the way.

Not sure about an "arms race" to ballpark expansion. Many of the stadiums below power schools and many power schools do not sell out until the regionals and super regionals. Not sure you do that just for two weekends of the year. Some schools in the SEC do well throughout the season.
If I were a team, that wanted to win more, I would do more behind the scenes for the overall player experience to attract better players. I get that probably means more fannies in seats to pay for those ideas. However, not sure I would be doing major expansion for two weekends a year.

[Stonewall]

Per conversation, baseball is a priority discussion at the top.I predict a change on scheduling strategy. Other issues TBD.

[311neers]

The reports of the demise of SBC baseball was greatly exaggerated.
Good luck Troy. Hopefully, you win a few games along the way.

Not sure about an "arms race" to ballpark expansion. Many of the stadiums below power schools and many power schools do not sell out until the regionals and super regionals. Not sure you do that just for two weekends of the year. Some schools in the SEC do well throughout the season.
If I were a team, that wanted to win more, I would do more behind the scenes for the overall player experience to attract better players. I get that probably means more fannies in seats to pay for those ideas. However, not sure I would be doing major expansion for two weekends a year.

Just in our conference alone…

Marshall- brand new park
ODU- brand new park
Stink-major renovations
Ark State- major renovations/expansion
Ga State- brand new park but they never really had one.

We know Coastal and USM improve theirs every so often.

I’m sure Troy will expand after this run.

Not sure where all the money comes from outside of Marshall- I believe that was a P3 deal (public private partnership).

To your point- we are taking the scholarships/NIL route to see where this thing goes for now.

[Stonewall]

Do facility improvements drive winning or does winning drive improvements?

[BambooRdApp]

The reports of the demise of SBC baseball was greatly exaggerated.
Good luck Troy. Hopefully, you win a few games along the way.

Not sure about an "arms race" to ballpark expansion. Many of the stadiums below power schools and many power schools do not sell out until the regionals and super regionals. Not sure you do that just for two weekends of the year. Some schools in the SEC do well throughout the season.
If I were a team, that wanted to win more, I would do more behind the scenes for the overall player experience to attract better players. I get that probably means more fannies in seats to pay for those ideas. However, not sure I would be doing major expansion for two weekends a year.

Just in our conference alone…

Marshall- brand new park
ODU- brand new park
Stink-major renovations
Ark State- major renovations/expansion
Ga State- brand new park but they never really had one.

We know Coastal and USM improve theirs every so often.

I’m sure Troy will expand after this run.

Not sure where all the money comes from outside of Marshall- I believe that was a P3 deal (public private partnership).

To your point- we are taking the scholarships/NIL route to see where this thing goes for now.

I took your point from a different perspective. I thought you meant we have a decent ballpark and will make renovations to to expand seating which impacts available seating..

Other than Stink, all the other ballparks mentioned were crappy ballparks IMHO if we are being honest with ourselves. I feel those changes were a necessity versus an enhancement in order to actually have credibility to say you are a D1 baseball program. Some sarcasm here ..but some serious as have been to all but arky st. From TV viewing, it needed to be upgraded.
With that said, congratulations to the schools that have been able to get money to upgrade facilities

[Stonewall]

“ We proved we had the talent to compete with Troy , and win. But after that we went in one direction and well , you know where they are. The question is why?”