Picked Off posted:My niece went to Oberlin on a swimming scholarship. She loved the school, athletics and unfortunately the ultra liberal political scene. Not sure she has had a paying job since she graduated 2 years ago. She can grow some bad a$$ organic veggies though! Haha.
Former teammate of my son is a current baseball player at Oberlin. While liberal before, he is now an activist for anything anti corporate, fossil fuel & pro ocupy anything. I'm cool with that if the university allows for all sides, but don't think that's the case here. He loves the baseball and probably would not had the opportunity to play had he not chosen a high academic DIII across the country.
None the less, love them both and eventually things work out long term. I'm sure that both are feelin the Bern! Haha!
PO'd,
I know you understand this but this is for others who may read and misunderstand. Your niece could have not gone onto Oberlin with a swimming scholarship. Oberlin being D3 does not grant athletic scholarships. All her scholarships would have been of the academic. The myth of Wink, Wink, Nudge, Nudge scholarships is just that, a myth. I am not saying that it does not happen, but it happens far less than people expect.
Last year, Oberlin got hot at the right time. I know a good friend of coach A, who's son plays for OWU. He said that coach A was surprised but very happy they finally were playing to their potential. A long time poster 7Steps went to Oberlin to play baseball. The team did not get the support from the student body that he expected. Sports on Oberlin campus are after thoughts for the non athletes. Many students do not see the point. But the student athletes who play for this school do. I talked to a few of them at the NCAC tourney last year. (I wish OWU would have gotten a shot at them.) They seemed pretty close nit group.
Dill field is a nice facility from what I have heard. Oberlin has also upgraded other facilities and has put some more emphasis on athletics. Back in the bad old days the football team was wildly under sized, there were concerns that if there were many injuries they would not have enough players to safely finish out the season. But they always did. The football team has beaten one of the power houses in the conference, Wabash. Their roster is larger now. While this program is getting better I would not consider it an up and comer. They have to compete with Wooster every year. Also the top 4 get into the NCAC tournament. The NCAC is split into divisions east and west. It used to be the top two from each division got into the tourney, and the winner of the tourney received the pool A bid. In those days it was mostly Allegheny and Wooster from the east and OWU and whoever from the west. Now who gets into the tourney is decided through cross over games. on the last weekend of the season the top 4 from the east and the west play 1 vs 4, 2 vs 3, format. they play a 3 game series and the 4 winners of those series advance to the tournament. This has opened opportunities for other teams that regularly did not have a chance before, especially the 2 vs. 3.
I would like to see two changes, in the NCAC. One would be to go to round robin. All teams play each other, instead of east and west. Tough to do when the eastern and western most schools are in Pennsylvania and Middle Indiana. It is tough to make up games. I would also like it if Conference play was not two DH's Saturday and Sunday, 7-9 inning games. I would prefer 2 9's or do a three game series a 9 on Friday and dh on Saturday. There is less chance of a tie and then Sundays you can play out of conference. Gives more chances to beef up the schedule. But several of the NCAC teams play all there out of conference games during their spring break and then only play on the weekends after getting back to school. Kenyon has a two week spring break. Kenyon and Oberlin both play very few if any non-conference games when they get back. This makes it hard to keep more than 4 starting pitchers sharp.
Any of the NCAC schools are fine places to play. In the past there were definitely regular bottom feeders, but the conference is becoming more balanced. Wooster is still on top, and usually has the best bet for a pool C, bid in most years, but some of the traditional bottom teams will rise up and have a chance.