With the NCAA field of 64 now out, I think it is a great time to analyze the growth of college baseball in the northeast. Out of the 16 Regionals, 0 are in the northeast. There are under 10 teams in the entire tournament that are legit northeast teams.
Is this OK or are there changes that need to be made? If so, is it simply expanding the tournament to allow more teams and/or guaranteeing a certain amount of northeast teams to host a Regional.
Is there any solution or is the fact that the best players will go down South inevitable? I do think that the tournament needs to expand to allow more teams in, but unlike basketball when you add another team, you add more than one extra game (increase round robin and such)
I really don't know if there is a real opportunity to grow baseball in the northeast but putting every Regional down south, not televising games on stations northeners watch regularly, and not creating some type of system to give an incentive for northeast schools to fully fund their programs, I think in a lot of ways the northern expansion of baseball has slowed to a standstill.
Having played college baseball in upstate NY ( Binghamton 2005-2009) I know there is quality baseball in the northeast, but I do question if there is a way to ever truly compete with the south.
Ken Jacobi
Author of "Going with the Pitch: Adjusting to Baseball, School, and Life as a Division I College Athlete"