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What a nightmare this has become for College athletes. I guess living in a truly global society nowadays issues will happen. Unfortunately, I am on the road to pick up my son from an SEC school to get him home.  They sent team home with instructions not to return to campus until 1st week of April at the earliest. 

At least the eligibility year issue is taken care of,  next fiasco will be the 11.7 scholarship/ 27 man/25% deal. Hope all are well and have plenty of TP!!

Son is moving out of dorm today and cleaning out his baseball locker.  Coach sent a text saying I don't like goodbyes but this is even worse.  They will not even be able to get together for one last time.  Guys have already gone home and are spread out all over the place.  So sad.  But I am keeping all the tickets and programs and stuff we got.  They might be worth something one day.  2020 The Season that Wasn't

MidAtlanticDad posted:
JCG posted:
MidAtlanticDad posted:
anotherparent posted:

Sure, I understand all that about pitching and weekend conference games, and playing the other pitchers in the weekday games.  Looks like most teams are playing 6-7 pitchers in those games, also that they are playing their regular lineups.  But then, some are losing those games by a lot.  Maybe they would lose anyway?  I thought the point was to win games (and yes, I get that winning conference games matters more), sounds more that teams use these games as some kind of scrimmage.

Speculation: RPI plays a role in the weekday games. I'm pretty sure that RPI is still used in college baseball for seeding and selection. At least two characteristics of RPI impact how some of these games play out. First, RPI doesn't look at game scores (just W/L), so even good teams don't care as much about losing big. Also, RPI uses "opponent's opponent" in the calculation, so some mid or lower conferences may ask all of their members to schedule weekday games against much better teams. That way the top teams in the conference do a little better with RPI from their conference games.

Wouldn't  the calculus be different for a lower conference team?  For example, when a Patriot or Ivy team goes against an ACC team, they're not going to win many of those games, and they're also not going to get an at-large bid. So if they have a freshman pitcher they want to get some innings in so he can develop, there's much downside to putting him out there in a midweek game, even if they think he doesn't give them their best chance of winning.

Patriot and Ivy aren't great examples since most aren't close enough to P5 schools to play weekday games, but I agree, a lower conference will never get an at-large bid, so RPI probably doesn't mean much to them. An early season weekend series (e.g. Army at Duke) is probably yet another calculus. I'm guessing part of that is just for the fun of playing against a big-time program.

Actually, unlike other sports, in baseball you are way more likely to see a non P5 get an at large. It happens annually and is very common. Much more than other major sports. The playing field is way more level in baseball. Just off the top of my head, I know the valley got three teams in last year so two would have been at large. They are on a streak of 26 of 39 years with multiple bids including six of the past eight. The American conference has had multiple bids and great success and there are many other examples behind these but i digress. But yes, generally speaking, big schools try to throw a younger arm midweek while smaller school may be more aggressive. Depends on respective schedules (risk vs reward). Winning your conference/conference tournament is normally your primary objective but smaller school coaches are resume building for their team and themselves. They are also competitors. Upcoming weather can be a factor as well as staff pitching depth.

There is no good solution here. Under recruited kids. Teams stacked with too many players. Time off during the peak of a career. All this is solvable though. The real fear is if the pandemic lasts longer than anyone expects (or fears) and the 2021 season is in jeopardy. Remote chance I think still, but not impossible. This can become the lost generation so everyone needs to get creative how to get games in asap, in a safe manner. 

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