D1 baseball reported that Big 10 will only play conference games and travel only by bus?!
Damn cold in the Midwest in February. And a long way from Nebraska to Maryland.
Original Post
Replies sorted oldest to newest
I’ll guess certain matchups won’t occur. In football the Big Ten has East and West. Nebraska probably won’t play Rutgers, Maryland and Penn State. Their inter divisional games are more likely to be Indiana, Ohio State and Michigan. It’s still 650 miles from Lincoln to Bloomington.
Makes zero sense to me😖
In case you haven’t noticed the big 10 leadership isn’t exactly bold and forward thinking, they would prefer to huddle up at home and wait for somebody to tell them it is safe. Unfortunately for them financially they can’t do that...so other sports also need to play. Cowards seldom make a wise choice.
It's pretty likely other conferences will end up doing something similar but I will say that the Big 10 has been handling covid the worst out of any conference. Between the delayed football season, the early baseball decision and the fact that the basketball schedule did not come out until a week before opening day. It's a really bad look for a major conference.
Personally, I don't think it's necessary but let's assume this is the safest direction to go. Bloomington is the fourth closest school to Nebraska. That's still a 700 mile one way trip by bus. That is tough. Rutgers and Maryland are in a similar boat. After Penn St and Ohio St, the next closest campus is IU. That's an 11 hour trip in a car, and an uglier bus ride.
The geography isn't great in the Big 10, but I suppose it isn't all that great for any power conference. Then again, none have announced no flights yet either.
I think there's a chance they may arrange it so that four teams meet at one campus and play each other there from Thurs-Sun.
Ex - Ohio St, PSU, Rutgers and Maryland all play each other at Penn State. Same weekend Indiana, Purude, Northwestern and UIUC play each other at Purdue.
As a fan that's a dream scenario.
If you were to ask me to rank conference front offices by the level of significance they attach to baseball, the Big 10 would be WAY down my list. Sadly, "afterthought" might be an exaggerated description of their attitude.
Because of this, it deepens my respect and admiration for those several Big 10 AD's who can rise above the league office's orientation and commit to building winning programs at their institutions.
I'm guessing that the Big10 officials are desperately worried that the basketball season will be derailed. They won't have any money to spend for baseball if that happens. Baseball doesn't bring them in any money.
That’s 100% it @anotherparent. It’s a struggle because one case shuts down an entire basketball team through contact tracing. It has already been a tough fall for men’s and women’s basketball teams.