Fantastic season regardless for the Cards.  

From @ShlyKBMT

“A (28-27) Florida team gets in and Lamar doesn’t. Ridiculous. The Gators were (13-17) in conference play. The regular season is officially pointless for Southland baseball teams.”

Edited May 27, 20242 yr by Mike

Typical of the big schools who run the NCAA.  Pat you on the back and say "great season guys but we think you went to the wrong school."

Sweep the #9 overall seed in their place (where else would they play us?)  Don't care

Top ERA in the country going into the conference tourney (Southeastern ballpark will wreck any ERA).  Don't care

Second most wins in the country.  Don't care.

 

 

Good job Cardinals.  Sorry to see your season end.  What a fun group to watch.  Reload and leave no doubt next year.

 

So how much blame do we need to put on Commissioner Grant or whoever the NCAA baseball rep from the SLC is? The same thing with softball. All 13 SEC teams were selected. If McNeese Cowgirls (40+ wins 22-2 in conference) was not selected an an at-large, why not UIW? I just don't think the SLC fights hard enough when it comes to playoff selections. 

 

For what it's worth and it's not worth much, two of the hosts for the selection show seemed surprised that Lamar was left out.  

College of Charleston also got screwed.  They had over 40 wins and a higher RPI than Lamar.

I agree that it is a shame that the selection committee picks third and fourth place teams from the power conferences long before they consider a good team from a lower D1 conference, but that is the norm.  Now the Cards need to repeat the feat and if possible, even strengthen the non-conference schedule.

 

I won't deny that there is a benefit to playing more of the better teams from what are considered the stronger conferences, but why can't the NCAA come up with some formula that would at least somewhat offset the fourth, fifth and lower place conference teams from getting an at large bid.  Say as the fifth-place team from a power conference your strength of schedule is reduced by a factor of some kind.

i think one of the biggest shams is RPI.  its basically who do you schedule in the empty the bench midweek games (that neither team tries).  we need to ditch playing the hbcu's and bulk up the midweek.  find out why deggs and ULL are dodging us, get some sunbelt midweek instead of swac

I agree with you except everyone in the SLC needs to elevate their mid-week schedule.  You may not be able get all of the better games that you might want because those schools have to be willing to schedule you and the better the competition the less likely they will come to Lamar.  Especially if Lamar doesn't upgrade the Beck and provide visitor facilities to change in and to go to in the event of inclement weather.

This reinforces that Lamar and other the power players of the Southland need to start throwing their weight around and start trimming the fat.
Far too many Southland teams think small:
- 1000 fans + tickets for basketball = a good turnout
- football crowds that a lot of 4A high schools would be ashamed of
- facilities that are multiple tiers below where the top of the conference are

But the Cardinals also need to start getting their fans to turn out where we're the universal envy of the whole conference. 

Creating the Assistant AD for Corporate Sponsorships position is a good step to raising the funds to make sure we can play the game in this new world of college sports.