2023 NFL offseason thread

I am just curious. How many of the best Midwestern baseball players enroll in the Big 10 and how many head south for the longer seasons and better baseball weather? Colorado dropped baseball and golf 40 years ago because the school thought they thought there would always be a ceiling on how far the programs could advance, given the vagaries of spring weather in Boulder. Doe Big 10 schools suffer from the same problem?

 

Michigan made a surprise run to the CWS finals in (I think) 2019, but usually there are only 2-3 nationally relevant teams from the league in any given season and no one seems to have a permanent grip. Maryland might come closest, but they have yet to break through to Omaha. Out of schools truly in the Midwest, Notre Dame is the only real power. Or Louisville if you are flexible with geography.

 

I haven't done a roster breakdown, but on the whole I'd guess there's a decent split. I'd also guess that it's not just the weather, but the culture as well. It's well-established that college baseball is a Thing in the SEC. A half-dozen schools draw 10,000 people a game on the weekends. The SEC tournament is an event people make a week out of. In the SEC, it's probably not a stretch to say that baseball is right there with basketball when it comes to interest.
Compare that to the Big Ten, where they're not playing at home until mid-March and then playing in front of maybe a couple thousand people for most games, and it's just a different world.

 

Indiana has done pretty well in recent years. They've hosted some super regionals, IIRC, and might have even made it to Omaha.
If you want to be really flexible on what constitutes a "northern" school, Oregon State has won several national championships and Oregon has done pretty well since they restarted their program.
But yeah, on the whole it's not like the SEC where it feels like any one of a dozen teams could break through in a given year. Or even the ACC that has a half-dozen traditional powers.

 

What a weird threadjack for an NFL thread.

 

Guess the Saints found a new QB1.

 

We've got six weeks until the draft and five months until training camps open. When you're crossing the ocean in a rowboat, you talk about whatever you can to pass the time.

 

One word: Swoosh.

 

No doubt. I don't know the full reasons behind Oregon's decision to restart their baseball program, but I suspect it was in no small part a response to Oregon State winning back-to-back national titles.

 

Can I keep posting about Wentz going to the Vikings because I really want to it helps me get over my ongoing disappointment Tebow never made to the Land of Ice and Snow.

I'm guy on the boat who gets eaten, aren't I?

 

Curious what the odds are that Carr is with the Saints longer than McDaniels is with the Raiders. And who gets a playoff win first.