BCS leagues expanding - yeah?

If they play baseball in Dallas, it won’t be at SMU. No program.

 

Now that we know that a cabal of boosters can front tens of millions of dollars a year for nine years of SMU's indentured servitude in the ACC, I'm surprised none of these guys wanted to create or re-create a baseball program in an area with plenty of talent.
They join Syracuse, which has an excuse, as ACC members without baseball.

 

Here is a list of all the awesome bowl games SMU’s mega boosters have gotten to enjoy since the program was revived:

Hawaii Bowl (x2)
Armed Forces Bowl
Birmingham Bowl
Frisco Bowl
Boca Raton Bowl
New Mexico Bowl

(A second Frisco Bowl and a Fenway Bowl appearance got canceled by Covid.)

Here is a list of conference championship game appearances for the mighty Mustang money machine:

2010 C-USA (lost 17-7 to UCF)

 

Sorry to threadjack (again), but the Detroit City Council recently approved an ordinance saying that businesses in the city must also accept cash. I nicely pointed that out to the guy selling me the bottled tap water, but I knew I wouldn't get anywhere. For all the Detroit City Council craziness over the years, it makes sense because there are plenty of low-income residents who are "unbanked."

I went into a sandwich shop for lunch yesterday in downtown Detroit, and the first thing the cashier said was that they were only accepting cash that day - the card reader must have been down or something. No problem. But, the three customers who were behind me turned around and left. Considering what's considered to be the world's largest jazz festival is this weekend - blocks away from the sandwich shop - I wonder how much business was/will be lost.

I guess I'm old school in that I only want to use my debit card at places I regularly shop, like the grocery store. Putting my account info out there to just anyone makes me uneasy, especially as the son of a retired banker.

Oh, and getting back to the thread topic, I'm glad my alma mater (Eastern Michigan) and the rest of the Mid-American Conference isn't sucked up in this realignment lunacy, namely since isn't among the big boys. Sure, it might be good for football and basketball, but what about travel for the non-revenue sports, as has already been pointed out on this thread? As a student, I only flew to one athletic event - a bowl game in California. Then again, I don't know if MAC teams fly to Buffalo - it wasn't in the MAC at that time. The longest MAC road trip for EMU was six hours one way to Northern Illinois (which left the MAC and came back).

 

The Microville Boys 2023 MACtion Tour opens at EWU on Oct. 28 for the Western Michigan game.

I think UB busses almost everywhere except Ball State and Northern Illinois.

 

I didn't even realize Tank McNamara still existed.

 

I think most data breaches are from stored data, not from any transmission of the data. I did read an article about some guys who pulled CC info from box stores wirelessly transmitting it from the checkout to wherever. The card skimmers are out there, but seem pretty easy to spot.

 

AAC is looking at Army as a football-only remember. Apparently everyone forgets how Army football’s first experience in a league went. Also it means the Navy game would be an after-the-season non-conference game, so they could still play in-season too. Complete lunacy.

Sources: AAC targets Army as SMU replacement

UMass has more potential if you want a football-only member (and it could eventually join as a full member). UConn coming back for football only is a non-starter, I assume.

 

TCU and Dallas Baptist both have very good baseball programs in the Metroplex. Dallas Baptist went from zero to 60 pretty quickly. Moved to Division I in 2004, reached their first regional in 2008, and have been NCAA Tournament regulars ever since. So SMU following a similar path if they're willing to commit the resources would not be impossible.

 

Does Cal have lights at its field? I seem to remember them not being able to host a regional one year because of it.

 

Hell at this point Army needs to join a conference just to play Division I opponents. There won't be anything left after week 4

 

Take it from a kid who played high school baseball in the Bay Area: Your mileage with Spring can vary greatly. The weather on Valentine's Day can be 72 and it can turn around and be rainy and foggy for the next four weeks. I've had my warmup jacket blow across the diamond in South San Francisco, stood in a steady drizzle in Martinez and needed hand warmers in Vallejo. And yet it was picture perfect in Berkeley, gorgeous in Lafayette and downright hot as hell in Dublin.

The weather isn't the same two days in a row, especially if you happen to catch a wet winter pattern. But compared to say, anywhere else around the 38th parallel -- Evansville, Ind., Lexington, Ky., Charlottesville, Va. -- it's probably really good weather.