Breaking BREAKING NEWS - WILL BOLT STILL SUCKS

[Herbie]

We would at least be king of the shit pile if we would get going on the baseball facility upgrades. We have a nice ballpark, that’s it. It’s nothing special anymore because we built it 25 years ago (it was one of the best at that time) and barely touched it since. At least they know this according to on of the other threads and have stuff in motion to work on upgrading. At least then we will have a better chance at keeping some of those kids.

I don’t think facilities will really help.
The best facilities in the country so r get the best kids here.
You have to think of Nebraska baseball like Boise state football.
It can get decent prospects. It it lies on the coach to develop and find hidden gems more than it uses its facilities to get great players.

Top players want exposure to mlb. Big 10 doesn’t offer anything of value there and really seems to have no plans to invest in baseball to make it more visible.

 

[SlumpBuster]

The big 10 will go up a spot in the rpj just simply because the pac 12 will cease to exist.
Big 12, acc, and sec will still be the top 3 conferences for baseball.
Since 2020 the big 10’s rpi ranking
2020- 10th
2021 - 11th
2022 - 8th
2023 - 6th
2024 - 4th
2024 is the conferences best year by far but the gap between 3rd and 4th is huge. The gap between 4th and 8th is smaller and I’d bet on the big 10 dropping a couple spots because they typically fall during conference season.

USC and UCLA don’t really elevate big 10 baseball more than Nebraska did which has been marginal at best.
USC hasn’t been a baseball school since the late 90s and puts no money into it.
UCLA has been better this century than any big 10 team. They also suffer a fate of zero financial support. And once John Savage retires it could just collapse on itself.

The Big 12 will take a massive step back in baseball without Texas and Oklahoma.

UCLA and Oregon have both had success more recently. USC still often recruits well but for whatever reason they underperform. Washington meh.

The B1G and the B12 will compete for the #3 league from here forward. The Big 2 will still be the SEC and ACC, and the SEC will be ridiculous with Oklahoma and Texas.

 

[Herbie]

The Big 12 will take a massive step back in baseball without Texas and Oklahoma.

UCLA and Oregon have both had success more recently. USC still often recruits well but for whatever reason they underperform. Washington meh.

The B1G and the B12 will compete for the #3 league from here forward. The Big 2 will still be the SEC and ACC, and the SEC will be ridiculous with Oklahoma and Texas.

Oklahoma state
Baylor
Tcu
Texas tech
Arizona
Arizon state
Utah
And you can throw Kansas and Kansas state in.

Those teams combined will create more top 25 teams per year than the big 10 will easily.

 

[Herbie]

That quote has to be trolling. UCLA is an Omaha regular and won a championship in the past decade LoL

Yes I’ve acknowledged that.
UCLAs athletic department is broke and baseball facilities are garbage. Once savage is gone it’s hard to see ucla being anything but a shell of its former self.
Sec has started getting a lot of top California prospects that don’t go pro. I assume you’ll see more acc teams getting in to the action now as well

 

[PonyBoy]

Top players want exposure to mlb. Big 10 doesn’t offer anything of value there

Dumbest fucking statement in this thread and because there are a lot of them, congrats.

 

[Herbie]

Dumbest fucking statement in this thread and because there are a lot of them, congrats.

Say you are a recruit with offers from sec, acc, big 12 and big 10 schools.
What does the big 10 offer you baseball wise that has more value than teams in those conferences can offer you?

 

[Baron Winnebago]

Saw this posted elsewhere, but relavent....

Team picked by every publication to be in the middle of the pack of a mediocre conference and nowhere near a regional spot while replacing their entire weekend staff, their closer and 2 of the best hitters in decades....is going to a regional as a 2 seed somewhere and 1 game out from first in the league after the coach retools his entire staff and brings in an ass load of talent with newcomers balling out...

Husker fans...."these coaches suck balls".

Me:

 

[PonyBoy]

Say you are a recruit with offers from sec, acc, big 12 and big 10 schools.
What does the big 10 offer you baseball wise that has more value than teams in those conferences can offer you?

SEC & ACC are in a league of their own; elite of the elite. I'm going to every single one of them not named Pitt or Boston College, over any team in the B1G. There are no comparisons with the SEC & ACC, so let's get that out of the way.

And it's not because "the B1G doesn't offer top players MLB exposure".

2023 MLB Draft
B1G - 30 players
Big 12 - 25 players
In their official press release, the B12 included 4 players ("29 were drafted") from teams that weren't even part of their conference in 2023.

1st round
B1G - 2
B12 - 1

2nd round
B1G - 3
B12 - n/a

3rd round
B1G - 1
B12 - 2

4th round
B1G - 2
B12 - 3

5th round
B1G - 1
B12 - 1

6th round
B1G - 5
B12 - 1

7th round
B1G - n/a
B12 - 2

8th round
B1G - 3
B12 - 1

9th round
B1G - 2
B12 - 1 (non B12 member)

10th round
B1G - 2
B12 - 4 (1 non B12 member)

11th-20th round
B1G - 9
B12 - 13 (2 non B12 members)

 

[Kaladin]

We will be fine.

1. Get new facilities.
2. Hopefully get our baseball NIL figured out if we haven't already (???)
3. Let Childress recruit his pitchers and build the pitching staff.
4. Maybe tinker with the coaching staff some more and replace Harvell.
5. As long as we lock down Nebraska and the surrounding region and continue to bring in solid JUCOs, we should have a solid roster. Childress needs to bring in some talent from Texas and the south though.

 

[PonyBoy]

The whole conference debate is ridiculous. The B1G is routinely in the top 4 or 5 of baseball conferences. Everyone is chasing the SEC & ACC.

NCAA tournament teams by conference

2017
8 SEC
7 B12
7 ACC
5 B1G
4 PAC

2018
10 SEC
6 ACC
5 B12
4 B1G
4 PAC

2019
10 SEC
8 ACC
5 B1G
5 B12
5 PAC

2020
n/a (covid)

2021
3 bids (6th most)

2022
2 bids (yuck)

2023
3 bids (6th most)

2024 will continue the downslide, as I anticipate 2 B1G teams (puke). The conference only schedule, and recruiting limitations the B1G put on all members in 2021 has made an impact but nobody wants to discuss it. I'm hopeful the conference will catch up in 2025 with the new additions, but it may be 2026.

 

[Kaladin]

The whole conference debate is ridiculous. The B1G is routinely in the top 4 or 5 of baseball conferences. Everyone is chasing the SEC & ACC.

NCAA tournament teams by conference

2017
8 SEC
7 B12
7 ACC
5 B1G
4 PAC

2018
10 SEC
6 ACC
5 B12
4 B1G
4 PAC

2019
10 SEC
8 ACC
5 B1G
5 B12
5 PAC

2020
n/a (covid)

2021
3 bids (6th most)

2022
2 bids (yuck)

2023
3 bids (6th most)

2024 will continue the downslide, as I anticipate 2 B1G teams (puke). The conference only schedule, and recruiting limitations the B1G put on all members in 2021 has made an impact but nobody wants to discuss it. I'm hopeful the conference will catch up in 2025 with the new additions, but it may be 2026.

Regarding the recruiting limitations, does that still matter now that we can do NIL deals? Can't we just bring in extra guys and put them on NIL instead of scholarships?

 

[SlumpBuster]

Oklahoma state
Baylor
Tcu
Texas tech
Arizona
Arizon state
Utah
And you can throw Kansas and Kansas state in.

Those teams combined will create more top 25 teams per year than the big 10 will easily.

Yeah, no. Half those teams are pretty mid most years. You're not serious right? Utah, Kansas and KSU??? You have to be trolling.

Oklahoma State is legit. TCU is probably too. TT is sometimes good, but Baylor hasn't been good for a while (lower RPI over the past 10 years than Nebraska LOL). I'll pretend you weren't trolling with that because yeah, 15-20 years ago they were solid.

Went and did a quick compilation, RPI over the past 10 years with some B10 & B12 teams (and OU and UT for measure)
Red = SEC
Green = B12
Blue = B10
=====================================================================================================
1) OSU (24) - 2 top 10 finishes
2) TCU (30) - 4 top 10 finishes
3) TT (34) - 2 top 10 finishes
4) UCLA (41) - 3 top 10 finishes
5) Texas (43) - 1 top 10 finish
6) Oklahoma (44) - 2 top 10 finishes
7) Maryland (50) - #13 highest finish
8) Indiana (51) - 1 top 10 finish
9) Arizona (59) - 1 top 10 finish
10) ASU (61) - #21 highest finish
11) Oregon (65) - 1 top 10 finish
12) Illinois (69) - #12 highest finish
13) Nebraska (72) - #24 highest
14) Michigan (77) - #39 highest
15) Baylor (86) - #24 highest
16) KSU (87) - #17 highest
17) USC (77) - #39 highest
18) Kansas (102) - #44 highest
19) Utah (134) - #53 highest (4 times in the top 100 lol)

VERY IMPORTANT TO CONSIDER
Absolutely worth keeping in mind that all of these RPIs in the B12 and P12 were boosted by playing each other. It's how RPI works. Texas and Oklahoma over the next 10 years will get a huge RPI boost even if they post similar results (by being in the SEC). All of the B10 teams will get an RPI boost adding UCLA, Oregon and USC. All of the B12 teams will see a drop in RPI over the next 10 years.

Don't believe me? Well consider this. Nebraska MISSED THE BIG 12 TOURNAMENT in 2010 and 2011, our last years there....and the RPI was #65 and #69. Higher than our 10 year average. RPI is a circle jerk and outside of the top 3, the B12 remaining and new teams are pretty mid over the past decade.

 

[PonyBoy]

Regarding the recruiting limitations, does that still matter now that we can do NIL deals? Can't we just bring in extra guys and put them on NIL instead of scholarships?

B1G recruiting limitations were in 2020 & parts of 2021. They've since been lifted, I just don't recall the date in 2021 when it was lifted. It put all B1G teams at a disadvantage for a period of time and they're reaping it now.

Bolt handles scholarships different than other B1G coaches. Our scholly guys are on a 1-year letter of intent. It's allowed in the B1G, via a loophole since it's not a full scholarship sport, and he's taking advantage of it. It still limits us with possible draft picks out of high school, but the limit is only for 1 calendar year.

Husker baseball NIL is close to non-existent. We have to use the NCAA allowed "academic performance bonus" of $5,980 per school calendar year as part of scholarship money just to be competitive from a scholarship standpoint. Erstad & Gordon have expressed deep interest in helping raise money for NIL but it hasn't developed (yet, to my knowledge).

 

[PonyBoy]

Hard data.

Penn State, who hasn't made a Regional since 2000 (24 years ago), has a bigger baseball budget than Nebraska. Cockeye has a bigger budget. Cockeye! They have 3 Regional appearances in 34 fucking years! THREE!

Husker fans want top results, without the financial commitment. Routinely in the top 10-15 in attendance for 20 years and treated like a redheaded step child.

 

[SlumpBuster]

Hard data.

Penn State, who hasn't made a Regional since 2000 (24 years ago), has a bigger baseball budget than Nebraska. Cockeye has a bigger budget. Cockeye! They have 3 Regional appearances in 34 fucking years! THREE!

Husker fans want top results, without the financial commitment. Routinely in the top 10-15 in attendance for 20 years and treated like a redheaded step child.

Damn

 

[ShortSideOption]

I have a hard time saying our coach sucks while we are one game out of first place in conference. We start falling then we can have the conversation.

With some of the things being shared here like us paying less than Cockeye and our facility needs I’m actually pretty impressed with Bolt after reading that.

 

[Kaladin]

I have a hard time saying our coach sucks while we are one game out of first place in conference. We start falling then we can have the conversation.

With some of the things being shared here like us paying less than Cockeye and our facility needs I’m actually pretty impressed with Bolt after reading that.

@PonyBoy has a really good thread in the Bomb Shelter about the baseball situation

 

[Baron Winnebago]

I have a hard time saying our coach sucks while we are one game out of first place in conference. We start falling then we can have the conversation.

With some of the things being shared here like us paying less than Cockeye and our facility needs I’m actually pretty impressed with Bolt after reading that.

Fat fucking chance you're going to stop me from overreacting to every loss

 

[IM4NUALWAYS]

Nebraska is probably going to extend Bolt just based off the No Hitter. It is the best thing we have done in men's sports the last 10 years. Extending coaches and AD's for no reason.