KR talks about Rising and Falling Programs

– October 20, 2009Posted in: ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, Conference USA, Mountain West, Pac 12, Rivals

Rivals.com College Baseball editor Kendall Rogers has put out an article detailing five programs that are rising in prestige and five that are starting to fall off the map. The programs that he sees coming on are: TCU, Virginia, East Carolina, Kansas and Ohio State. The five programs that are starting to fall are: Arizona, Baylor, Tulane, Nebraska, and California. He has some interesting commentary on each team as I can see his reasoning on all the programs except for one in Baylor.

The Bears had a marginal 2009 season which saw them make the Baton Rouge regional before bowing out to Minnesota. So one bad season means that your program is declining? I don’t think so and Baylor is always getting high level recruits according to the rankings done by Collegiate Baseball. You can check out the full article from Rogers by clicking here.

Please feel free to leave your comments on which programs are on the rise or declining.

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Tags: ACC, Arizona, Baylor, Big 12, Big Ten Conference, Cal, Conference USA, East Carolina, Kansas, Mountain West, Nebraska, Ohio State, Pac 12, Rivals, TCU, Tulane, Virginia

About Brian Foley

Brian Foley is the founder and Lead Editor of College Baseball Daily since its inception in 2005. He has covered two CWS, multiple NCAA Baseball Regionals, and other special events across the country. In addition to his duties with College Baseball Daily, he has covered games for Inside Lacrosse and been featured in USA Today, Wall Street Journal among other publications. He can be contacted by email at editor at collegebaseballdaily.com and followed on Twitter @BFoley82.

Scott

I concur that saying Baylor is on a decline might be extreme, but I wouldn’t disagree that Baylor’s trajectory took a weird turn the last two years. After their trip to the CWS, it seemed like they might make themselves a regular for the rest of this decade, but they have struggled to get to the top of the Big 12. What makes it even more troublesome is it seems that the talent was there to be a serious contender. Tulane seems to not be “falling”, but “fallen”. They had two of the top draft picks just a few years ago, and really haven’t had any talent of note. One program that I am surprised wasn’t brought up was USC. I guess that it might have been a part of this article three years ago, but now they are just assumed to be a non-player on the national scene, which is sad given the history of their program.
http://thecollegebaseballblog.com Brian Foley

It seems to me that USC gets a pass and has been for a long time. I don’t get why since they really should be in the NCAA Tourney every season and playing for NCAA Titles.
Scott

I know that this is taken a much more historical look at college baseball, but there are a couple of programs I remember fervently in the CWS when I was younger that you just don’t see there as much anymore: Pepperdine, Mississippi State, Wichita State. Pepperdine and Wichita State have stayed on the cusp and made some regionals the last couple of years, but haven’t seen Omaha in a while (back in the 90s for both). Mississippi State, outside of 2007, have basically gotten to postseason play and then gotten out. These teams were some of the powerhouses of the 80s and early 90s, and are no longer in that top tier. Of the three, I think Pepperdine has the best chance to reclaim their glory, and Mississippi State is the most likely to stay put (even though they have the most recent CWS appearance) and maybe even begin to regress out.
http://thecollegebaseballblog.com Brian Foley

Mississippi State got a new coach last season in John Cohen who was solid at Kentucky so I expect him to try to get that program back in the conversation. Pepperdine is the one team that might be affected with Sean Kenny going to Maryland.
Scott

Agreed, though I wonder if he will suffer from having to pick up what Polk has left. Polk seems to have done some PR damage to that program locally and in the state and I wonder if that will affect recruiting. LSU looks to be back as a powerhouse and Ole Miss has stabilized it seems. Mississippi State’s class this year is strong, but I think they have to be strong for the next two years to keep that up. It would be great if Cohen could make this program a powerhouse again, if only to see some of the clips of all the future major leaguers they had in the 80s in the CWS history reels.