Baseball 2023

[umassbaseball]

UMass opened their season at the Naval Academy today. They won game 1 4-2 and lead Navy 4-0 in game 2.

They were 22-26-1 last year. 1-0 to start 2023

[umassbaseball]

Minutemen went 2-1 in the series at Navy. Weekend series is at UNC Asheville starting today at 3. All 3 games (Fri, Sat, Sun) are on ESPN+

[InnervisionsUMASS]

A winning record! Go U!

[Upstate10]

Would love a split with Penn today to take home that series

[InnervisionsUMASS]

Record is now 3-7

[Quann]

How many scholarship guys on the roster now?

[DeeDeeBee]

One and a half at the most and none next year!

[Quann]

Man, that's brutal. There is no way on earth to compete with that little of commitment from the state U.

[dennisdent]

Watched the game yesterday against WSU and it wasn't even fair. Talent level difference between the two teams was huge. UMass used to put out first round draft picks and major leaguers. Sadly, the softball program isn't doing much better after years of all-americans. Had to use the ten run rule in both games against WSU so far. UMass is basically D3 with some D1 players spliced in. Bamford needs to either find a way to fully fund the program or drop it.

[dennisdent]

Lost 14 - 2 today, stopped again at seven innings.

[rsox1221]

Bamford needs to either find a way to fully fund the program or drop it.

I don't mean to pick on you dennis but I just have to chime in here. This isn't a Bamford problem. He's a popular scapegoat for fans who don't like something about the athletic department, and he's far from perfect, but this isn't solely his thing. Baseball lost its scholarships a long time ago, around the time UMass moved up to FBS when the school had to commit to the full 85 with that program, and even a little beforehand

The baseball program hasn't been relevant since the 90's, and they haven't been better than one game over .500 in nearly all the time since the turn of the millenium

Given UMass' current sports offerings on the men's and women's sides and with Title IX considerations, there is no way to "fully fund" baseball without taking scholarships away from other men's sports. Given that baseball is unfortunately irrelevant for UMass, they will not be doing that. They have maybe 1.0 scholarship to use this season and I have heard similar things, they aren't going to have any pretty soon, maybe as soon as next season

Where we do agree is the idea that baseball should be dropped. Frankly it should have been dropped over a decade ago at least. It's not fair to the kids and coaches who are in that program to try and compete day in and day out with literally no support. It's pathetic to watch the program get run-ruled three straight games agaist Wichita and while they will scrap and win a few, they will always lose more

People always like to focus on football being bad (and they have been bad of course) but that program, despite it's struggles, brings in serious money and can be self-sustaining as a result. Baseball will always lose money and there is no benefit to still sponsoring it if the school is not going to support it; the people involved in the program deserve better

Another thing to factor in is that down the line should UMass get an invite to a conference to be a full FBS member, like say for example the AAC where Wichita State plays, there is no way a new conference like the AAC or even the MAC would allow UMass to bring baseball with one or zero scholarships. AAC baseball, while not the SEC or anything, is something the conference takes seriously. Just look at Wichita. Unless UMass was going to fully scholarship the sport, which as I've already outlined they can't, the AAC would tell them to drop it. The A10 doesn't give a shit about baseball which is what is allowing UMass to continue this charade. Any change in affiliation will almost assuredly result in being forced to drop baseball and UMass should just rip the bandage off now and get it over with

You never like to see sports dropped but sometimes it's just the best thing for everyone involved. It might sting at first but eventually the department will be better off for it. I know it may not be a popular opinion but it really needs to happen, sooner rather than later

[dennisdent]

^Wasn't blaming Bamford at all in my post if you re-read it. As AD he is one of major decision makers when it comes each sport that the University funds. Bamford is paid more than Swamy to make these tough choices on the teams. This is his job to either find more funding or make the recommendation to drop the baseball. Yes, he will piss off a lot of the baseball alums but maybe this will be a wake up call and they will find the money to make the program competitive again. UConn/BC are showing this season that NE college baseball teams can win against any programs in the country.

Look at what BYU is doing for its walk-on football players: https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/n ... 120059002/

Why can't UMass baseball do the same for all its players who aren't on scholarship--aka walk-ons??????? Got to think outside of the box these days!

[rsox1221]

The issue with baseball though is it isn't about "finding the money," they don't have available scholarships to give it with the way they prioritize men's sports and with Title IX compliance in mind

There is no making it competitive again. The fact is they need to just drop it and move on. The fact that the haven't is a mistake

And due respect, but who in their ever-loving right mind is going to commit NIL dollars to essentially pay for scholarships for friggin UMass baseball?

You can't materialize money out of thin air the same way you can't magically find scholarships for the sport. It's unfortunate but the most sensible thing to do is just drop it

[dennisdent]

The issue with baseball though is it isn't about "finding the money," they don't have available scholarships to give it with the way they prioritize men's sports and with Title IX compliance in mind

There is no making it competitive again. The fact is they need to just drop it and move on. The fact that the haven't is a mistake

With NIL there is ways of finding the money!!!!!! The team can only have so many players per the NCAA on the roster. How they are paying to go to UMass to play baseball is the players concern--same as any student or walk-on.

https://www.cbssports.com/college-footb ... olarships/

[rsox1221]

The issue with baseball though is it isn't about "finding the money," they don't have available scholarships to give it with the way they prioritize men's sports and with Title IX compliance in mind

There is no making it competitive again. The fact is they need to just drop it and move on. The fact that the haven't is a mistake

With NIL there is ways of finding the money!!!!!!

https://www.cbssports.com/college-footb ... olarships/

Dennis, no there is not. BYU football and UMass baseball aren't in the same universe when it relates to this for a litany of reasons. Just because NIL exists doesn't mean every school everywhere has unlimited money for every sport they sponsor

There is no way on God's green earth that UMass is going to find an NIL deal that will pay the full freight for their baseball roster. That's legitimately insane

They need to cut the sport. That's the only truly sensible thing to do when looking at all the facts. It's a shame but it is long overdue