Talking Bull: Base-Bull part duex

Base-Bull finally hits the MAC Championship

This is the second baseball post of the season on Bull Run... Bringing our three year running total to... two!

UB Baseball is sort of the step child of UB Athletics. It's a MAC requirement to carry the sport even though playing baseball February though May, outdoors, in the North East, does not make a ton of sense. In fact the only other conference that *requires* the sport SEC which is obviously a better geographical choice for spring baseball.

So the leadership at UB has never fully gotten behind the team. The Base-Bull's reportedly are running with just seven scholarship players and have some of the most modest facilities in the conference. So it's no surprise that the team has not met with a whole lot of success.

This season has been the season of Tom Murphy who has been turning heads all year. This past weekends Murphy's work, and a boat load of Bowling Green fielding errors, were enough lock up the eigth seed in MAC Championship tournament.

At Last! Bulls Clinch MAC Tournament Berth in Season Finale - Buffalo Athletics
At long last, the Buffalo baseball team has made it. For the first time since joining the Mid-American Conference for baseball in 2000, the Bulls earned a trip to the conference tournament Saturday afternoon thanks to an 8-5 win over Bowling Green. The win, coupled with an Akron loss at Kent State, helped Buffalo clinch the eighth and final spot in the tournament, which starts May 23.

Eighth is the highest UB has finished in the MAC and unless Danny White brings in his SEC baseball love it's doubtful this happens too often.

Still given the challenges that this program faces beating out four other teams, who have more scholarships and better digs, is an accomplishment.

Wake me when this impact the MAC

The Big12 had a banner week. First they land a contract worth far more than the ACC and then they lock up a grudge bowl against the SEC.

SEC-Big 12 Alliance Should Be A Rivalry Series, Not Just A Bowl Game - SBNation.com
So the SEC and Big 12 have a new bowl deal together. That's cool. They've basically created their own Rose Bowl. Excellent. But there might just be much, much more to it if we think about conference realignment.

Still *if* a four team playoff emerges which includes only conference champions its very doubtful that this game ever sees both champs.

SEC-Big 12 Alliance Should Be A Rivalry Series, Not Just A Bowl Game - SBNation.com
So the SEC and Big 12 have a new bowl deal together. That's cool. They've basically created their own Rose Bowl. Excellent. But there might just be much, much more to it if we think about conference realignment.

And there was a sigh of relief from the Big East

This are bordering on a dystopian fantasy for the Big East. Between defections and rumors Boise might Pull a TCU it was starting to look like another raid of CUSA was on the menu.

Boise State Broncos reaffirm Big East pledge, conference official says - ESPN
Boise State, which has been in recent talks with the Mountain West Conference about staying in the league instead of leaving next year, has reaffirmed its commitment to join the Big East, a conference official told ESPN's Joe Schad on Friday.

But Boise is sticking with the Big East despite the fact the AQ is going away.

EA Sports does not copy NCAA Players!

Come on... take a look at any mid majors roster in NCAA Football. We poked some fun last season at their description of Joe Licata as a "Scrambler". The also left Tony Daniel off the roster and had several players who did not exist in real life.

Still I suppose they get some rosters close enough to justify this:

Former NCAA athletes' lawsuit against EA is so on | Joystiq
EA's request to dismiss a class action lawsuit from former NCAA athletes has been denied, meaning the trial will movie forward and EA stands to lose more than $1 billion if found at fault. The former NCAA athletes claim EA conspired with the NCAA and the CLC to have players sign away their likenesses and names to be used in video games without compensation. The players allege that in order to participate in NCAA sports they were required to sign a form allowing EA their likenesses in games, even after their college sports careers ended.

Meh... The only ones who will really get rich if this gets through are the lawyers.

MAC-Xpansion... nope

Good article in the Blade about the MAC's complacency.

MAC left out of conference realignment - Toledo Blade
But the real head-scratcher, to me, is why these schools with little or no football history are more attractive to C-USA than any of a number of Mid-American Conference schools which have established programs and decades of FBS and Division I basketball competition under their belts.

Personally if you want to talk about expansion... Yes I am going to open that can of worms

I think the MAC should look at James Madison and Delaware. They are both Public institutions that have good academics, a solid commitment to athletics, a good brand. Geographically \they stretch but don't blow up the conferences foot print. Delaware even has it's toes into the Philadelphia Market.

That would get the MAC to 14 all sports and 15 for football. Then give UMass the two year option. If they leave after two, or are picked up by CUSA we can sit at 14. If not... well we will deal with that when the time comes.