It's strange to me as well. Omaha is the ultimate goal, regardless of the circumstances surrounding how you got there. I guess Fresno State shouldn't be happy about their miracle run to the national title a few years ago because they had such a crappy regular season that year?

That being said, I don't equate No Omaha to Failure. We still had a very good year. As did UCLA, Louisville, Illinois and Florida State. Our seasons weren't "failures". Disappointing, yes...but a failure? No.

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It's strange to me as well. Omaha is the ultimate goal, regardless of the circumstances surrounding how you got there. I guess Fresno State shouldn't be happy about their miracle run to the national title a few years ago because they had such a crappy regular season that year?

That being said, I don't equate No Omaha to Failure. We still had a very good year. As did UCLA, Louisville, Illinois and Florida State. Our seasons weren't "failures". Disappointing, yes...but a failure? No.

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OK, I agree with you. Failure is too strong. But it's not the success everyone was striving for when the season started.

In college basketball, which set of fans more enjoyed their basketball season?

2014-2015 Kentucky fans whose team went undefeated (34-0) during the regular season, was a #1 seed in the NCAA tourney, but ultimately finished 38-1 losing in the semi-finals?

2013-2014 Connecticut fans whose team went 24-8 in the regular season, was a #7 seed in the NCAA tourney, but then went on a huge 6-0 run in the tourney and won the national championship.

The way sports usally works, fans place more emphasis on what happens the last day of the season (the final destination) than what took place during the journey to get there. Unless they are in a 'just happy to be there' sort of mood due to the team dramatically exceeding expectations.

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In college basketball, which set of fans more enjoyed their basketball season?

2014-2015 Kentucky fans whose team went undefeated (34-0) during the regular season, was a #1 seed in the NCAA tourney, but ultimately finished 38-1 losing in the semi-finals?

2013-2014 Connecticut fans whose team went 24-8 in the regular season, was a #7 seed in the NCAA tourney, but then went on a huge 6-0 run in the tourney and won the national championship.

The way sports usally works, fans place more emphasis on what happens the last day of the season (the final destination) than what took place during the journey to get there. Unless they are in a 'just happy to be there' sort of mood due to the team dramatically exceeding expectations.

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On the last day of our season, we lost. So did Arkansas. Unless you win it all, or don't even make the post-season, everyone's season ends in a loss.

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It's strange to me as well. Omaha is the ultimate goal, regardless of the circumstances surrounding how you got there. I guess Fresno State shouldn't be happy about their miracle run to the national title a few years ago because they had such a crappy regular season

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Not sure why this is so hard. Fresno State won the trophy. Of course they should be happy. We are talking about Arkansas who won nothing.

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It's strange to me as well. Omaha is the ultimate goal, regardless of the circumstances surrounding how you got there. I guess Fresno State shouldn't be happy about their miracle run to the national title a few years ago because they had such a crappy regular season

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Not sure why this is so hard. Fresno State won the trophy. Of course they should be happy. We are talking about Arkansas who won nothing.

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The won the Super Regional, which puts them in Omaha. In college baseball, Omaha is everything. Don't be fooled by all those NCAA tournament appearances in a row we quote to make ourselves feel better. They don't amount to much compared to trips to Omaha.

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Don't be fooled by all those NCAA tournament appearances in a row we quote to make ourselves feel better. They don't amount to much compared to trips to Omaha.

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That has nothing to do with the question presented. The question was: Would you trade Arkansas's season for ours.

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The question was: Would you trade Arkansas's season for ours.

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And my answer is this: Yes, because they made it to the CWS and we didn't.

Compare A&M to Arkansas:

Conference regular season championship...neither won it
Conference tourney championship...neither won it
Regional championship...both won it
Super regional championship...Arkansas won it, Texas A&M did not
College World Series appearance...Arkansas had one, Texas A&M did not

And I don't care that the Hogs went 0-2. I'm sure they're disappointed they couldn't pull out at least one win in one of their close games in Omaha. But that still beats the hell out of watching the games from your couch at home.

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In college baseball, Omaha is everything.

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No, winning it all in Omaha is everything. The difference we are talking about is the difference between Sweet 16 and Elite 8.

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In college baseball, Omaha is everything.

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No, winning it all in Omaha is everything. The difference we are talking about is the difference between Sweet 16 and Elite 8.

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Are we talking basketball or baseball? There is no such thing as sweet 16 or elite 8 in baseball. And for the record, an elite 8 berth is a more successful season than a sweet 16.

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Don't be fooled by all those NCAA tournament appearances in a row we quote to make ourselves feel better. They don't amount to much compared to trips to Omaha.

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That has nothing to do with the question presented. The question was: Would you trade Arkansas's season for ours.

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It has everything to do with it. I hate it more than anything, but which program gets all the accolades as being arguably the most dominate college baseball program? It's tu. Why? Not because of all of their 50 win seasons, or Super Regional appearances, or even CWS championships. It has everything to do with their CWS appearances. USC blows them out of the water in terms of championships, but some purists still argue that tu is the more dominate program because of the number of CWS appearances. I wouldn't necessarily argue that, but baseball guys do. Again, Omaha is everything in this sport. Get to Omaha and anyone has a shot to win it all.

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I hate it more than anything, but which program gets all the accolades as being arguably the most dominate college baseball program? It's tu. Why? Not because of all of their 50 win seasons, or Super Regional appearances, or even CWS championships. It has everything to do with their CWS appearances. USC blows them out of the water in terms of championships, but some purists still argue that tu is the more dominate program because of the number of CWS appearances. I wouldn't necessarily argue that, but baseball guys do. Again, Omaha is everything in this sport.

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If it is all about CWS appearances and not titles then here is the list in order of who are the top 10 college baseball powerhouses:
Texas
Miami
Arizona St - fans are more likely to think Arizona then State
USC
Florida St - Fans only remember them like they remember the Buffalo Bills
Oklahoma St - Does anyone really think they deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as LSU, much less be above them?
Cal Fullerton
LSU
Arizona
Stanford - this isn't the 1980's anymore Kyle Petersen

The bolded teams are teams I don't think the common fans would list as top 10.

I think it is about championships, but they have to be somewhat recent championships. Which is what hurts USC as they have only 1 title since 1978 (meaning anyone under 40 wouldn't remember them winning except once (1998)). No one thinks of Princeton and Yale as football powerhouses even though they have won more championships then Oklahoma and Miami because those titles were too long ago.

If you asked common fans who the top 10 college baseball programs are today, my guess is the list would go as follows
LSU - 6 titles since 1990 - tied for 7th in appearance but common fans would list them #1 due to titles and fans
Texas - 2 titles since 2000 plus their past history
Miami - 2 titles since 1999 and 4 titles since 1982
South Carolina - 2 titles in last 5 years - 12th in appearances behind even Clemson but common fans would never list Clemson above South Carolina because they remember titles more than appearances
Cal Fullerton - 2 titles since 1995 and 4 titles since 1979
*Vanderbilt - if they win the title again this year, they have no history, but if they win again then common fans will remember it
Arizona - not State, AZ won in 2012 and won 3 titles since 1980
USC - they won 12 titles, but only 1 in the last 37 years
Oregon St - won 2 titles in last 10 years so common fans will remember them, based upon appearances they would be tied with Texas A&M
Fresno St- common fans remember the cinderella winners, like who was the first guy to beat Mike tyson


Northern Colorado and North Carolina with 10 appearances are right behind South Carolina (11 appearances), but USCe would be the fans clear choice for baseball powerhouse if you listed these 3 schools. South Carolina, Vanderbilt, Oregon St and Fresno st are remembered by the common fan because they won. Arkansas, Clemson, Georgia and NC have all been to Omaha 4-6 times each since 2000, but they never won it all so common fans don't hold them in as high regard as they do the champions.

In basketball if you asked who is the powerhouse - UConn or Ohio St? Common fans will say UConn because they remember them winning. But Ohio St has twice as many Final 4 appearances as UConn.

A gift from the commitee gave Arkansas a home Super that got them to Omaha, but 5 years from now, hell probably next year, common fans won't care or remember that Arkansas was in the CWS for the 4th time since 2004. But they will remember who won the title, which is why people still remember Fresno St.

That was a long post, Jeff, to have said nothing.

I think common fans would say Florida State before they said Fresno State and I'm dang sure they'd say Florida before they said Southern Cal.

So there! I spoke with as much authority or evidence as you just did.

Titles mean more than appearances but appearances mean more than non-appearances. In that sense, I would take Arkansas's results but our season was great overall, and frankly the team would have been in Omaha had it received a national seed or a break like Arkansas had where it was the de facto national seed in its super regional matchup.

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In college baseball, Omaha is everything.

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No, winning it all in Omaha is everything. The difference we are talking about is the difference between Sweet 16 and Elite 8.

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You're so far outta touch with reality it's laughable.

So in your great opinion why is so much emphasis put on Omaha if it's not important to advance there?
And don't even say " it's about winning national titles". Yes obviously everybody wants to win national titles but the next best thing is being in Omaha.. You know the final step to a national title.
Walk into our baseball offices at Olsen field.. You will see a big sign in lights saying... " OMAHA"
Yes I guess I could see why you don't think it's a big deal.
Bottom line a team could goto the college World Series 10 straight years and never win a game in the CWS and another team in the same 10 years could have good regular seasons but not win a conference or conference tournament title and advance to game 3 of the super regional every year and never win one.
The team that has the CWS trips is the better program.
Don't give me the BS about " their one extra super regional win".
And our "10 extra wins in the regular season"

We had a great year but honestly cannot believe their are people dumb enough to say " yeah even though Arkansas made the CWS and we didn't I still feel we had a better year"
I can guarantee you no player or coach feels that way.

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I hate it more than anything, but which program gets all the accolades as being arguably the most dominate college baseball program? It's tu. Why? Not because of all of their 50 win seasons, or Super Regional appearances, or even CWS championships. It has everything to do with their CWS appearances. USC blows them out of the water in terms of championships, but some purists still argue that tu is the more dominate program because of the number of CWS appearances. I wouldn't necessarily argue that, but baseball guys do. Again, Omaha is everything in this sport.

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If it is all about CWS appearances and not titles then here is the list in order of who are the top 10 college baseball powerhouses:
Texas
Miami
Arizona St - fans are more likely to think Arizona then State
USC
Florida St - Fans only remember them like they remember the Buffalo Bills
Oklahoma St - Does anyone really think they deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as LSU, much less be above them?
Cal Fullerton
LSU
Arizona
Stanford - this isn't the 1980's anymore Kyle Petersen

The bolded teams are teams I don't think the common fans would list as top 10.

I think it is about championships, but they have to be somewhat recent championships. Which is what hurts USC as they have only 1 title since 1978 (meaning anyone under 40 wouldn't remember them winning except once (1998)). No one thinks of Princeton and Yale as football powerhouses even though they have won more championships then Oklahoma and Miami because those titles were too long ago.

If you asked common fans who the top 10 college baseball programs are today, my guess is the list would go as follows
LSU - 6 titles since 1990 - tied for 7th in appearance but common fans would list them #1 due to titles and fans
Texas - 2 titles since 2000 plus their past history
Miami - 2 titles since 1999 and 4 titles since 1982
South Carolina - 2 titles in last 5 years - 12th in appearances behind even Clemson but common fans would never list Clemson above South Carolina because they remember titles more than appearances
Cal Fullerton - 2 titles since 1995 and 4 titles since 1979
*Vanderbilt - if they win the title again this year, they have no history, but if they win again then common fans will remember it
Arizona - not State, AZ won in 2012 and won 3 titles since 1980
USC - they won 12 titles, but only 1 in the last 37 years
Oregon St - won 2 titles in last 10 years so common fans will remember them, based upon appearances they would be tied with Texas A&M
Fresno St- common fans remember the cinderella winners, like who was the first guy to beat Mike tyson


Northern Colorado and North Carolina with 10 appearances are right behind South Carolina (11 appearances), but USCe would be the fans clear choice for baseball powerhouse if you listed these 3 schools. South Carolina, Vanderbilt, Oregon St and Fresno st are remembered by the common fan because they won. Arkansas, Clemson, Georgia and NC have all been to Omaha 4-6 times each since 2000, but they never won it all so common fans don't hold them in as high regard as they do the champions.

In basketball if you asked who is the powerhouse - UConn or Ohio St? Common fans will say UConn because they remember them winning. But Ohio St has twice as many Final 4 appearances as UConn.

A gift from the commitee gave Arkansas a home Super that got them to Omaha, but 5 years from now, hell probably next year, common fans won't care or remember that Arkansas was in the CWS for the 4th time since 2004. But they will remember who won the title, which is why people still remember Fresno St.

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You changed the debate. Are we talking about Arkansas and a&m, or cws champions vs appearances? Championships are always the measuring stick. But we're talking about making the cws and going 2 and que vs almost getting to Omaha.

For sure I would trade with Arkansas. Not even close. Nice to be #1, and have the opening undefeated run, but what any player or coach wants is the CWS on the resume. 20 years from now, over beers, no one wants to remember the undefeated start, they want to say then went to Omaha.

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For sure I would trade with Arkansas. Not even close. Nice to be #1, and have the opening undefeated run, but what any player or coach wants is the CWS on the resume. 20 years from now, over beers, no one wants to remember the undefeated start, they want to say then went to Omaha.

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Of course they will. We still talk about the '89 team and they didn't. Hell we talk about the '89 team more than 93 or 99.

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For sure I would trade with Arkansas. Not even close. Nice to be #1, and have the opening undefeated run, but what any player or coach wants is the CWS on the resume. 20 years from now, over beers, no one wants to remember the undefeated start, they want to say then went to Omaha.

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Of course they will. We still talk about the '89 team and they didn't. Hell we talk about the '89 team more than 93 or 99.

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For sure I would trade with Arkansas. Not even close. Nice to be #1, and have the opening undefeated run, but what any player or coach wants is the CWS on the resume. 20 years from now, over beers, no one wants to remember the undefeated start, they want to say then went to Omaha.

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Of course they will. We still talk about the '89 team and they didn't. Hell we talk about the '89 team more than 93 or 99.

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And there's the problem. We have a pretty piss poor history in college baseball. Aggies are pumped so long as we beat tu, while the rest of the world wants to win something of significance.

Those who have actually been a part of that "piss poor history" aren't offended. We laugh at fans like you who spend an inordinate amount of time obsessing over such a poor product and pretending like they know what we think.

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We had a great year but honestly cannot believe their are people dumb enough to say " yeah even though Arkansas made the CWS and we didn't I still feel we had a better year"
I can guarantee you no player or coach feels that way.

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Players and coaches don't think the way you do. Not one of them is looking at Arky wishing they could be them ever, let alone for two days of losing. They live and die together and don't envy these other teams. They look at them and know they are good enough to beat any of them on a given day.

Hypotheticals are for fans.

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We had a great year but honestly cannot believe their are people dumb enough to say " yeah even though Arkansas made the CWS and we didn't I still feel we had a better year"
I can guarantee you no player or coach feels that way.

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Players and coaches don't think the way you do. Not one of them is looking at Arky wishing they could be them ever, let alone for two days of losing. They live and die together and don't envy these other teams. They look at them and know they are good enough to beat any of them on a given day.

Hypotheticals are for fans.

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I think you're losing it. Coaches and players think, I want to get to Omaha. Nothing less.

Of course. But they hate losing more than they like participating. The thread is about trading places with 2 losses. Fans love the idea. It never crosses a players mind.

So what you're saying is you believe our coaching staff would prefer not advancing to the CWS if said trip resulted in an 0-2 result?

Is that correct?

Is so that does it, we officially have the dumbest fan base in the country.

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So what you're saying is you believe our coaching staff would prefer not advancing to the CWS if said trip resulted in an 0-2 result?

Is that correct?

Is so that does it, we officially have the dumbest fan base in the country.

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This is getting really stupid. It's a hypothetical. If it were possible for him to know he would lose twice before he went he would not go.

You play to win the games. Lebron James said just this week that not making the playoffs at all is better than losing in the finals.

The only thing you have proven to me is that you've never played in or lost a game that mattered.

Yep confirmed... You're an idiot

Good luck sir

I would trade ADs and then maybe we wouldn't have to pose the question about trading an excellent season by some hard playing Fighting Texas Aggies for a mediocre season by a team who lucked into a home super regional placement.

one comment...when debating the greatest programs of the last 40 years, 30 years, 10 years, etc..,

don't the low points have to be taken into consideration as well as the high points?

while it's great that Southern Cal has all of the history and championships...that program has been in regional play 1 time in the last 10 years. That's a lot of misery for their fanbase...and those past titles provide little comfort. (see the Dallas Cowboys)

sometimes the A&M fans forget how miserable the 2000 season was and the 2005 & 2006 seasons were -- when you went to the ballpark just hoping the Ags could keep it close and maybe get a few hits. Fortunately those seasons have been few and far between the last 30 years

i would trade but would still be disappointed that the 22 year string since our last win in omaha was still intact.

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one comment...when debating the greatest programs of the last 40 years, 30 years, 10 years, etc..,

don't the low points have to be taken into consideration as well as the high points?

while it's great that Southern Cal has all of the history and championships...that program has been in regional play 1 time in the last 10 years. That's a lot of misery for their fanbase...and those past titles provide little comfort. (see the Dallas Cowboys)

sometimes the A&M fans forget how miserable the 2000 season was and the 2005 & 2006 seasons were -- when you went to the ballpark just hoping the Ags could keep it close and maybe get a few hits. Fortunately those seasons have been few and far between the last 30 years

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I'd take those 13 championships, but your point is valid. I'm preplexed by USC. They have the natural private school advantage specifically in baseball, and are in the middle of a great talent pool. They have zero excuse to suck that bad for so long.

No! But with our talent, we should be going to Omaha and winning more.
5 trips in 60 years will not do it anymore.

Team A has a losing record and a horrible year, but ekes its way into the last available slot for its conference tournament where it goes undefeated and somehow wins its conference's automatic bid. It's a 4 seed in a regional, but the top 3 teams crap out and Team A ends up in a super regional opposite Team B, a 3 seed that also started playing well late. Somehow, Team A beats Team B 2 of 3 in the Super and proceeds to, quite predictably, go 0-2 in the CWS.

Would you rather have TAMU's 2015 season or Team A's season? According to some on this board, it shouldn't even be a question, right?

How many different ways do you have to say it? No one remembers all the "stuff" than happens to get you there. The bottomline, EVERYTIME is did you get there? CWS appearances is what people notice. You try to hang your hat on anything else you are just trying to make yourself feel better. In 10 years nobody remembers all that other crap, they just want to know if you got to Omaha.

While your primary (and apparently only) consideration may be "remember-ability by others" that doesn't mean it's mine or anybody else's. I frankly don't care what "other people" remember, and the question doesn't concern the coaches or players, unless you are 100% altruistic and only care about what they want.

Frankly, if you threw in a conference championship for TAMU but kept everything else the same, it would be a no-brainer to me. I'd take our season in a heartbeat, but that's just me. You're entitled to your own opinion--just don't force it on me.