My biggest issue with this staff is the following:

In 2007, we played 1 non-conference road game (Rice) before conference play. We played in the Houston College Classic at a neutral site.

In 2008, we played ZERO non-conference road games.

In 2009, we played ZERO non-conference road games before conference play. We again played in the Houston College Classic at a neutral site.

In 2010, we played 1 non-conference road game (at BU), however that was only due to a team we had scheduled at home cancelling their season.

We are ill-prepared to play on the road when it matters most. There are at least a dozen good-to-great baseball programs within a 8-hour drive of College Station. Childress needs to start challenging the team before April.

Maybe someone with more knowledge than I can answer to this, but is any of this related to the baseball budget?

I know there's guarantees for road games, but does it even cover the cost of travel?

B&C, that's a fair point, but there are plenty of similar programs that don't have a 4-year history of this. I think it's a scheduling philosophy that has little to do with budget.

Maybe someone with more inside knowledge can set me straight.

We kind of make errors and don't hit with RISP at home and away. I doubt the 1000 people in the stands were the determining factor for today's game.

I know Rice and Texas made West Coast trips. I think Texas is ending their series with Stanford and picking up a weekend series with Rice instead beginning next year. I have no idea if this was due to travel costs or not, but I do find it interesting. That will be their one marquee out of conference series.

We could do the same thing with a weekend series at TCU, Houston, or Rice, but I don't see RC scheduling road series at UCLA, Arizona, or Florida (RC's first year but I'm pretty sure the contract was signed by MJ). It just doesn't seem like he has much interest in playing away from Olsen unless he has to.

I'm a firm believer that if you want to be the best, you have to play the best. I shudder to think what our conference road record will be this year.

Hopefully, RC can at least double the number of regular season wins we have against tu in his first 4 years.

Lance, playing on the road builds mental toughness. My point is that they don't challenge themselves with that; regardless of how many people are in the stands.

I think, had we played on the road a bit more, we wouldn't be cratering in the RISP/error situations now because we'd be tougher.

lance, I've been to games in lawrence. I wouldn't be surprised if the attendance wasn't closer to 100 than 1000.

[This message has been edited by JDay (edited 4/1/2010 10:19p).]

This is absolutely not the issue.

tonight's attendance per the box score:

Attendance: 1156

well, let me throw it out there...

in the Childress era, the Ags have yet to win their first road conference series

series have been lost at Oklahoma State (twice), at OU, and at Missouri. Will need 2 wins to keep at Kansas from being added to the list.

(first road conference series of the season)

I've heard Childress say a few times that he likes to play at Olsen Field and wants to schedule as many home games as possible. He likes the home field advantage.

Play at home as much as you can!! Can you imagine the uproar that would comeif we scheduled one non conference home series and all other home games were conference games. Lets all get excited for 22 home games at Olsen!! If that were the case, if we hosted a Regional or Super, THAT would feel like a road game.

We have one of the best college baseball environments in the country and we have to take advantage of that. Childress knows this. He has said openly many times that the way you get to Omaha is to play at home.

Playing on the road, or preparing to play on the road is a tad overrated in my opinion. Yes it needs to happen but too much is made of it. Just go play the game and play it harder than the other team, regardless of what dugout you're in, if you're wearing white or greay uniforms, or if you take BP first or second.

[This message has been edited by HarveyBirdman (edited 4/2/2010 9:41a).]

I think the argument for either side could easily be made. I would like to see us play a 3 game weekend series with Rice, one year at Olsen and every other year at Reckling.

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He has said openly many times that the way you get to Omaha is to play at home.

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Pretty sure he meant in the postseason. As in hosting a regional and being a top 8 so you also host the Super.

And the way you get to be a top 8 seed and host is to win 40+ games by playing at home a lot



[This message has been edited by HarveyBirdman (edited 4/2/2010 11:15a).]

nm...



[This message has been edited by ja86 (edited 4/2/2010 11:21a).]

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And the way you get to be a top 8 seed and host is to win 40+ games by playing at home a lot

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Huh??? Interesting point, considering the jist of this thread was that we may be playing TOO many home games. Oddly enough, despite playing all of these home games, we haven't been a top 8 seed.

Perhaps it might be time to change that philosophy?

Funny...

Parts of the fanbase are stringing Childress up for not putting us in the best position to succeed.

Then, other parts of our fanbase are getting mad because Childress puts us in the best position to succeed.

Unreal.

my solution would be to dump the Minute Maid Classic and pick up an SEC or Pac-10 opponent to play a home-n-home series against

When was the last time we played outside the state of Texas for a non-con game?

Our road scheduling is not going unnoticed.

I would love to see that W. Especially when you see the teams for the Minute Maid Classic next year.

Lol, but I like when the Aggies come to Houston and I don't have to travel so much.

I went last year, and three days each with three baseball games... it was lots of fun.

[This message has been edited by ensign_beedrill (edited 4/3/2010 7:53a).]

My solution would just be to win the next game, because threads like this fall on their ass after a win and explode after a loss.

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my solution would be to dump the Minute Maid Classic and pick up an SEC or Pac-10 opponent to play a home-n-home series against

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I agree..I would love to see just one marquee non con series every year.

we were talking about this the other day at the game..some have been season ticket holders for over 20 years..in the regular season what big name non con opponents have we seen at Olsen??
Cal State Fullerton was here last year for single game.
Oregon State was here recently,
Florida came here during RC first or second year for a 3 game series
UCLA has made 2 trips over and Arkansas once - all for Aggie Classic
Ole Miss was here for a 3 game series in 1998
Alabama was here in 1995 or 1996 for Continental Classic
USC was here in 1994 for the Continental Classic
LSU was here in 1990 for a 3 game series
and we played Arizona every year basically during the MJ era..really liked that series

thats pretty much it..I understand money comes into play for baseball traveling..but I would love to see us play a series every year against the likes of a
Florida State
LSU
Miami
Georgia Tech
Arizona State
Stanford
Arkansas
Ole Miss
Mississippi State
Clemson

bring in those types of teams, good teams and NAME teams that will fill the stands. If A&M and LSU played a 3 game series at Olsen early in the year...place would have 7k+ at all 3 games.
Im not holding my breath for this to happen ..as you can see from the short list above and that covers over 20 years.
And if were not gonna play these types of opponents, why not at least play Rice in a 3 game series??






[This message has been edited by Aggie (edited 4/3/2010 8:17a).]

I would like the scheduling to be more difficult in the non-conference as well. My ideal schedule:

1st weekend: Easy home series (4 games prerably so we can get our 5 game weeks out of the way early).

2nd weekend: MM Classic, other difficult tournament, or home/home non conference series with a top 25 program.

3rd weekend: Home/home non conference opponent (top 25 program)

4th Weekend: RPI opponent - home series (someone who we should beat, but someone who will not kill your RPI).

Then in the off week I would still play a team like DBU as we are already doing. In fact, I might go with someone a little weaker than that so we can try and rest some arms if necessary.

For example:

Week 1: Seton Hall or Penn State home series
Week 2: MMC or Arkansas home and home (we could swing a deal with Arkansas to play us in the 2nd week in the years we are not in the MMC)
Week 3: Home and home with Washington State/Arizona State/Clemson (Pac 10 or ACC)
Week 4: DBU
Off Week: Winthrop

[This message has been edited by Goose06 (edited 4/3/2010 9:05a).]

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My solution would just be to win the next game, because threads like this fall on their ass after a win and explode after a loss.

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AB2 - I didn't post this in response to a win or a loss - it's something that's been on my mind for a couple of years. We may end up winning the CWS this year (I hope), but that wouldn't change my mind about why I posted this. I firmly believe that we need to go on the road and play good teams for two reasons:

1) It's a huge RPI bump
2) It prepares us for conference play before we get into it.

I understand what you're talking about with regard to overreaction, but this thread wasn't a result of it.

quote:

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Huh??? Interesting point, considering the jist of this thread was that we may be playing TOO many home games. Oddly enough, despite playing all of these home games, we haven't been a top 8 seed.

Perhaps it might be time to change that philosophy?

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I think our failure to get a top 8 seed has had more to due with our losing games on home we shouldn't than the fact that we're playing at home too much.

North Colorado or maybe Northwestern State, anyone?


FWIW, we played two true road games before our first conference road series. That's one more true road game than Texas and two more true road games than LSU, who won't play an out of conference game away from The Box until May 18th when they make that tough, long trip to Tulane.

And if I'm not mistaken, those two clubs have racked up a lot of top 8 seeds in recent times.

[This message has been edited by TXAggie2011 (edited 4/3/2010 11:41p).]

Those are nice stats. . .the problem is that all 3 of those teams are perennial CWS teams - they are the people we're trying to catch.

We need to do something different than what we've been doing.

Before we went to Kansas State last year, we had played 10 games away from home, 8 of which I'd say were pretty "true" road games.

We went to Kansas State and lost 2 out of 3. We followed that up with a split in Austin and we got swept in Norman.

In 2008, we had a similar later in the season road skid.

I think in 2006, we went out and played Florida 3 times and played 9 more games away from home, winning 6 of them and turned around and went 0-12 on the road in conference play.

These were experienced, battle tested teams that were still getting their arse handed to them on the road by conference opponents.

Maybe the problem is that we're just not good enough. Maybe the coaches realize this and aren't going to shoot up our team's confidence, record, rankings, RPI, etc... by putting them in over their heads at a tough road venue early in the year.

[This message has been edited by TXAggie2011 (edited 4/3/2010 11:58p).]

[This message has been edited by e cartman (edited 4/4/2010 12:29a).]

the whole playing at home to get to omaha scenario is such bull ****....yeah it's great if it happens, but you have to be realistic and have a balanced team that is capable of winning on the road if in fact you have to go that route to get to omaha.

If they still shat their pants on the road or a neutral site in the NCAA tournament after a Big 12 road slate and a neutral site tournament, they're going to shat their pants even if you played a tough 3 game road series back in February or March, too.

I think our young head coach has a lot of things still to learn about the best way to make a run at the title. I don't like the scheduling philosophy. And I don't think he does a good job developing his pitchers. Too often we find ourselves with no depth and nothing left come June.