Huge deal for the baseball program. The reason Vanderbilt has such a big advantage over other baseball programs is that they have a similar program established.
College baseball is changing dramatically with all of the television money in other conferences. Teams are now building indoor practice facilities and taking away a lot of the advantage southern schools have with the weather.
Due to cost of attendance, if Miami wants to compete in baseball, something like this will be a must. It will help with the walk-on program for the football team as well, which can be a huge benefit to a program.
People often overlook the fact that your scout team is the group that prepares your starters to play each week. Having legitimate talent who are versatile and stand in for different types of players will be impactful for practice depth, plus it improves the chances of uncovering a player who needed time to develop before becoming a scholarship guy.
Hey, Lance, quick question for you.
You referenced TV money, and I can understand the concept as it relates to the conference channels (i.e., ACC Network). However, I have yet to see ESPN or any of the other "network" sports channels (NBCSN, CBSS, etc.) add any significant hours of coverage. And if there was anything "in the works" for 2020, we are not going to see it due to the loss of the season.
So my question is, this, if the "TV money" for baseball is coming predominantly (99%? 100%?) from the conference networks, how does this change the equation? Meaning, if you were going to get $10 million from the ACC for ACC Network revenues, where is the guarantee that some/any of that money goes towards baseball? After all, didn't we have the ability to spend whatever we wanted on baseball previously? If you give us more money that is not earmarked for baseball, is there anything that requires us to spend more on baseball?
And I'm not expecting you know the answer to this, BUT WHAT IN THE **** IS PREVENTING ESPN FROM CARRYING COLLEGE BASEBALL? I see more women's softball on ESPN. And I am not begrudging women's sports, I just can't understand why women's softball gets more hours on a national cable network (I don't care whether it's ESPN, or NBC, or CBS), and college baseball doesn't have a national package deal with SOMEBODY.
Thank you, sir!