Jim Delany: Big Ten baseball experiencing a revival
Jim Delany took in Michigan State’s game Wednesday in Omaha, and the commissioner gave good reviews for Big Ten baseball.
Delany said during the Big Ten Network’s broadcast of MSU’s tournament opener against Nebraska that investments conference schools have made in revitalizing their baseball programs are paying dividends.
“It’s really come together nicely,” Delany said. “I think you just have to attribute it to the players and the coaches and the investments the schools have made. We are not the same conference we were 10 or 15 years ago in baseball. That’s exciting to be honest with you. It would have been hard to predict.”
The Spartans' game in the winners' bracket Thursday against Maryland was rained out, and the two teams will play at 10 a.m. ET on Friday.
MSU is one of a number of Big Ten schools to revamp its facilities over the past decade, with alumnus Drayton McLane’s $4 million donation to build the baseball stadium as part of the Old College Field renovation campaign that began in 2005. The baseball program also got locker room upgrades and a $1.4 million indoor hitting building it shares with the softball team.
The Spartans have thrived since McLane Stadium opened in 2009, averaging nearly 33 wins per season in that time under coach Jake Boss. They won a Big Ten regular-season title in 2011 and in 2012 made the NCAA tournament – neither of which had happened since 1979.
In recent years, similar success and revivals have happened around the Big Ten. Purdue hosted an NCAA regional in 2012. Indiana ended the conference’s 29-year College World Series drought in 2013. Illinois earned a top-6 national seed in the NCAA tournament last season, a year in which a record five Big Ten teams made the 64-team field.
And competitive balance already is evident this week in Omaha. Top-seeded Minnesota and No. 2 seed Nebraska both were eliminated Thursday with their second loss of the tournament. That came after three upsets in the first four games Wednesday, including the seventh-seeded Spartans’ 5-1 victory over the Cornhuskers as Delany watched.
“It’s not a one-program conference,” Delany said. “I think all eight teams here (in the Big Ten Tournament) are in the top 100 in RPI. I think there’s probably five or six that have a legitimate chance to be selected for the NCAAs. ... For a long time, there was an acceptance of not being nationally competitive. But now, there’s a belief that we can be nationally competitive."
Despite conference teams now adopting a broader scheduling approach, playing more traditional powers from the South and West to help bolster RPI and schedule strength, the Big Ten still hasn’t won a national title in 50 years. The league won all six of its NCAA crowns between 1953 and 1966, with Ohio State the last national champ.
“College baseball is an interesting sport, if you study the history of it – at least from the Big Ten’s perspective …,” Delany said. “Once you went to national computer rankings and much longer seasons, it was inevitable that going on the road for the first two months of the season was going to put us at a competitive disadvantage. So we’ve had to overcome that.”
The Big Ten signed a long-term deal in April that will keep the Big Ten Tournament at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, which also hosts the NCAA College World Series. The conference tourney was first played there in 2014, and it will be there again in 2018 before the new deal kicks in from 2019 to 2022.
The tournament previously was held in Columbus, Ohio’s Huntington Park from 2009 to 2012. It moved to Target Field in Minneapolis in 2013 and 2015. Next year’s tournament site remains to be determined.
“We’re so excited to be here in Omaha,” Delany said. “We feel like we’ve found a home here. … The culture supports the baseball in Omaha, I think with the NCAA College World Series being here. We’re sort of piggybacking on that a little bit.”
BIG TEN TOURNAMENT
No. 7 MSU vs. No. 6 Maryland
When: 10 a.m. Friday
Where: TD Ameritrade Park, Omaha, Nebraska
TV: Big Ten Network
Online: SpartanSportsNetwork.com
What's next: After Thursday night's rainout, the MSU-Maryland winner will advance to play at 1 p.m. Saturday. The loser will play Indiana in an elimination game at 6 p.m. Friday.