BIG 12: Ground Zero for college BASEball

Big 12 BaseballAs hard as it may be to believe the Big 12 has the best conference in baseball, it’s an objectively true statement. I’m going to give the evidence for it as well as present a breakdown on KU, KSU and MU going into regional play. Whether one or more will survive to the World Series remains to be seen. I’m not a college baseball historian, but I doubt if the three of them have ever been cumulatively this good in any previous season.

Actually, I did go to the effort to verify it one way or the other. MU’s site gave all their seasonal records. No problem. KU’s site gave all their seasonal records. No problem. But, I challenge anybody to find anything on K-State’s site that shows what the teams’ annual record was before 2003. Pathetic!

I can say with certainty that 2009 is the best cumulative year for the three since 2001. In fact, over the past 30 years, only 1994, 1991, 1981, 1980, 1979 and 1978 might challenge depending on what K-State’s record was in those six seasons.

Here are the 2009 vital team stats for the Big 3.

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It looks to me like Missouri has won on a lot of smoke and mirrors. K-State and KU appear to have pretty similar stats. KU has 53 home runs, KSU 54. The single biggest difference is that K-State has A.J. Morris. He’s 13-1 with a 1.84 ERA. So, even if the rest of the team isn’t that great, as long as you can throw him out on the mound in the tournament, you have a good shot at beating almost anyone. The other big difference is KU’s Tony Thompson. His .374 average and 19 home runs is the cream of the crop. Of course, MU’s claim to fame is the fact that they ended the season strong.

THE BIG 12

The Big 12 has eight teams in the regionals. The only other conference with that many is the traditionally strong SEC. By several of the 80 gazillion polls, the Big 12 has five ranked teams versus the SEC with four. The other advantage the Big 12 has is that only 10 teams in the conference play baseball. That means 80% of the Big 12 is in the 64 team tournament. That may be an all-time record high percentage of conference participation in any year-end tournament of any sport in NCAA history. I don’t know for sure, but it sounds good to me because it sounds probable to me. The SEC, of course, had eight of 12 schools.

There are four teams in each of the 16 regionals, so (on average), the Big 12 should have two teams in the World Series. Obviously, as a Big 12 fanatic, I’m hoping for more like four. As I review each of the regionals, I don’t think it is beyond the realm of possibility.

The league has three teams with the best record in their regional and one that is second. Considering how difficult their schedules were week-in and week-out, that indicates to me the very real possibility that the Big 12 could excel in the post-season.

Shown below are the three regionals that Missouri, K-State and Kansas are in. Also shown are their opponents and their rankings (using ESPN). All games are Friday.

Oxford, Mississippi

Missouri (34-25, #24) vs Western Kentucky (39-18, #42)

Mississippi (40-17, #11) vs Monmouth, N.J. (32-23, NR)

Houston, Texas

Kansas State (41-16-1, #20) vs Xavier (38-19, NR)

Rice (39-15, #7) vsw Sam Houston St. (36-22, NR) 

Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Coastal Carolina (46-14, #16) vs Kansas (37-22, #38) 

North Carolina (42-16, #6) vs Dartmouth (27-16, NR) 

INDIVIDUAL PLAYERS

Here are the top players for each of the big three schools. The one thing that jumps out at me is KU’s youth. MU and KSU both have six seniors, Kansas has two. KU has three freshmen, MU and KSU have one.

I think there is the potential for all three to be better next year, but KU probably stands to improve the most. Of course, that assumes everyone returns.

Kansas State

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Kansas

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Missouri

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