University Daily Kansan / Monday, April 27, 1992
9
March season opening pits north vs. Sun Belt
Continued from Page 1
scholarships. But warm-weather schools still dominate college baseball.
The change of season could upset that balance of power. Gene Stephenson, coach at fourth-ranked Wichita State, would have to make baseball might hang in the balance.
He said the Denson Proposal would enable the schools to begin their season when the weather is more stable. That would help prevent scenes similar to those at the Kansas-Kansas State game on March 21. When the first pitch was thrown, it was a deep dive and was 39 degrees with a 25-degree wind chill.
Predictably, some southern schools oppose the Denson proposal because they don't want to lose their recruiting edge.
"The Sun Belt doesn't want to lose what they have left, and that is the advantage of weather." Bingham said.
The southern universities already have been stripped of many advantages they once had. NCAA regulations require that colleges practice time to 22 weeks a school year.
"They have eroded the Sun Belt programs," Bingham said. "As a result, some of these midwestern schools who didn't have all those opportunities have got their programs to jump up considerably."
Jim Gilligan, coach at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas, is against the change. He said coaches should protect themselves to the public, not change the season.
"I feel sorry for teams like Wichita State, Arkansas and Maine," he said. "What you have to do is promote. Promotions are the key."
Others support the season change because they think it would lend stature to college baseball.
An own season is what many college coaches are after with the Denson proposal. When Duke beat Michigan for the NCAA basketball championship
April 6, the Kansas baseball team had played 33 games, roughly 60 percent of its regular season schedule.
For many coaches, the change of season is a matter of fan interest and skill.
"It is a problem for us in Lawrence because our basketball team is so good and they don't finish their season until April," Bingham said. "If you're not winning the conference at that time, you're not going to have any interest at all."
Bingham said Arizona had fallen in the same funk as Kansas, because its basketball program has been outstanding the last few years.
"Arizona has the same problem we have because their basketball season steps all over their baseball season," he said. "College basketball is not going to be held back. It is obvious how good it is."
In the end, it is money that drives a lot of the support for the season change.
If the college baseball season is moved, many college coaches think, they can take their sport out of the red and into the black.
Bill and Mel James, Perry residents, watch a KU baseball game prepared for the cold weather. A proposal by college coaches would push the start of the baseball season back to March 1 to avoid winter temperatures.
Although his Shockers averaged 2,626 fans through 18 dates and are a major revenue-producer for Wichita State, Stephenson said the team could draw even more with a later season.
"If we move it just four weeks, our sport will become more visible. We can draw more fun interest and start make-up productions once we are-producing sports," Stephenson said.
Although he favors the proposal, Bingham said he was more of a proponent of summer baseball.
He said it would give the sport a better chance to produce revenue.
"The best thing that could happen to college baseball is to move to summer baseball," he said. "We would get away from the conflicts of football and basketball and have the integrity of our own season."
Washington State's Breyton wants college baseball to shed its minor-sport label and start producing revenue.
He added that once this was accomplished the media could cover the sport
more extensively, and fan interest wouldgrow.
But by no means is this proposal a sho-in come NCAA convention time. At a recent American Baseball Coaches Association convention in Dallas, coaches held a vote to gauge support for the proposal. Of the 274 NCAA Division I coaches, 104 voted in favor of the proposal, 34 rejected the idea, and the rest abstained.
The coaches association must submit the proposal to the NCAA by July 1 to get it on the docket of the NCAA convention in January. If the proposal passes, it could go into effect by the 1994 season.
But some coaches don't think the proposal has a chance. Aamar's Gilligan thinks that college baseball is only a small part of the national Summer baseball and the 1994 Olympic Team could be damaged if the proposal were passed, be said.
"We are only part of several other outlets," he said. "We'll cut the throats of the summer leagues and Olympic teams, but we also rammed through, and it's not right."
Southern schools may not like the proposal because they think it is too hot to play in June and July in Texas and Arizona.
Washington State's Breton,
noughty proposal,
domains his claims.
Wichita State's Stephenson said academics might throw the final pitch in the matter. He said so much class already was missed in the spring because so many games were played in such a short period of time.
Breynon said the NCAA would feel pressure from summer leagues and the Olympic committee. But he also said he thought the NCAA would not let the proposal pass without a fight.
"It won't get passed," he said. "It's going to move like glaciers."
Stephenson said that in some cases the Missouri Valley Conference tournament was played during the middle of finals at Wichita State.
"Look at what happened in the past," he said. "Compare fall to spring, and in the fall there is a higher grade point average, and it's due to no other reason than the crunch of time span in the spring. We need a better academic climate."
Dick Bergquist, executive director of the coaches association, which is backing the rum RDelson Proposal, said academics was a big issue.
"Northern teams try to play their 56 games in about a month and a half," he said. "They sometimes play eight to 10 games a week."
Craig Brown, Leawood junior, who frequently attends Kansas games, doesn't think the March 1 starting date will affect interest.
Meanwhile, fans who still turn out for chilly games aren't sure the season is over.
"This year they've had nice weather when in years past I've come out and it was cold," Brown said. "But it is part of baseball. You would still have cold games if you pushed the season back."
Brown said he was concerned about the heart of Big Eight Conference game's proximity to finals and the fact that finals many students would be leaving.
"You would be playing crucial games during finals," he said. "It is not good for you."
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