Not impossible, but difficult.

Notre Dame and other northern teams start every season with 15 (+ or -) road games; and when it's finally far enough into March to attempt home games, there is a better chance to be playing with temperatures in the mid-40s as the mid-60s. 14 of Florida State's 16 non-conference games were played in Tallahassee with the other two in Tampa and Gainesville. Strictly from a baseball standpoint, which schedule would you prefer every year if you were a top recruit being courted by both ND and FSU?

It's hard for northern teams to attract a lot of top level players.

The 11.7 scholarship situation is discussed elsewhere in the thread. If I were Notre Dame's head coach, I would be spending the lion's share of that scholarship allocation on pitching. Mainieri's and Murphy's best teams had pitching. Lots of pitching. A rotation like Mainieri had with Manship/Samardzija/Thornton plus a couple of solid relief pitchers will be competitive.

Recruit pitching. Get one outstanding starter every year. Then find the scrappiest defense-oriented players who can afford ND and/or who can earn academic scholarships to fill the roster.

Largely removed himself from the process the last time.

I know that excuses for us not being a regular Top 20 team are plenty, but sometimes those excuses are facts.
They don't explain everything, but if we had a domed stadium where they could practice baseball every day (not just hit in the cages, throw, etc) I would be more frustrated than I am.
My frustration comes from the fact that I just want us to be good. It's even more frustrating when you have to accept the reasons why we aren't.
There are aspects of baseball that you simply cannot practice without a full baseball field at your disposal year round.
Recruiting is the key. Players are the key. When I watch ND play, the mistakes are frustrating for sure, but it is hard to filter through them all and know for certain that ND Baseball is underachieving.

Also, I know we are not going to have a domed stadium, throw money at a successful coach from a regular Top 10 program, or let whomever is the coach recruit anyone and everyone.
Just my two cents, but I know why I'm not booking rooms in Omaha...but Coach Aoki (or his staff) isn't my reason

It is my understanding baseball players do not receive full rides. So you need parents or benefactor that is willing to pay most of the tuition, room and board, books, etch. Parents like Biggio. It is much cheaper to attend a State school and I am sure they manage to find money for baseball players. I believe LSU & the SEC is very good (gray area creative) at finding stipends for their baseball players and I imagine UL does the same. Also, don't underestimate the value of Pell grants at State schools. This would apply to any sport that gives only partial scholarships, for example softball.

Bottom line the last two coaching hires were not very good. Go throw money at a top coach and see what happens

Again my guess would be that the baseball program at both UVA & Vandy have implemented plans to make sure baseball team members receive stipends or scholarships which reduce the cost of attendance paid by player's parents. Also, their baseball program goal is to win the college world series. When was the last time Swarbrick mentioned publicly the goal is winning the baseball or softball world series?

That's how we play 'Moneyball'
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Posted: Wednesday, February 19, 2014 11:00 am

Sports editor | 0 comments



Posted on Feb 19, 2014

by Allison Mast





College baseball is a game of numbers. The strength of a team is determined by its win-loss record, batting averages, ERAs, hits, runs and strikeouts, to name a few. The positions have numbers, the players have numbers and the coaches have numbers, making the “BB” on the back of a batboy’s jersey a welcome sight. But long before the batboys and players lineup for the National Anthem on Opening Day, a college baseball coach must focus on one number: 11.7.

Starting in 1991, the NCAA allotted Division I schools 11.7 baseball scholarships per year, forcing teams to spread the money across their entire rosters, which usually max out at 35. After the carving and dividing are finished, players are often left with as little as 15 percent of a full scholarship. Usually, this can dissuade a high school player from passing up a professional contract for three to four years on a college campus, but Vanderbilt’s additional resources allows head coach Tim Corbin to maximize his recruiting.




Athletic scholarships can only be divided among 27 players, but academic scholarships and financial aid help round out the roster. With these three resources, Corbin can usually ensure that no player pays full tuition, but there are still members of the team who do not qualify for financial aid and therefore pay the bulk of college expenses.

“I would say on our roster right now, it’s probably split between somewhere between 20 and 22, and then I would say the remaining kids are on financial need or are paying the root of the money themselves. It is an investment regardless of baseball scholarship or financial assistance; these kids are paying money to come to school here. The full scholarship notion that you have with certain athletes doesn’t stand true with our kids because that just doesn’t happen,” Corbin said.

In most cases, teams entice talented players with the promise of a partial athletic scholarship and give the remaining spots to walk-ons. For the most part, the resources available at Vanderbilt allow Corbin to fill all 35 spots with recruits.

Corbin explained, “We’ve had some walk-ons in the past, but those are few and far between. In my past experiences, you know at Clemson, which is a state school, was at least half the cost, and you would get walk-ons, and they would turn into pretty good players. But that’s not the case here.”

In the past, the combination of Vanderbilt’s generous financial aid and the Commodores’ success on the field has led to name-calling and mudslinging. Critics have called Vanderbilt’s recruiting unfair, but Corbin insists that schools like Florida, Tennessee and LSU have their own advantages. Larger state schools have instate grants to lessen an already relatively cheap tuition, while Vanderbilt must use its resources to whittle away at an enormous bill.

“We’re twice, maybe three times the [cost of] schools that we’re playing against, and even though we do have those resources, I would propose that our kids are paying more money to come to school than the kids that are there,” Corbin said.

In order to divide scholarships perfectly and maximize the assistance provided by financial aid, Corbin and his assistant coaches recruit players from east, west, north and south – players from different backgrounds who recognize the unique opportunity that Vanderbilt provides. The financial aid in particular allows the basketball staff to recruit highly-ranked players from low-income families. Corbin prides himself on the diversity of his team, which provides a great learning environment for young men who would never have a chance to meet in any other situation.

“I do like the fact that we have white, black, Latin and Jewish, Italian kids on our team, and I bring that point up many times because I think that is a byproduct of a diverse university and one that allows us, from a baseball standpoint, to match the same type of culture.”

It’s not always easy for such different players to get along, but they spend a lot of time working on team cohesion. In the end, the clubhouse contains a variety of personalities who consistently work together to set the national standard. When the season starts, 11.7 expands to 34 but all 34 have one goal: a trip to the College World Series. With another top 25 recruiting class, the Commodores are in contention for a trip to Omaha.

“I think kids become accepting of different backgrounds. They become accepting of different economic backgrounds — poor, middle class, rich. It just shows that those types of kids can blend together if they’re given the opportunity to and if leadership cultivates the opportunity to allow them to do it. We certainly do that. I love it.”

threatened by the Louisiana budget crisis. TOPS makes up the difference in partial scholarships for at least his Louisiana resident recruits. And his top two hitters are both freshmen who are local recruits. That is a huge advantage for State U vs. ND.

What's changed since then, other than the head coach?

12k my senior year in 1989. It is around 60k now. Without doing the math to be certain the part parents have to pay is at least double now adjusted for inflation as it was in the 80's and 90's - so harder to recruit consistently well.

His best player on the World Series team was five foot nothing baseball star. Some teams just have the will to win regardless of talent and you cannot underestimate Marnier's ability as a coach. From the outside it appears Notre Dame is not too concerned about baseball. Notre Dame baseball has a relatively small fan base so Swarbrick probably catches little heat regarding their performance. Notre Dame is satisfied to field a somewhat competitive team. Neither Murphy nor Marnier had temperaments to just be competitive, they wanted to win it all.

I get tired of reading recaps of games and mental errors continue to occur - that's a direct reflection on the coaching