Conference realignment: DBU Baseball leaving Missouri Valley for C-USA in 2023

NT80 · April 23, 2022

The Dallas Baptist University baseball program will leave the Missouri Valley Conference for Conference USA in 2023, according to a report from D1Baseball.com's Kendall Rogers. The move comes as a significant one for a program that has enjoyed consistent success at the national level for roughly the past decade.

https://247sports.com/Article/Conference-realignment-DBU-Baseball-leaving-Missouri-Valley-for-C-USA-in-2023-per-report-186549061/

greenjoe · April 23, 2022

I wonder how many of the players at DBU would be at North Texas if we fielded a baseball team ?

Texas Stranger · April 23, 2022

More than a few. DBA, UTA, and TCU are pretty much the only options for playing Div 1 college baseball in the Metroplex. As someone that was desperately hoping to get a baseball scholarship out of HS back in the day, it is clearly not enough.

meaniegreenie · April 23, 2022

2 hours ago, greenjoe said:

I wonder how many of the players at DBU would be at North Texas if we fielded a baseball team ?

Maybe 1. I see one kid from Muenster, one from Coppell, one from Corinth, and one from Keller. So one of those might have wanted to stay (a little) closer to home. DBU has a history of good BB and UNT has a history of none. Why would any of the others on the roster come to NT?

greenjoe · April 23, 2022

Playing time.

NT80 · April 23, 2022

3 hours ago, meaniegreenie said:

DBU has a history of good BB and UNT has a history of none.

Not true. NT played baseball in the Southland Conference from 1984-88; even had a player drafted in 1988. I'm sure we had teams in previous earlier conferences, before Title IX killed men's minor sports.

greenjoe · April 23, 2022

North Texas beat a Pete Incaviglia led Oklahoma State team here in Denton.

Edited April 23, 2022 by greenjoe

SilverEagle · April 24, 2022

DBU started out as a Junior College in Decatur (DBC). Their old administration building is now the Wise County Heritage Museum. When they were in Decatur, they always had a pretty good BB team. I never heard that they played baseball.

See the source image

Edited April 24, 2022 by SilverEagle

wardly · April 24, 2022

On 4/23/2022 at 8:44 AM, Texas Stranger said:

More than a few. DBA, UTA, and TCU are pretty much the only options for playing Div 1 college baseball in the Metroplex. As someone that was desperately hoping to get a baseball scholarship out of HS back in the day, it is clearly not enough.

TCU, SMU, and UNT are only football options in Metroplex and I don't see many DFW kids playing for us. Same for basketball.

Tully · April 25, 2022

18 hours ago, wardly said:

TCU, SMU, and UNT are only football options in Metroplex and I don't see many DFW kids playing for us. Same for basketball.

I don't think you can compare NCAA Basketball/Football to NCAA Baseball. Every year, the College World Series has some Northside Barber College team with a shot to win it all, which in and of itself makes the landscape of College Baseball very different. While March Madness generally offers you a team or two as a Cinderella, you don't get the Coastal Carolina, Cal St Fullerton, Rice, etc. universities as Nat'l Champions like you do in baseball. Football is even worse where I would almost argue that there are about 3 teams from 3 conferences that really have a chance to win it all. I'm sure other legitimate arguments could be made.

I do think you can compare the need for a good coach to be competitive, but I think the advantage is that there are more good baseball coaches available to you than there are good football/basketball coaches. (And the basketball coach we have is undoubtedly the best we've ever had). But UNT could compete for those baseball kids. If you look at UNT softball, they're littered with talent from TX and OK and they're highly competitive. Much credit deserved to DeLong for that, but I believe we can get a guy in here with the same recruiting and coaching ability as DeLong.

wardly · April 29, 2022

On 4/25/2022 at 1:15 PM, Tully said:

I don't think you can compare NCAA Basketball/Football to NCAA Baseball. Every year, the College World Series has some Northside Barber College team with a shot to win it all, which in and of itself makes the landscape of College Baseball very different. While March Madness generally offers you a team or two as a Cinderella, you don't get the Coastal Carolina, Cal St Fullerton, Rice, etc. universities as Nat'l Champions like you do in baseball. Football is even worse where I would almost argue that there are about 3 teams from 3 conferences that really have a chance to win it all. I'm sure other legitimate arguments could be made.

I do think you can compare the need for a good coach to be competitive, but I think the advantage is that there are more good baseball coaches available to you than there are good football/basketball coaches. (And the basketball coach we have is undoubtedly the best we've ever had). But UNT could compete for those baseball kids. If you look at UNT softball, they're littered with talent from TX and OK and they're highly competitive. Much credit deserved to DeLong for that, but I believe we can get a guy in here with the same recruiting and coaching ability as DeLong.

So all we need is a baseball budget and a $10 million venue.