BearsTruth Board

This is a good topic.

But I think you have some HIGH expectations. It's interesting that of all the sports, you have the lowest expectations for Men's Basketball. Why is that?

Football: Bowl game 3 out of every 4 years. Remember, this program has NEVER been to 3 straight bowl games. So to EXPECT them to go to a bowl game every year...WOW. Unless you are just the best of the best (LSU, Bama, Ohio State, Oklahoma) - you are going to be hard pressed to go to a bowl game EVERY year. 3 out of every 4 would be incredible. Finish in the top 25 2 out of every 4 years. Be a serious contender for the Big 12 Championship 1 out of every 4 years (which I think is still a bit high).

Men's Hoops: Tournament 3 out of every 4 years. Sweet 16, 2 out of every 4 years. Go beyond Sweet 16, once every 5 years, or twice every decade.

Women's hoops: I think this is the one sport where we can really EXPECT to play in the Final Four every year. With an NC once every 4 years. WOW! That's amazing to type that. But that's where we are.

Baseball: Hard to expect much from this program giving that it is not a priority anymore within our Athletic Department. Based on what is acceptable. Make the tournament every year and you can stay forever.

Softball: Agree with everything, except maybe World Series every 4 years.

Wow, we have some high expectations. I would like to see the athletic department who's basketball team goes to a Sweet 16 (or better) two in every four years or is in the Top 25 in football four of every five years. A lot of premier programs can't even meet those expectations.

Football: Make regular bowl games- 3 out of ever 4 years; Finish ranked in Top 25 one in every 3 years

MBB: Make NCAA tournament 3 out of every 4 years; Sweet 16 once in every 4 years

WBB: Make NCAA tournament every year; Sweet 16 two in every 4

Baseball- Make NCAA regional every year; Super regional one in every 4

great comparison, blockmaster. although, i don't think that Mizzou will be a "middle of second tier" program in the SEC. i think they're really going to struggle in that conference...probably even more than agsy.

Aggy would be better but i try to avoid ever talking of them

You are probably right but I was thinking in the future going forward and nothing to do with past records. Michigan st IMO is below Duke, Kansas, North Carolina etc as a program and are probably slightly above Florida. But I expect baylro with what CSD has built to be right up there with those programs going forward. I gues you could say that I expect baylor to be on the same level as Florida, Texas, Memphis, etc (bottom half of elite programs, where as Michigan St. is middle of elite programs). not comparing baylor's history with any of theres just comparing those programs future with Baylors

you people on the "wooden bat" kick for college baseball need to freaking give it up. i'd prefer wood, or even some sort of composite bat, also, but aluminum bats have been a part of the game since the 80s, and they aren't going anywhere anytime soon. saying you don't care or follow a particular sport b/c of one piece of equipment is downright asinine, regardless of how significant a piece of equipment it is.

i've played w/ both wood and aluminum, and although there are noticible differences, aluminum bats do not alter the way the game is played, or coached, for the most part.

sorry for the rant, and i don't want to turn this into a "Baseball" thread, but come on....

Pretty close to Nein51 except I try pretty hard to follow and even attend SOME of the smaller sports to track them. Spot on for football and MBB. I think we have to be careful with WBB because life without BG will be tough but we should remain closer to what we have been past decade.

My frustration is MORE during good seasons like this because of what is possible. Same when we lost to KSU in football. Much more frustrated than bad years for the reason they don't come along very often. This is not a case of Baylor fans being spoiled or forgetting past. It's much more the knowledge that these years don't come along all the time. Got to take advantage of it.

the lack of insight that college baseball gives you into upcoming MLB talent is due only in small part to the difference b/w wooden bats and aluminum bats. the fact that there is a HUGE system of minor league teams and there are dozens of High School and international players thrown into the fray makes that transition infinitely more difficult than saying that Player A is a monster in NCAA football, at the highest level, so he SHOULD be a monster in the NFL. baseball is not a "build through the draft" type of league. it is finding players who you think are talented and developing them in the minor leagues, whether it's through the draft or trades.

if your reasoning for not liking aluminum bats is b/c it makes it harder to speculate on which players (pitchers and hitters) will be good in the Major Leagues, then that is a much more misguided opinion than just being on a "purist kick".

i had the priveldge of watching guys like Kip Wells, Jason Jennings, and Lance Berkman, up close and personal, and i don't care what type of bats players had in their hands, those guys translated into MLB talent.

Nein, we won conference championships in 1974 and 1980. I think we can do it again. I'll agree it's probably tougher today, but I still think we can compete for championships occasionally. I believe Briles thinks this as well.

Maybe a bowl game every year is not reasonable. I stated this as my expectation because there are 35 bowls (70 teams). Basically if your 6-6, and are in a major conference, you're going to get a bowl invite. My expectation is that we can go at least 6-6 every year. But that doesn't account for the occasional bad year - which happens to everyone. So maybe a better expectation is a bowl game 4 out of every 5 years.

As a comparison here is a list of schools and how many bowl games they have participated in over the past 20 years.

Clemson - 17
Georgia Tech - 16
West Virginia - 16
BYU - 14
Texas Tech - 16
Kansas State - 14
Boston College - 15

I think we can do as well as these guys.

Vol - we won the conference a LONG time ago and football has changed a TON since then.

In 1980 we played: 5-6 TT, 7-5 Houston, 8-4 SMU, 4-7 Ag, 1-10 TCU, 7-5 Arkie, 5-6 Rice and 7-5 UT in conference...the reality is that none of those teams were any good. How we lost to SJS is anyone's guess.

In 1974 we won the conference but lost to just about every decent team we played, we were 8-4.

In this era you almost cant lose to win the conference and there are going to be very few "easy" weeks in conference with the addition of TCU and WVU. I hope the coaches believe and I want the players to believe but the reality is that winning the conference is a tough row to hoe.

Cooter, I know you are a baseball guy but to say it is a high quality product is overselling. You might see more errors between two good collegiate teams than 10 MLB games combined. College baseball is a heck of a lot of fun when it is your team but it pales compared to pro ball (same is true of A, AA and AAA ball). There just arent enough good players to have a high quality product, really good players tend to bypass the collegiate game.

I agree with Volunteer.

There are 32 bowl games each year. I expect us to be in one of them every year. Our program is on the rise where being in the top 25 is a reasonable expectation IMO.

The NCAA tourney invites 68 teams each year. I expect us to be in it each year.

I expect WBB to compete in the Final Four each year.

I expect Baseball to compete in the Regionals regularly, Super-regionals occasionally and the CWS every 5 years or so.

I expect Track to continue to turn out high finishers in the national meet. Softball, Volleyball, Soccer should compete for national tourney places. M & W Tennis should regularly compete for NCs.

In short, I guess I think our athletic department is to a point that we will soon be a regular national competitor in most sports. If that's wearing green glasses, so be it.