Big Ten baseball on the rise, but will teams commit resources to take next step?

New York Times

23-05-2025

OMAHA, Neb. — Mark Wasikowski, the sixth-year baseball coach at Oregon, harbored concerns last year that entry into the Big Ten would negatively impact the Ducks.
The travel was daunting. The potential RPI hit, in comparison to their years in the Pac-12, would pose challenges for the four new Big Ten programs from the West. And the acclimation to a different style of play in unfamiliar ballparks with unpredictable spring weather conditions weighed on Wasikowski's mind.
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'I think all those (worries) snuck in from time to time,' he said.
Ultimately, Wasikowski chose to stop worrying.
'We won our games,' he said. 'And that's what I told the guys: 'If you just take all the math and everything else out of it, it's real simple. Win your games. Then nobody is going to be able to do or say anything.''
As it enters the final weekend of play before the 64-team NCAA Tournament is unveiled on Memorial Day, Oregon is in contention to earn the first top-eight seed for the league — and home-field advantage in both postseason rounds ahead of the College World Series — since Illinois in 2015.
No Big Ten program has qualified for the CWS since Michigan lost in the championship series against Vanderbilt in 2019. As schools in this wealthy conference consider their futures in the revenue-sharing era, the league's competitiveness in baseball appears on the rise.
The addition of Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington this season has pushed the profile of Big Ten baseball firmly into the fourth spot nationally behind the SEC, ACC and Big 12.
'I think the question now is,' ESPN commentator Kyle Peterson said, 'are they going to spend money, or are they not going to spend money?'
Nate Voss DELIVERS 💣
His go-ahead homer puts @PennStateBASE in front 2-1 in the 9th 💪#B1GBaseball on @BigTenNetwork 📺 pic.twitter.com/viu8gSFXYI
— Big Ten Baseball (@B1Gbaseball) May 22, 2025
As Oregon illustrated this season in winning 41 of 54 games in the regular season, a blueprint exists to achieve national success in the Big Ten. UCLA, too, has positioned itself to host a Regional next week.
'It's pretty hard to ignore,' Nebraska coach Will Bolt said of the impact delivered by new teams in the league. 'And their commitment to baseball is something that the traditional Big Ten schools continue to strive for.'
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Oregon second baseman Ryan Cooney, a sophomore who played in the Pac-12 a year ago, said the Big Ten play compares favorably to what he's experienced on the diamond outside of the conference.
'There was this initial narrative that the Big Ten wasn't as strong,' Cooney said, 'but I would say that's not the reality.'
Oregon brought national home run leader Mason Neville, an Arkansas transfer, to Big Ten stadiums this year. UCLA sophomore Roch Cholowsky was named the Big Ten player of the year.
But the rosters of traditional Big Ten schools contain many of the top players, including the league's pitcher of the year, Joseph Dzierwa of Michigan State.
Schools such as Penn State, which has qualified for the NCAA postseason once in the past 47 years, are investing in the sport. Though the Nittany Lions have yet to get over the hump under second-year coach Mike Gambino, they finished the regular season with a winning record for the second consecutive year. And Penn State beat USC on Thursday to earn a spot in the Big Ten tournament semifinals, remaining alive to earn the league's automatic bid to the NCAAs.
Administrative leaders obsessed with success in football and basketball are buying into baseball, according to league coaches.
'I think it's been trending up for a few years,' Michigan coach Tracy Smith said, 'maybe as far back as Michigan and Indiana (in 2013) making it to the College World Series.'
Smith coached that Indiana squad 12 years ago, the first Big Ten team in 39 years to appear in the CWS, then he left to coach Arizona State in 2015. He returned to the Big Ten in 2023. So Smith has experienced both sides of the power struggle.
Before this season, he fielded questions often about the West Coast invasion.
'Do you like it?' fans and interested parties in the sport asked him.
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'I absolutely like it,' Smith said. 'That does nothing but elevate the league. I think the Big Ten is in a great spot. I'm not so sure we're getting the national attention that we deserve, but maybe people will wake up at some point and start realizing that this is a pretty darn good baseball league.'
Still, the conference falls short in comparison to the top three leagues. Since 2013, the SEC has placed an average of 9.1 teams per year into the NCAA Tournament, followed by the ACC at 7.8 and the Big 12 at 4.7. The Big Ten has averaged 3.3 over that time. It was outnumbered in the 64-team field by the Sun Belt in each of the last three seasons.
This year, the conference RPI of the Big Ten sits at No. 4 nationally, ahead of Conference USA.
But only Oregon, UCLA and USC appear in solid shape to make the bracket on Monday, and USC's spot is a bit tenuous after Thursday's loss to Penn State — the Trojans' sixth defeat in their last eight games.
'We have more teams this year,' Nebraska's Bolt said. 'We should certainly have more bids and get the benefit of the doubt.'
We'll see on Monday.
The others left alive this week at the conference tournament in Omaha — Iowa, Nebraska and Penn State — likely must win the crown to receive an invite.
Oregon's Wasikowski coached Purdue from 2017 to 2019. He and Michigan's Smith advocate for a restructured college season that starts and ends a month later than its current February-to-June regimen. An opening weekend in March and a CWS built around the MLB All-Star break in July would undoubtedly drive interest in regions less exposed to college baseball.
'I think baseball has the biggest growth opportunity in any sport in college athletics,' Wasikowski said. 'But the (college) presidents and ADs are going to have to come to grips with that and decide to go with it.'
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When Smith coached in the Pac-12, he listened to coaches from the North make their case to shift the calendar. Then he watched coaches in spots similar to his shake their heads and dismiss the proposal.
'My blunt opinion on it,' Smith said, 'is that it's disgusting we don't do it. This sport is growing. If you put a gun to my head and said, 'What is the reason we don't do it?' I think it's self-serving. Certain leagues and certain institutions know that they have an advantage. So why change it?
'No one could ever convince me that we couldn't do this if we sat down and made it a priority. But the world is politics, man, and you've got some people controlling it at the top. I was part of that. It's sad but true.'
Part of the commitment to baseball in the Big Ten involves reasonable travel and a functional system to award the automatic postseason bid. The Big Ten switched this year to a pool-play system for its conference tournament, modeling it after a defunct ACC method.
The result? Three games out of four on Thursday in Omaha were meaningless for both teams involved. Oregon and Nebraska are scheduled to play Friday night for the last open spot in the semifinal round.
In March, Nebraska served as a guinea pig for a travel arrangement that sent the Huskers to Los Angeles for consecutive Big Ten weekend series at UCLA and USC. The Huskers spent 12 days on the road — and 11 consecutive nights in a Venice Beach hotel.
'Not a fan,' Bolt said. 'You don't even see big-league clubs do that.'
Yes, hurdles remain for the Big Ten to clear before it's recognized in every realm on the level of the top three leagues.
It comes down to the investment made by each program.
With revenue sharing expected to be introduced once the House settlement passes, how much of that money will Big Ten schools allocate to baseball? On many campuses in the league, hockey and/or wrestling might be higher up the food chain among the fan base.
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'I don't know that there's an absolute answer to that,' said Peterson, an Omahan who pitched at Stanford and has long helped lead ESPN's television coverage of the CWS.
'I don't know what's going to happen, but I know that … our game is so much better if the power athletic departments, the athletic departments that are football powerhouses and potentially the basketball powerhouses are the ones that are committing money to (baseball).'
The ball, so to speak, is in the Big Ten's court.
(Photo of Mason Neville: Abigail Dollins / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)