Don’t look now, but we are now 100 days from opening day in Division I college baseball. Okay, sure, that’s still more than three months away, but it sounds closer when we count it in days, and further, I would contend that it’s worth celebrating the countdown getting down into double-digits.
For college baseball nerds like you and I, the beginning of a new season is a veritable treasure trove of storylines to follow.
There are new head coaches all over the country.
There are programs on the rise that look poised to make waves.
There are impact freshmen and transfers everywhere, ready to step in and help out their teams right away.
There are tales of potential juggernaut teams, for which anything but a national title would be a disappointment.
There are conference races in seemingly wide-open leagues.
There are players with raw talent who are ready to put it all together and finally become as productive as they are talented.
There are the storylines surrounding returning players who chose to forego pro baseball dreams for another year in hopes of completing unfinished business on campus.
Over the coming months, to help all of us cope until college baseball returns, I’m going to be counting down 100 things to look forward to in the 2016 season. Each day, starting at the 100 day mark, one piece will be posted, highlighting a player/team/storyline worth watching next season.
Quickly, I have a couple of housekeeping notes on this series of articles.
First, this is not meant to be a literal countdown. These are simply 100 things to look forward to, in no real particular order. When working with a long list of such disparate items, there is just no real way to properly rank them.
Second, I tried to spread the love around as much as I could. Sure, the major conferences and programs are mentioned extensively, but I also worked to dig a little deeper and touch on items from smaller leagues as well.
Finally, I hope that everyone has as much fun reading as I did putting the list together and working on these articles. Here’s to the 2016 season being here before we know it!
Day 97 - Houston College Classic
Day 88 - American Athletic Coaches
Day 77 - Oral Roberts Baseball
Day 74 - Marty Lees at Washington State
Day 71 - Steve Rodriguez at Baylor
Day 64 - Andrew Lantrip, Seth Romero
Day 63 - Keith LeClair Classic
Day 62 - Saint Louis University
Day 57 - Sewell-Thomas Stadium
Day 55 - Missouri Valley Conference
Day 47 - New Faces on LSU Offense
Day 46 - Indiana/Cal State Fullerton Series
Day 43 - Dallas Baptist’s Non-Conference Slate
Day 42 - South Florida’s Recruiting Class
Day 40 - Houston’s New Video Board
Day 35 - Coastal Carolina’s Tournaments
Day 34 - Bethune-Cookman Wildcats
Day 33 - Hawaii Rainbow Warriors
Day 30 - Rice’s Starting Rotation
Day 29 - Wichita State Shockers
Day 24 - College of Charleston’s Non-Conference Slate
Day 22 - J.J. Schwarz and Mike Rivera
Day 18 - UCLA’s Freshman Class
Day 16 - The Big Ten’s Encore Performance
Day 3 - Vanderbilt Commodores and Virginia Cavaliers
Day 2 - Butch Thompson’s First Season at Auburn
Day 0 - College Baseball is Back! (w/ podcast)
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