FAYETTEVILLE — Among the many proposals discussed at January’s convention for the American Baseball Coaches Association, one in particular stood out.
It was a proposal to allow college baseball teams to scrimmage other teams as part of their fall practice schedule without counting toward a limit of 56 regular-season games. The NCAA Baseball Rules Committee should vote on the proposal later this year.
Baseball teams currently are allowed to scrimmage other teams during the fall, but not without it counting toward the 56-game schedule. Vanderbilt, Virginia and Texas are teams that have sacrificed regular-season games for fall scrimmages in recent years, but Arkansas won’t do it because lost regular-season inventory equates to lost revenue in ticket sales.
The Razorbacks’ athletics department comes closer to breaking even on baseball than most programs because attendance is so strong, so maximizing the number of home games is a high priority. Arkansas ranked fourth nationally in attendance last season and was second place the six years before that.
Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said last fall that he would be open to fall scrimmages if the reduction of games rule is changed. The Razorbacks scrimmage against each other most days during the fall already.
Playing out-of-season scrimmages against other teams is commonplace in college sports like soccer and softball. For example, Arkansas’ softball team played six times last fall, including a doubleheader against national powerhouse Oklahoma at Bogle Park.
Imagine a Saturday in the fall with an 11 a.m. baseball scrimmage against a regional opponent at Baum Stadium and a 6 p.m. kickoff against an SEC team down the road at Razorback Stadium. It’s an idea that excites players.
“People tailgate for football games down here already, so I’m pretty sure they would come,” sophomore pitcher Blaine Knight said, pointing toward the parking lots adjacent to the baseball stadium. “I think it would be good, especially for a freshman. Even a little crowd here would be bigger than what they had in high school. For them to be able to experience that, I think it would be good.
“I don’t want to say it’s boring, but it gets kind of old facing the same guys over and over again in the fall. I do think the way softball has it would be a lot of fun. You can play yourself a couple of times to get your stuff set, then bring in guys and face guys, I think it would be good to face someone other than yourself.”
Such an environment would provide coaches with a realistic look at what to expect from their players in the spring.
“We get to see an earlier snapshot of a freshman or maybe a guy who was limited his freshman year and now we’re asking him to be the man,” said Wes Johnson, Arkansas’ first-year pitching coach who was part of out-of-season scrimmages while an assistant at Dallas Baptist. “We’ll get to see how he reacts.
“Now it gives me two months to work with him as opposed to we’ve got the season-opener and I’ve got to do emergency surgery, so to speak.”
Out-of-season schedules aren’t the Razorbacks’ only ones that soon could be receiving a makeover. Van Horn said he is moving toward playing more difficult regular-season schedules in an effort to help Arkansas’ postseason portfolio.
That begins in 2018 when the Razorbacks tentatively are scheduled to play a home schedule that will include games against Southern Cal, Texas and Texas Tech at Baum Stadium. The games have not been finalized.
“It’s great for our fans,” Van Horn said. “The other thing, I want to get into the mix for hosting a Regional. I felt like they took one from us a few years ago and they talked about our schedule. So I decided I would go anywhere on the road as long as they would come here.
“I think you have to play good teams to push yourself. I want to do that to be good. I want to win a national championship.”
A version of this story originally appeared in Hawgs Illustrated