Mississippi only state with at least 3 teams in T25

[blacklistedbully]

It seems for some time now our state has had 3 programs showing consistent success enough to be routinely ranked in the T25. That seems crazy considering how small we are by population compared to others.

North Carolina? California? Florida? Georgia? Louisiana? Texas? OK? Nope. No other state has more than 2.

Why does that seem to be so consistently? One would think it highly improbable for our State to sustain 3 such successful D1 baseball programs.

 

[ZombieKissinger]

We care more than most other schools, and some is timing. Duke, UNC, Wake and NC State were all ranked a fair amount last year. Troy, Auburn, and Alabama as well, though I agree USM is a better program than Troy. Miami, Florida, FSU all recently good. Coastal, South Carolina (before the last few years), Clemson. Texas and California have had the same as well. There are several states with 3-4 teams routinely showing up

 

[blacklistedbully]

We care more than most other schools, and some is timing. Duke, UNC, Wake and NC State were all ranked a fair amount last year. Troy, Auburn, and Alabama as well, though I agree USM is a better program than Troy. Miami, Florida, FSU all recently good. Coastal, South Carolina (before the last few years), Clemson. Texas and California have had the same as well. There are several states with 3-4 teams routinely showing up

Yeah, but check their population & resources vs ours.

 

[ZombieKissinger]

Yeah, but check their population & resources vs ours.

No argument on resources on the state level. I live in one of those. It goes back to caring and, to a lesser degree, talent pool. If baseball was king instead of football, it wouldn’t look this way

 

[She Mate Me]

It's a point of pride for sure.

But to answer the question, two of the schools play in by far the best baseball conference in the country and have built large fan bases that care about the game (although one of them feels kinda fake ). It's only natural they'd be able to attract talented players and build good teams.

The sport is very popular in the state and geographically it's the right climate for getting in more outdoor practice and play.

Southern's consistent excellence lately has been impressive to me. I don't have a clear explanation other than they seem to have hired really solid coaches through the years.

There are a lot of states that often have 3 or more teams in or near the Top 25. There are polls with three Alabama teams in now with Jacksonville State around 25.

 

[OG Goat Holder]

No argument on resources on the state level. I live in one of those. It goes back to caring and, to a lesser degree, talent pool. If baseball was king instead of football, it wouldn’t look this way

Yep, caring is the reason. And you can’t just snap your fingers and make people care enough to support the way we do. It takes winning PLUS a love of baseball from the people in and around the university.

State resources obviously don’t matter in baseball. This thread is proof of that. People always say if such and such invested they’d be good, but they never do. When someone rises up it’s due to getting lucky with a coach, like Tennessee and Vitello.

 

[Lowdog]

I truly believe the reason we have three teams in this state regularly in the top 25 goes to Polk and our fan base back in the day. Other schools saw us drawing thousands and fans having lots of fun determined they could the same. LSU also! It is really crazy that this poor and non populated state can routinely place 3 in the top 25

 

[615dawg]

Delta State will be a force in the D2 playoffs.
Belhaven is going to host a regional in D3 and they are coming off a Super Regional last year.
William Carey is in the NAIA playoffs

 

[OrangeThrower]

We care more than most other schools, and some is timing. Duke, UNC, Wake and NC State were all ranked a fair amount last year. Troy, Auburn, and Alabama as well, though I agree USM is a better program than Troy. Miami, Florida, FSU all recently good. Coastal, South Carolina (before the last few years), Clemson. Texas and California have had the same as well. There are several states with 3-4 teams routinely showing up

Exactly thank you for the rationale and not the play dough homer stuff

 

[OrangeThrower]

Delta State will be a force in the D2 playoffs.
Belhaven is going to host a regional in D3 and they are coming off a Super Regional last year.
William Carey is in the NAIA playoffs

Hahah wow…