The Big Ten is measuring support for a proposal that would give baseball teams the option of playing nonconference games in the fall that would count toward determining the NCAA tournament field the following spring.
Big Ten coaches voted to continue studying the possibility, and deputy commissioner Brad Traviolia said Monday the conference is in the process of explaining the concept to coaches across the country.
Traviolia wrote in an email to The Associated Press that he couldn't predict when, or if, the conference would submit the proposal to the NCAA legislative process.
"However," he wrote, "we would plan to move forward once we feel we have a broad base of support."
The Big Ten and other northern conferences for years have sought ways for their schools to gain greater access to the NCAA tournament, which has been dominated by programs from the South and West since the late 1980s.
Cold weather puts northern schools at a disadvantage when the baseball season starts in February. Those schools must travel to the South or West to play the first month of the season, which reduces their number of possible home games.
Purdue coach Doug Schreiber came up with the idea of playing fall nonconference games that count so northern schools can eliminate one or two early-season trips and spread more home games over the fall and spring. Schreiber said the reception for the proposal at the American Baseball Coaches Association meeting in January was "lukewarm" --- which he found encouraging.
"When I initially brought it up a few years ago, you could hear crickets in the room," Schreiber said. "Now the numbers are a little bit better, and I think they'll grow when (coaches) start to understand the proposal."
The proposal would not change the mid-February start date or the structure of conference play or NCAA regionals, super regionals and College World Series.
There is no agreement on the maximum number of fall games. Schreiber suggests teams be allowed to practice 24 times beginning in late August and then have the option to play up to 14 games from mid-September to late October. A team that plays 14 games in the fall would have a maximum of 42 to play the following spring.
Home games are crucial for building a team's RPI --- the biggest factor in NCAA tournament selection --- because the home team wins about 60 percent of the time, according to the NCAA.
Supporters acknowledge many warm-weather schools, and even some in the North, will choose not to play any fall games.
North Carolina coach Mike Fox said a lot of logistics would have to be worked out and that he has difficulty envisioning a season that could be split between fall and spring.
Vanderbilt's Tim Corbin, a New Hampshire native who played at Ohio Wesleyan, said he understands the plight of the northern coaches. But he said the teams that would play games that count in the fall, and thus have fewer games remaining when the season picks up, could gain a competitive advantage because of reduced stress on pitchers in the spring.
Football
Kennesaw State: The school launched the website KennesawStateFootball.com on Monday, giving Owls fans a way to stay up to date on the progress of the football program and to learn more about purchasing tickets.
Kennesaw State expects to play its first game in 2015 at Fifth Third Bank Stadium.
The school will use a points-based system for purchasing tickets similar to those being used by other colleges.
--- DOUG ROBERSON
Florida State: After several years of playing a weak nonconference schedule, school officials are moving to make it one of the country's toughest. The Seminoles agreed to a home-and-home series with Boise State for the 2019 and 2020 seasons. Florida State will also start playing Notre Dame on a rotation basis as part of the Irish's commitment to play five ACC teams each year.
