Dallasite Wrote: Conference USA is the most interesting to me, mainly because I'm a homer and am rooting for UNT. Would be awesome to see them in the tournament. Hasn't happened since 2010, when they were a part of the Sun Belt West conference.

I thought I'd get a discussion going on what NCAA Conference tournaments everyone is looking forward to the most, and the least. It's easy to go with the heavy hitting favorites such as the Power 5 conferences such as the American Coast Conference (ACC) or the Southeastern Conference (SEC), but I thought we'd getting ranking system going on some of the less talked about conferences. Found a fun article for comparison's sake. I'll start ranking what may be the least exciting NCAA conference tournaments and end with what could be the most exciting/interesting to watch. Let's see if everyone agrees with this list.

Least:

1. Northeast

2. Sun Belt

3. Ivy League

4. West Coast

5. Big Sky

Most:

1. Mid-American

2. Conference USA

3. Big Sky

4. Southern

5. Missouri Valley

Yeah, did you notice Big Sky was on both lists? Here's their reason:

"Yeah I’m calling the Big Sky out for being boring just one section after praising it for being exciting. Things change quickly. This is March. Try and keep up.

Here’s the reason: On paper it looks like it’s going to be “crazy competitive,” but this is the only conference tournament in America where the No. 1 seed has cut down the nets in each of the last four seasons. It doesn’t stop there. The No. 1 seed has actually won the Big Sky tournament in eight of the last nine years, and the one year the top seed didn’t win, it was the No. 2 seed that took home the title. Great news for Eastern Washington/Montana. Not so great for the rest of us."

So who else agrees? Would love to see other people's rankings as well. Throw in Power Five conference tournaments as well if you like.

It's pretty simple. Teams either go to Arizona(Cactus League) or Florida(Grapefruit League) based on their geographic location within the U.S. But there are exceptions: the Cleveland Indians, Cincinnati Reds, Milwaukee Brewers and the two teams from Chicago all train in Arizona. The Houston Astros, Minn Twins, and the St. Louis Cardinals train in Florida.

It breaks down like this. Teams that train in Florida play other teams training in Florida in exhibition games. The same goes for teams training in Arizona.

Here's where it gets interesting. Spring Training teams can play minor league baseball clubs and colleges. We also have what is called intra-squad games, and split-squad games. Intra is when players of the same team play against eachother, and split is when one team is scheduled for two games in one day, so they split the team into two squads and each plays in one of the two games. B Games are considered unofficial Spring Training games. Here, statistics and standings do not count.

There you have it. One thing I find the most interesting about Spring Training is that it's all about the pitchers. They report in first thing during Spring Training because they benefit from a longer training duration. Position players arrive when practice begins a few days later. I've heard many position players complain that it's mostly about warming up their pitchers for the upcoming season and it's kind of dull for them.

Dallasite Wrote:

The coronavirus has ravaged China and spread to at least 47 countries to infect more than 80,000 people globally and killed over 2,700. The Olympics, which hosts more than 10,000 athletes and thousands of spectators and media members, are set to begin on July 24.

But saying that I remember people asking the same thing about the Rio Olympics with the Zika virus back in 2016. Also about the swine flu epidemic before 2010 Winter Olympics... and nothing came of either of those scares, as far as the Olympics were considered.

I do think this strain of coronavirus is potentially worse than Zika and swine flu, probably combined (if you are just talking about risk to the people at the Olympics in Tokyo).

I don't think it's nearly as bad as the Swine Flu epidemic. Just did some research. Swine Flu became a global pandemic in 2009. It was considered to finally be over in 2010. The CDC estimated that the Swine Flu infected nearly 61 million people in the united states, and caused 12,469 deaths. They estimated that between 151,700 to 575,400 people worldwide died from the virus. Maybe they're controlling the Coronavirus more efficiently, having learned a thing or two about how to stop the Swine Flu.

All in all, I see them going forward with the Summer Olympics in Japan, unless there is worldwide outcry against it.

Dallasite Wrote: But its kinda funny the NCAA looks smarter in this case than the pros. Also rare I give praise to the NCAA for being innovative. Good move though.

Well the big race at Daytona was delayed twice by rain and pushed to the next day only 20 laps in. That's gotta be nerve wracking and frustrating for the drivers as well as the fans. Then again the drivers are probably relieved at the same time. Take into consideration that many people hate driving in the rain. It must be multiplied by one hundred for NASCAR drivers. Ok, so imagine ripping your wind shield wipers off of your car, trading out your treaded tires for slicks, and jumping out on an oval track with other drivers doing 200 miles per hour. You couldn't pay me enough. And that is probably what NASCAR drivers think as well.

One major downside to postponing a NASCAR race is that it hurts the overall competitiveness of the sport. The drivers have to leave the track mid-race, their places are recorded and they have to resume them the next day. One would think it would affect a drivers' edge. Some, if not all momentum is lost and has to be recovered the next day. If you're calling Bull on the safety issue, here's a little something about NASCAR tires:

­NASCAR tires endure something called the slip angle during a race. When a NASCAR race car comes around the corner of a track, the tires will point in one direction, while the wheel goes in a slightly different direction [source: Leslie-Pelecky]. This causes the tires on the car to skid along the track slightly, allowing the driver to maximize his or her turning force. If a driver goes above the normal slip angle, about two to four degrees, he or she risks allowing the tires to skid too much on the track, which can lead to serious loss of control. Wet track conditions increase this risk.

Sheesh. I hear tell that they do have rain tires in NASCAR, but they're hardly ever used because it's hard to maintain a safe and competitive race simultaneously because most tracks and weather conditions are very conducive to using them.

With all of that taken into consideration, I can understand the how and the why here. It stinks that we can figure out enclosed tracks without killing everyone with carbon monoxide poisoning from all of the rumbling engines. I'm sure others will agree with me here. Feel free to chime in.

College baseball has a new rule that helps speed up time, but could also prevent sign stealing. The NCAA now lets a pitcher wear a wristband with a signal card that allows him and the catcher to look into the dugout to get pitch calls, which would eliminate the need for the catcher to relay the call using hand signals.

Since the Astros cheated the last two seasons by stealing signs, their shame has brought this problem to the forefront. And it's even made it's way into college baseball. The wristband would work very much like they do in football. The play is called with a signal from the sideline and the quarterback looks down at the wristband to match the signal with the play. The same would go for pitching in this case.

Not only will this speed up the game, it will prevent even college teams from walking down the shameful path the Astros decided to walk down. College Baseball is televised just as much as the MLB is so I could see the need to not only speed up the game, but prevent sign stealing. I think this is a cool idea. What does everyone else think? Or is this too much for something as simple as college baseball?