California College Baseball

Talent started going elsewhere, mostly the SEC and ACC, in the mid 2010s.

Most of these guys grow up traveling all over the country from a young age. Going to the South where it’s a bigger deal and the coaching is better isn’t a big deal anymore

Then NIL really was the death blow especially for the smaller schools that used to be really good.

Just not much of an interest for college sports as a whole out West, as opposed to the Midwest and South.

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Talent started going elsewhere, mostly the SEC and ACC, in the mid 2010s.

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As the TV money grew in the SEC, more athletic departments needed to find places to spend the money. So baseball grew stronger.

Also, compare the tv availability of the SEC Network vs the Pac 12 network.

Private schools were also hit hard by the overall skyrocketing of the cost to go to school with no increase in scholarship limits.

Now, any California players that do slip through the cracks and end up at a Big West school not named Santa Barbara will get snapped up through the portal before their Junior year.

ETA: There are a ton of reasons.

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Sure they won’t pack 10,000+ of fat, drunken rednecks in,

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Those 10,000 fat drunken rednecks make us who we are

Same reason Wichita State made 7 CWS appearances in 15 years, but none since 1996. They got left behind as other programs began to invest more heavily in baseball.

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Talent started going elsewhere, mostly the SEC and ACC, in the mid 2010s.

Most of these guys grow up traveling all over the country from a young age. Going to the South where it’s a bigger deal and the coaching is better isn’t a big deal anymore

Then NIL really was the death blow especially for the smaller schools that used to be really good.

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this....they still have the best talent in youth travel and HS but most of the top players have been going all over the country anyways and picking up with teams

example...in BR this weekend their is the PG super nit, one of the biggest tournaments of the year...the best 3 kids from Cali in their age group are playing with a team from florida. These kids have friends all over the country.

But the top cali kids are mainly going SEC or MLB and then some to ACC, then lots to big 12. None stay because facilities are better at those schools, the weather is better than going to the Pacific NW and playing in Big 10 and then they get better coaching in the south/east coast/arizona.

as mentioned, They also get better scholarship money and NIL at those schools. I do feel like Stanford, USC and UCLA can compete if they invest heavily. Baseball kids still do value education at a much higher rate than other sports so the education aspect would come into play big time.

but in general the west coast schools are way behind on everything, even behind schools like ULL, UCONN, Southern Miss, Coastal and other mid majors. Same reason Tulane has fallen off.


also outside of Southern Cali....the weather is more conducive to playing baseball most of the year in the south.

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It is a regional sport

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And California used to be that region

After Skip drugs his nuts across the state of California ….it was over.

Nobody west of roughly I-35 has won a national title in Basketball since 1997.

West coast isn’t that bad at baseball. Didn’t UCLA win some baseball in the last 15 years.