Spreading Cajuns across the nation.

The raging Cajuns will be a source of pride for this university, for the alumni, fans, and donors, as we achieve success in the classroom, in the competitive arena, and in the community.

It's about to get really fun.

We're looking for dudes that will stand up.

Well, Coach, let me tell you, today I'm here, and I'm ready to stand up.

And I challenge you, raging Cajun nation, to stand up with us.

Stand up with us.

Let's lock hand in hand, and let's walk through the gates of Omaha.

Hey, I love y'all boys.

Let's grind every day starting today.

Let's do it.

Y'all ready?

Oh, Lord.

Oh, Lord.

Ready?

Who just he ready?

Who just he ready?

That's.

I got one thing to say right here.

Cages win.

Foreign.

One of my favorite things that I like to ask you when we do these annual talks now, rule change committee always convenes in the off season.

Yeah.

Do you have any major changes to report as of 24, 25?

Is there anything we need to be on the lookout?

Maybe something that didn't make the national headlines that really will impact the game?

Yeah, I mean, there's gonna be more and more schools use the double base at first base.

I think we all, you know, a couple of conferences use it last year in the conference tournaments.

It's not that big of a deal.

I mean, I get it.

I'm kind of like, you know, some people, some baseball purists are like, this is ridiculous.

Some people are like, this is awesome.

I'm kind of in the middle.

Like, I could go either way on that one.

I think the biggest thing, you know, whether it's this year or looking ahead to next year, is the fact that we're going to be dealing with a much different reality in college baseball.

You know, your rosters are going to go from 40 players to 34 next fall.

Many schools are going to go to 34 full scholarships.

I'm actually, you know, curious.

You know, I haven't talked to Coach Dex about this, but I'm actually, very.

Curiously, Louisiana does.

There's a lot of programs around the country that are actually going to go a full 34, I would think, at a place like Louisiana, where baseball is coveted.

Obviously, you know, they're trying to build a new football stadium there, but I would think baseball would go pretty aggressive on the scholarship front.

So there's gonna be a situation next year to where you might have Big Ten schools that are sitting at still 11, 7, 12 scholarships.

Meanwhile, I mean, what, what a crazy world, right?

You could have Southern Miss, Louisiana, schools like that sitting at 34.

Like who?

You know, imagine telling everybody six years ago that, you know, Louisiana or Southern Miss could potentially have, you know, 20 more, Scott, 22 more scholarships than a Big Ten school.

A Big Ten school that has a revenue generation of 170, 180 million a year.

So it's just a really interesting time in college baseball.

One of the things that kind of came out today, Alberto Suna, the transfer from North Carolina who was at D2 Tampa, he actually essentially threatened to sue the NCAA today to get eligible Tennessee this year.

So just so many moving parts and it's one of those things that unless you just really stay on top of it, I mean, it is a moving target.

So what might be, you know, the case today might be something totally different in 24 hours.

So the answer kind of seems obvious, but I do want to follow up if we're able to.

And then when I say we, I mean, you know, schools like in the Sun Belt that are extremely competitive nationally, really, if we're able to pull in an extra 20 scholarships, how big of a hand up is that for programs like us competing against the bigger schools with the bigger revenues?

It's huge.

And the reason why I say that is because if you look around the sec, I mean Louisiana, I feel like does a really good job of actually getting players at the, the lsu, Ole Miss and schools like that are recruiting.

So this is maybe more geared towards the, I don't know, maybe Coastal or schools like that.

But I think what 34 fools does, I think what 34 fools does is, you know, it allows programs to, you know, there's a trickle down effect, not to make this long winded, but there's a trickle down effect to where, you know, if you're Mississippi State or your lsu, you're not going to be able to take all, you know, you know, every single player you want because of roster limitations.

Well, what happens?

Well, you know, Southern Miss or Louisiana, etc, they have 34 full scholarships.

Well, now those, now those kind of middle to upper elite guys are now going there.

Well, what happens with that?

Well, the, the, the middle tier to middle upper tier that's going to the Sunbelt schools, they're going to go to the Southland schools.

And so it's just all, it's, it's almost, it's like a, somebody rolling down a hill or something in terms of the effect on college baseball.

And so I think not only will every single level of College baseball benefit from all this?

I think junior colleges will benefit a lot from it.

You know, whether it's Delgado or, you know, Eunice or schools like that, I think they're really going to benefit from all this.

So, Kendall, recently there was a litigation case involving a cornerback from Wisconsin in the football side of things.

Yeah, of course it has a lot to do with the eligibility rules because of course you talk about how the recent rule changes in, within the committee have changed and evolves constantly.

It feels like NCAA eligibility is a revolving, a revolving door.

What are some, what do you see how this litigation affects college baseball?

And that includes legislation that is looking to be passed and trying to debate back and forth.

Where do you see that going right now?

Well, I think the really interesting thing and, and frankly, I kind of tied this into the Sunbelt preview.

I did.

One of the things that I've noticed, especially doing this Sunbelt preview that's coming out here on Wednesday, February 12, is there were a lot of old teams.

I, I want to say it was Georgia State that I was, or Georgia Southern I was writing about where literally every single pitcher that was starting in every single position player was a senior, you know, fifth year senior, graduate student, junior.

Like they literally had nobody underneath a junior on their roster.

So I think what this litigation does is we'll say take the Diego Pavia situation at Vanderbilt because the Wisconsin situation is very similar if we're, we are in a position in college sports to where we're not going to count junior colleges against your, your eligibility.

So essentially, you know, you could go to Delgado for two years, go to Louisiana and play baseball, you would still have four years.

So I mean, what it's going to do, it's going to make all of these rosters incredibly old if this stands.

So right now the, the Pavia case in the Wisconsin case, I'm not even going to try to pronounce his name because it's really, it's a tough name to pronounce.

But in both of those cases there they won those things.

So my assumption is Alberto Suna will win his case for Tennessee.

So I think what I'm getting to is if all these different cases are being wanted, these injunctions are being, are, are being made, like what is the conventional wisdom suggests this could suggest that at some point none of these JUCO seasons will count towards your eligibility.

So I think this era of older rosters will continue to grow, kind of gain steam.

And I think the big challenge here, you know, if you're mad Dex and you're in a place that is desirable, like a Louisiana to where the fan base is awesome, the facility is fantastic, people love college baseball.

It really is tough because it's okay, do I go, you know, do I go the transfer portal route real heavy or do I get these homegrown kids?

Because I mean, we know throughout the years that the cages have done an awesome job with the homegrown kids, you know, going back to the Trey Honda's and guys like that.

But what percentages do you put on those two things in terms of your roster allocation?

So I think that's the tough, toughest part of this is like, how do you actually build your roster?

Because I feel like the Cajuns, maybe even more so than some other programs in the region, have like struck gold with these locally grown kids.

It's funny you mentioned that, Kendall, because actually the model that Louisiana has used over the last couple of years, considering the fact that we don't have millions of dollars in NIL like some of these bigger schools do.

Lsu, believe it or not, if you've noticed, and I know you've cover LSU tremendously, you know their roster inside and out, a lot of their roster in Baton Rouge are coming from a lot of out of state players.

Whereas under Paul Maneri, they used to get the kids from New Orleans and you know, Baton Rouge and you know, Lake Charles and Lafayette.

Well now because of their multimillion dollar nil budget, they have to go out of state because Jay Johnson is under pressure by the boosters who give money saying, hey yeah, we're paying you for nil.

You got to go get those players.

So he has to spend money outside of the state, which in turn has actually given us an advantage at ul because now we can go get some of those players who would otherwise might go to an LS from Baton Rouge, from Lake Charles, from Lafayette, from New Orleans.

That kind of opens the window for the Cajuns to go get those type of athletes.

And it's a really interesting, I find it's a really interesting model because it's a way to, it's a way to kind of, of of of decrease the margin of nil and the haves and have nots.

Right.

And that with this eligibility rule, I'm assuming this should be beneficial if Louisiana were to do it right, wouldn't you say, for a mid major like Louisiana, if they do it right, that it can be, they can create and compete with those bigger schools in spite of maybe not having the NIL budget that these other schools have?

Yeah, there's no question.

And here's what's kind of funny about this and I'm glad you, you kind of talked about LSU like that because you never know when you get on here and talk to Cajuns fans and you kind of hold LSU in a different light, whether or not that's going to be received very well.

But I think that what's really interesting is when you look at lsu, I mean, let's be honest, like, you know, I grew up in East Texas.

We all know the LSU brand in a weird, weird way, like them being a more national brand in baseball in terms of what, like what a kid from, you know, Derek Curiel, for instance, a West coast kid, like, you know, a West coast kid knowing all about LSU baseball, that actually like helps downstream to ul.

Because what happens is, yeah, LSU is getting really talented players from all over the country.

But I would argue we, you know, when you look at the state of Louisiana Law tech, you know, ul, you know, I know McNiece has, you know, fallen on some hard times for the last couple of years, but you know, Justin's done a really nice job over there.

You look at Nicholl State getting better.

Tulane historically is pretty solid.

Guess what, a lot of Louisiana kids.

So you know what, if, if I'm Matt Daggs, I'm like, you know what?

Hey, have fun going to recruit nationally, that's great.

Like you're going to be really good.

I think Matt's pretty honest about where those two, those two programs stand next to each other nationally.

But you know what we're going to do?

We're going to make this the, the state university for the in state kid that might not be the number three player in the country.

And I think Louisiana is a state and especially when you look at southeastern Texas to where that can be your approach and you can win at close or to the same level some of these SEC schools.

So I've seen this program grow talent wise.

I mean, I think last year when you look at the regional that I was at, you know, obviously they just ran out of gas against A and M and A and M is really good.

But I mean they destroyed Texas and, and when they took the field, it wasn't like there was a drop down in talent that that team was as talented or more talented than Texas was.

So I, I think UL is an awesome spot.

I mean, I think it's an incredibly desirable program.

I think if you're.

Matt, you're like, hey, you know what, if you want to go get Derek Curiel and Will Schmidt, all these different guys have at it.

But we're, we're going to make this, this, this program like kind of the, the state university program.

I like that.

And speaking of Dags and his recruiting pipelines, like you said, East Texas, South, Central Texas.

Yeah, the recruiting, the JUCO ranking, the JUCO ranks, the high school ranks, they're all so much talent.

We're so blessed to have such a great talent pool in this area.

And it's all within a five hour drive, so there's no reason why you can't sustain the model.

Speaking of Coach Dags and recruiting and things like that, you did the fall report, thought it was fantastic.

Really liked your insight from the time you wrote the fall report on the Cajuns to your conversation with Coach Jags in the spring.

Is, is there any revelation that came out of your meetings?

Is there anything that maybe we wouldn't know as a, you know, regular fan, anything that sticks out about this team and how it's evolved since the fall?

Yeah, I think the biggest thing for me that I thought Matt brought up the, the kind of struck my attention was he felt way better about just the overall electricity, pitching wise.

You know, I think if you look at this team overall, I mean, you know, you look at, you know, Chase Morgan at the front of the rotation, just obviously a premium arm, probably the top prospect of 20, 26 class.

I think we either had him one or two on a Sunbelt prospect list for next year.

You know, Blake McGee, you know, the, the Ole Miss transfer, you know, up to 94.95 in the fall, really good sinker slider combo.

You know, you look at the back in the bullpen, you know, mat from, you know, UNC Wilmington, again, a guy can get up to 96.97.

So, you know, then you throw in, you know, the James Trembles of the world, who's, you know, again, mid-90s guy.

I just think when you look at UL over the past couple years, I mean, they've had, don't get me wrong, they've, they've had pieces in the bullpen.

LP is obviously one of them, but like outside lp, it was like one of those things where they didn't really have guys that came out of the bullpen and you were like, you took us.

You know, you kind of lean back in your seat, you're like, whoa, look at this guy's arm.

You know, it's more so kind of mix and match kind of guys.

And I think when you look at this team As a whole, there's a little bit more power there, which I kind of wonder like in a regional if that translates a little better.

Because, you know, if you go into a regional and you're playing, let's say A and M.

Yeah, I think you have a lot better shot with a guy that's throwing heat and also has a good breaking ball than you do.

The guy just kind of thumbing in there over and over and over.

So I just think that for me just the thing that stood out was just having more power arms overall on the pitching staff.

And the other thing for me is I know he really, really likes, you know, what the Cajuns have up the middle.

You know, Drew Markle again, another Ole Miss guy.

You know, you look back at his limited numbers last year, you're kind of like, wait, he's excited about this guy.

But I mean you're talking about a kid that is upper 90s across the infield and you know, has premium speed.

You know, Connor cut the sophomore again.

I mean six, those two guys, six, six, six five.

You know, Connor being a left handed hitter, I mean that, that is the, the type of team when they get off the bus, you're like, oh boy, like this, this is not going to be fun.

And so I think that kind of stands out to me too.

I love that aspect.

You know, I always think of the.

Do you guys ever seen the movie Necessary Roughness with Paul Bakula was the Texas State Armadillos whenever the, the prisoners get off the bus to go play them in a scrimmage.

That's what I always think of here.

Like when I think of six, six, six five guys, I'm thinking of getting off the bus and the other team like, oh, I love Connor Cuff.

For the first time I saw him step in the box.

I thought he might, he might be a superstar, maybe the next superstar here.

And I love him at the hot corner.

Thought he had the range to play shortstop and I think he did in high school.

But I really like him as a third baseman and like you said with, with Marco, I mean, what is he, six four also?

So where's the hole in the left side of the infield?

I didn't know how specific we were going to get, but we have a pitching injury with, with Andrew Herman early in the season and they're going to give the ball to Parker Dillhoff.

Guy out of Ohio.

He's going to get the Sunday roll.

Guy out of Ohio.

Touch 91, 92 as a freshman, started out at Wichita State.

Didn't quite work out.

He almost won a national champion championship as a juco guy.

I mean he's a four pitch guy, you know, what did he do?

He's a new guy.

What did he do to become a Sunday starter?

I know he's a lefty and they want to go left, right, left.

Maybe talk a little bit about Parker Dillhoff because our fans are probably pretty unfamiliar.

Yeah, I hadn't heard that about Herman.

I'm, I'm hoping he's on out for the year.

We're getting conflicting, but we think it's just going to be a couple weeks.

All right, maybe I'll check in on it.

I, I think when you look at Dilloff, I mean he, again, he was a guy that again we talk about this power aspect of these arms and you know, he was 93.94.

Let's kind of look at my notes here.

He was 93.94 in the fall.

You know, with a, with a good sinker and a really good slider.

The question for me would be if, if he relies heavily on seeker and slider, you know, how, how does that third pitch look?

Because I think as a starter, especially as you go a couple of times through the batting order, you got to be able to mix and match a little bit better than a two pitch guy.

So my assumption is he has a change up as well that he kind of works with.

But I mean, left handed, a lot of experience.

94, 95.

Sign me up.

Agree.

And if you don't mind, follow up on that.

That Connor Cuff, what do you think his ceilings is?

His ceiling is as a third baseman.

Yeah, I mean it'll be really interesting.

It's kind of interesting they've got that position change with Cuff over to third because you know, in the fall a coach had told me that our, you know, Sam Ardorian would play third.

So they must have kind of switched those two guys up.

But I mean, you know, again you're, you're talking about a guy who you know, was really good defensively in the fall no matter where he played.

You know, kind of the, kind of the same story with Drew Markle as Connor Cuff.

Big time arm and you know, what do you want at third base?

You want a guy who A can defend, can move, you know, side to side and B has a really good arm and he's got both of those things.

So I, I think that's the, that's the cool part of this team is I think, you know, you look at those guys you look at their athleticism, power, defensive combo, you know, Luke, you has was a guy that in the fall that the coach was ultra excited about.

He's like, man, he's like, you know, Luke was good last year.

He's like, you won't believe how much better he is this year.

I remember him telling me that.

And then Caleb Stelly.

For me, if there was a breakout candidate on this team, Steli would be that guy.

For me, I just think he's always one of those, those kids that has always, I think played better than the stats would indicate, if that.

If that makes any sense whatsoever.

You know, you look back last year, you know, 296, one homer, 33 RBIS and you're thinking like, yeah, I mean that's not that impressive.

But I feel like he plays over that, plays over skis in that regard.

I think he's going to have a monster season for, for ul.

He always found ways to impact the game and you can't have enough of those kinds of guys.

I agree.

Yeah, he can still bases obviously.

I think he's going to hit for a hell of a lot more power than you know, one home run to 13 doubles this year.

But yeah, really cool, really cool and exciting player.

Yeah.

You talking about Caleb Steli?

I mean I was, I mean last, I mean we talked about it the other night, who we thought our leadoff was going to be and I like him as leadoff personally.

I think he's got, he's got, he's got the build.

You know, he's not a, a massive power hitter but he's got enough athleticism, he's got enough speed to get on base.

Obviously Coach Degs like has a lot of faith and likes him out in center field.

So I mean if he can be more consistent at the plate and his hitting gets a little bit better, he can be a staple as, as a, as to basically be a top of the lineup anyway, so let's move on real quickly to the non conference schedule.

Louisiana probably has one of the better non conference schedules that we've had in many, many years.

We open up with San Jose State this weekend followed by a Big Ten powerhouse in Nebraska.

Then we go do a return trip from 2022 against a really good UC Irvine team and we close out the non conference schedule at home against top 20 team in Dallas Baptist.

Talk a little bit about the non conference schedule for Louisiana and what are your thoughts and can we count on D1 baseball or you, Mr.

Rogers to be at the Teague these first couple Weeks with some to watch, some good competition.

Well, you know what, as you were talking, I was looking at the schedule.

I think I might actually pinpoint that Troy weekend a little bit because obviously the Trojans we were pretty high on as well.

But I think when you look at the schedule overall, the thing I love about it and you know you got that little UNC Wilmington midweek bout there as well.

That's, you know, they're always a good solid, you know, RPI team.

You know, Sila is the projected favorite in the Southland.

So what does this schedule tell me?

The schedule tells me it is a RPI lover because Nebraska is going to win a lot of games in the Big Ten.

Southeastern Louisiana is going to win a lot of games in Southland.

You know, UC Irvine is picked second.

The Big west, they're obviously going to rack up a good winning percentage.

And of course DBU, you know, is a top 25 club that I think probably runs away with conference juice issue.

I think lawtech will be good.

But you know DBU is going to win a lot of games.

So RPI is predicated upon your, your opponent's winning percentages and their opponents winning percentages and there are a lot of good winning percentages on the schedule.

So.

And of course you know, you have the game with lsu, Law Tech twice, etc, so in essence non conference streams of schedule, I think I'd be surprised if they're below 25 to 30.

It's going to be very high.

And in a league like the Sunbelt that's become so good, that bodes really well.

This, this is a team that even though they weren't top 25 going the season, this is a team that if they were in the hosting mix at the end of the season, like I wouldn't be remotely shocked.

Let me, let me kind of go back a little bit to 2024.

Dallas Baptist has, they're, they're becoming a national brand.

Everybody follows them, they tend to perform well in the postseason, remind our fans just how good they were.

What can we expect?

25 version.

And I know they're going to want to pitch and things like that, but it's kind of our marquee matchup this year at the Teague.

They're already ranked in the top 25 by most publications.

So if we could just talk a little bit about DBU and why we should be excited and if you want to bleed that into Nebraska as well, I think Nebraska is going to be really good.

Yeah, Nebraska, the one thing they're going to do this Year is I think they're really going to pitch.

If you look at the job that former A and M head coach Rob Childers has with their pitching staff, if you look at their pieces on the mound, they're going to be much improved.

So I would look at some good pitching from Nebraska.

You know, I think the, the big thing with D is obviously they lost their, their, their bell cow on the mound of Ryan Johnson.

But you know, James Elwinger, their Friday night guy, is, is a fascinating pitcher because he's had issues with durability in the past.

But I mean, you're talking about a guy that will start the first two or three innings throwing 98 to 100.

He's got electric stuff.

The question is, can he, you know, as a starter, can he give them four or five, six innings?

I'm skeptical on that based on what he's done in the past, but it is a premium arm.

You know, if you look at, you know, Luke Pettit, you know, Andy's kid, obviously a really talented, you know, arm as well in that.

In that rotation.

You know, then you look at, you know, the offensive side of things.

You know, Grant J.

One of the top catchers in the country, premium power, solid behind the plate.

He's going to be the guy that kind of gets them going offensively.

The other guy we keep an eye on with DBU is Tom Poole.

He's a veteran.

He's had a lot of at bats in his career.

Yeah.

And he can hit you with some power.

He's got some athleticism, just a really good overall approach.

So I actually kind of feel like DBU historically tends to lean one way or the other.

I think this team is a lot more balanced.

I don't think they have the frontline pitching they've had at times, but I think there's more overall balance.

So I think that's a telling series for both of these teams, frankly.

I agree.

If we can start off on a good.

And look, I'd actually like to go into San Jose State a little bit because we had the chance to talk to coach Flip yesterday.

What a great guy that he is and what a great coach he is.

Yeah, he's got a lot of questions to answer over there.

26 new players, a lot of new pitching.

They're bringing in bullpen guys to be starters this weekend.

I'm going to be curious to see how they, how they look on the field.

But what's your impression from afar?

Well, my impression from afar is that he's done a tremendous job there.

And it's, it's.

It's funny that you say that because you look back at last year and go, wait a second.

They, you know, they had a 24 and 33 overall record, but they also had a winning record in the Mountain West.

And, you know, San Jose State is an incredibly difficult job.

If you look at the history of that program, they had not won a lot, so they've actually made some pretty good strides.

I mean, they finished the season pretty strong last year.

Yeah, I mean, they're, they were, you know, a runaway from winning a series against Cal.

You know, they took care of business, you know, down the stretch in conference play against UNLV in New Mexico.

So I think he's got that program ahead the right direction.

I will say this, though.

If he's planning on starting a bunch of relievers this weekend, I don't know if I like their chances very well.

Well, the guy they're going to start on on Friday is Jesse Gutierrez, and he was a bullpen guy in 23 when they recruited him, when he came in 24, mainly in the bullpen, but towards the end of the year in the conference tournament especially, had a breakout season or breakout tournament, made all conference tournament.

I think the main reason why is because he's more of a senior guy.

He's been there a while.

And again, all these new pitchers, they're going to have to show something.

I think they're, they're leaning on his leadership.

Really.

Yeah, exactly.

So, I mean, you never know.

I mean, I can't tell you how many times, you know, I've followed a team and you go into the, you know, you go into the season and you're thinking, boy, that's their rotation.

They're in trouble.

Then all of a sudden, you look up three weeks later, you know, and they're, you know, 15 and 2.

So you just never know.

So let's talk a little bit about preseason picks.

Josh and Lane were laughing yesterday with Coach Flip about what he thinks of preseason picks.

I'm sure most, most coaches roll it, obviously because they have something to prove on the field.

But let's talk about preseason picks for the Sunbelt Conference.

Troy looks to be the easy favorite in the Sun Belt, as you know, and, and really, they've always been very competitive in the conference.

I know last year they had a little bit of a slip up towards the end of the season, but at the same time, even though they're picked to win the league, we're constantly being asked whether it's our Fan base.

I mean, heck, the Southern Miss fan base had a tantrum the other day because of it.

What is it about the Troy Trojans that has them picked to, to be the favorite and why?

What, what do they have that we're, that some of our fans must be missing as far as them being picked to be the early favorites in the Sunbelt?

Yeah, I mean that's a, that's a fair question.

And yes, actually I did not hear much from Cajun fans at all, but Southern Miss fans, they were very offended that we dare have Troy picked to win the conference.

I, I think the biggest thing for me, you know, we talked earlier about older players, right.

And I think when you look at this team over Brooks Bryan behind the plate, 18 bombs, 85 RBIs last year, Blake Cavill, the Western Kentucky transfer, a powerful bat.

If you look at, you know, Peyton Watts up the middle, the shortstop, just a really toolsy guy who I think takes a big step forward this year.

You know, Shane Lewis, I mean remember when he was one of the best bats in the Sunbelt, obviously struggled last year, but you know, he's back and he has history of success.

I mean he's a player of the year that conference in 2023.

So you know, he's back in the saddle.

You got a lead defender in center field and Stephen Meyer.

And then when you look at this team from just a pitching standpoint, you know, again fifth year senior and Gary Ganis and your Friday night starter up to 95.96 in the fall.

Noah Edders, again a fourth year junior old guy as your number two starter up to 95.96 as well.

And then Eastern Michigan transfer Adam Polinski who's up to 98 in the fall as a Sunday starter.

And then on the back end, you know, you've got two guys that are up to 96 and 98 as your closer and your top reliever.

And so that's on including Luke Lyon who's a fifth year right handed pitcher.

So I just think you look at this team overall, it's a lot of talent for, for starters and you know, they fell short of expectations last year, but I mean they were still pretty good last year.

So again, we talk about this balance thing.

They, they've got to me the most balance of any team in this league.

Right.

Starting the season in your experience, why.

Do people underestimate experience on the field and, and completely disregard that?

I've never understood it.

I completely understand why you guys would pick Troy.

Oh, I picked Troy.

I think Troy is good enough to win the league and a lot of it is because it's senior and junior laden.

Why do people just discount that?

I have no idea.

Because, I mean, if you look at national champions, historically, it's, it's typically all older teams.

I mean, you know, think about when LSU went in with Paul and look at how many guys they lost from that team.

You know, Tennessee last year, they won it.

They lost, you know, their Friday guy, their top reliever, their Sunday guy, Christian Moore.

The list kind of goes on.

They lost the Blake Burke, so I mean, they lost like six or the best players and because they were all older, so even kind of dating back to Coastal Carolina.

I always think about Coastal Carolina just to wrap this into the Sun Belt.

Back when they won it back in, was it 16, 17.

All the, all the years run together.

Now when they won it, I mean, again, they were like a senior heavy team.

So I think baseball more so than any other sport.

You know, I think in football you're like, yeah, can a quarterback improve from freshman to junior season?

Absolutely.

But you know, if you can throw the hell out of a football, you can throw the hell of a football.

Baseball.

I feel like the difference between a guy that's got 50 at bats and a guy that's got 400 at bats is like in terms of the chips I'm pushing in on them, like that difference is astronomical to me.

So I, I am all in on old teams in success.

Agree.

And they have quite a few in the Sunbelt in 2025.

And speaking of the Sun Belt, you know, I know you guys are about to release your Sunbelt preview and I'm very much anticipating that.

I've been watching the, the D1 feed for about three weeks for that, by the way.

But your overall impression of the league is, is, does it look like it's shaping into another top five RPI conference this year or what do you think in general?

Without a doubt.

I mean, we, we talked about Troy, Southern Miss Louisiana, Coastal Carolina.

I think Rodney Hennin at Georgia Southern has a, has a really good team this year.

You know, I think, you know, if you look at just the overall, again, we talk about balance, they're going to be a balanced club.

You know, they were, they were solid last year.

They, you know, they, they weren't great.

I think they're going to be better.

Texas State was the weird one for me last year.

I, I don't know how they only won 27 games with their talent, but they're going to be much better.

This year I would keep an eye on Carson Laws for Texas State.

The talented reliever, a transfer, a juco guy.

He was up to 98.99 in the fall.

He's a big time prospect.

So Texas State to look for a big step up from then odu.

I mean, historically they have been really good in this league.

They were 31, 26 over.

I like their pitching a lot, you know, Blake Morgan for ODU.

It seems like he's been at ODU for like 19 years.

I'm like, wait a second.

Blake Morgan hasn't graduated yet, so he's back for them.

And then Ben Moore, a lefty for them.

Their Friday night starter was up to 97 in the fall with a four pitch mix.

There's a lot of buzz about him.

So yeah, ODU has some really nice arms going into the season then.

I mean, you've got, you know, Happy State won 33 games last year.

I think they're going to take a step back.

They lost their seven best hitter.

You've got Georgia State who always has a, you know, has talent.

And then JMU and South Valley.

South Owl is one of those programs.

You know, I haven't watched them in person in a while.

I'm trying to figure out like what's going on there.

You know, they really haven't been great in several seasons.

They've at least got enough talent, you know, to, to, to make some noise.

The shine flu kid, their Friday night starter is really good, a talented lefty.

And then jmu, I feel like, you know, you know, Coach Marlon did a really nice job with him last year and you know, I think they're one of those teams that, you know, even without Mike Mancini, who's at Vanderbilt right now, and Fenwick Trimble, one of the top power hitters in the country, is now in the professional ranks.

I think they have a chance to be pretty good.

So in essence, yeah, I think this will definitely be a top five RPI league because I think, you know, theoretically I'm looking at 6, 8, 9.

I think there's 10 solid teams in this league this year.

JMU is very interesting to me because I think from the aspect of just a Sunbelt baseball fan, I thought they were the most impressive in the postseason last year.

I mean, they gave that.

That was the Clemson regional, right?

Or no, that, no, that was Raleigh.

Yeah.

Went crazy in that regional.

Man, how unexpected was that?

I mean, I knew they were a solid club, but Mancini went nuts.

But the entire team just, just.

They, it was like they leveled up overnight.

That was, that was really fun to watch.

Yeah, it was.

And, and again, I mean, I don't know how you replace those two guys to know that lineup with the numbers they put up last year, you know, for them to be really good this year, I mean, they're gonna have to get a guy like, you know, Wyatt Pfeiffer to really step up.

Jack Guerrero was the guy that they said had a really good fall.

The third baseman, he's got a lot of power potential.

So they've got a lot of question marks.

But I also think they at least have a, you know, a decent amount of foundational talent.

The last couple years, you know, you've had Southern Miss hosts, you've had a few quote unquote, mid majors hoes compared to the big schools in the SEC and the Big Ten and the Big 12 this particular season.

Who, in your opinion are some of these mid major schools that have a chance to legitimately host a regional and maybe a super in Europe and like right now?

As of right now?

Yeah, I mean, that's a great question.

You know, I don't know if I would lump these guys as a mid major, but like UC Santa Barbara, the Big west would be a big one for me.

I think they're, I think they're going to be a really good spot to host in the year.

They're in a great spot in the sense that like a lot of the west coast has really struggled over the last couple years and they've continued to win at a really high level.

So UC Santa Barbara would be in the mix, I think College of Charleston out of the caa.

I mean, they're going to need a lot of help to host.

They just don't have quite the, the RPI foundation that a Sunbelt team does.

But I think they're going to win a lot of games out of the caa, so maybe they can surprise some people.

Just thinking about some other leagues.

I mean, I mean, DBU technically is a mid major, so I mean they, they would be in the mix, but that might be it off the top of my head, other than the Sunbelt.

Clubs, you know, College of Charleston doesn't need a whole lot of motivation after they got snubbed.

So I expect them to come out with a vengeance and I would love to see them be in a host position just to see how that all plays out.

Yeah.

Can you imagine them hosting like Duke or hosting one of these big boys like South Carolina or Clemson would be pretty fun.

It would.

And that's that's what I'm here for.

That's the kind of college baseball that I'm interested in.

Yeah, I like it.

I like it.

Chippy man.

And, and this is an off topic question.

I didn't even have it on the rundown, but is there any changes to the ball this year?

We're playing gorilla ball.

We're going to be p.

Catcher friendly.

Is there anything different?

No changes to the ball.

I mean, my theory on this ball right now is still the same as it was about three or two years, two and a half, three years ago.

And I still go back to when Major League baseball got.

Remember they got rid of like those like 30, 40,000 balls that were all juiced up.

I think we're using that ball with the, with the college baseball scene.

That's what I think.

Like, like, why would you just throw away those balls?

You would just put a different seam on it and be like, oh, I didn't know what, you know, that's not.

I didn't know we did that.

That's an interesting theory.

That's the first time I hear that.

Well, look, we appreciate your time.

We want to talk about D1's expansion and we want to talk about the content that's coming.

So we've seen that you guys have added a lot to the staff, obviously.

Yeah, one of our favorites.

And Jack the Longchamp, you know, we follow his content.

Have been for a long time.

So congratulations on that.

I think it's a match made in heaven.

And floor is yours to talk about.

D1.

Yeah, just at D1.

I think we now are up to 13 staff members, which is kind of incredible.

Like when we started this 10 years ago, never would have thought we would ever get close to 13.

I was just hoping we make it with like three or four.

So it's been a, it's been a true blessing.

And the thing for us too is we'll continue to have more and more Sunbelt coverage.

One thing, you know, I've kind of talked with Joe Healy about one of our riders is he's doing ACC and SEC Extra to some degree.

But we also want to expand what we're doing in the Sunbelt and what we're doing in the Big 12.

So, you know, you'll go to D1 and you'll see ACC and SEC extra and it might turn some people off to some degree, but we are going to be doing a lot more Sunbelt coverage.

Frankly, that league deserves it.

I mean, it's a top five RPI league year in A year out.

And, you know, the fan bases are ultra passionate for those top teams.

So we will have a lot of SBC coverage this year.

Mark Ethridge will be a part of that as well.

Certainly well known in the.

In the Sunbelt ranks.

And last question before we get you out.

Sure.

Typically see sections of the country that are college baseball crazy.

You know, it's kind of a regional sport, almost like the.

The pros.

It's very regional.

Do you feel like there's a national following that.

That's kind of rising up and.

And is it kind of becoming more in vogue to be a college baseball fan nowadays, especially with the investment that ESPN has made in the product?

No, there definitely is.

You know, I would say three or four years ago, I would say it was very niche in terms of the fan.

I think now I see it in my mentions and my Twitter mentions and Twitter retweets and things like that.

You know, there's people retweeting that stuff that I'm like, well, that's interesting.

And, you know, I didn't realize they were, you know, they were into college baseball.

And I think there are a lot of factors.

I think the excitement of the postseason, I think the fact that college baseball is getting more talented.

You know, we talked about older rosters.

Well, with all these rules and with ML, the MLB draft and Nil, you know, you're getting more mortality, kids on campus.

So what happens is the prospect fan at the pro level starts following a little bit more.

And I think there's some storylines too, over the last few years that has really helped.

You know, I remember, I think it might have been Clay Travis at one point made a big deal in 2022 about Tennessee's kind of just rogue nature, kind of drawing some new fans in.

And there are stories like that that do that, like Tennessee that year.

I mean, there were a lot of people paying attention to the sport that never would have cared about college baseball.

So I think there are those little pockets of stories that draw some people in that otherwise have been like, oh, yeah, I'm not into college baseball.

And now they're like, oh, wait, this is actually pretty damn cool.

Yeah, you saw that with Oklahoma in softball, and that helped grow that question.

Yeah.

Yeah, I agree.

Glad to hear it.

In a baseball crazy state like Louisiana, we love all the coverage we can get, so we appreciate it.

Thank you.

You got it, man.

I love coming out there.

And the only bad thing is when I come to Lafayette is always end up at old time and I always end up eating entirely too much food from the occasion Cooking club.

Imagine living here.

You guys keep off.

What?

You know, when I see a skinny person in Louisiana, I'm always like, dude, how in the hell is this possible?

You try your best.

It's funny you say that, because any new employee that I've met that works, that you know, has moved from out of state, that works for UL or somebody in the athletic department, I always tell them the first thing you need to do is fall in love with cardio, because you won't survive if you don't with the food that we have down here.

So learn how to eat some crawfish and do go run a mile after.

You know, I will say this.

I felt it for about 48 hours, but one time, this is.

I don't know, it's probably three or four years ago, I came there for fall ball, and, you know, I stopped at Daryl's in Lake Charles and had the roast be poboy.

And then when I got to Lafayette, about three hours later, I went to old time and got, like, a large, like, fried shrimp poboy.

It was awesome.

But, boy, I felt that for about 48.

Wait, you know, 52 hours.

Gonna take a nap just to listen to that story.

Oh, man, I think I might have fallen asleep in the stands for about anything.

So you went back to back.

It's one thing to eat one of those sandwiches, but when you do both of them consecutively, my arteries are crying for health.

Well, look, next time you come to Lafayette, give us.

Give us a shout.

Oh, I'd love to thank you for some good cuisine.

You got it, brother.

You'll be good.

Thank you.

Kendall Rogers, D1 base ball.

Thanks again, man.

Thanks, guys.