2021 Baseball Schedule

FredJacket

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I caved & got myself an early Christmas present (D1baseball subscription). This article has more details (much speculation) on the ACC schedule... & other conferences too.

Highlights:
* 50 game schedule
* 30 game ACC slate (10 x 3game weekends)
* 20 non conference games - left up to individual teams to work out
* Covid (testing) schedules/frequency vary by school & may prevent many (if any) midweek games
* Coaches want as close to "normal" schedule as possible & maximum games as possible
* An alternate plan discussed (& possible) involves more ACC games (fewer non conf games) ... possible 4 game weekend series or more than 10 ACC weekends
* Mid February still target (normal) for opening day

I can't wait for college baseball!!

 

GtBaseball3

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Does anybody have any news on Nate McCollum and Khaya wright? Are they still playing baseball or just focusing on football now?
 

eokerholm

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Didn't see them on Fall roster for baseball but do for Football.
Are they normally listed on both?

Nate's bio says will play OF for baseball team. (his PG profile shows commitment to GT baseball)
Khaya was 4 year letterman and 3 year captain for baseball 9his PG profile does not show commitment to GT baseball)

1608123804318.png
 

FredJacket

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If I'm not mistaken, the typical regular season for Ga Tech includes 14 consecutive weekends of play from mid-Feb to mid-May. This 12 weekends of ACC play leaves only 2 weekends of non-conference series available. I really hope one of those is UGA. Would be a shame to "regress" back to something other that a weekend series with them.

ETA... ACC should kill the divisions too if you're playing all but one conference team.
 

JacketOff

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If I'm not mistaken, the typical regular season for Ga Tech includes 14 consecutive weekends of play from mid-Feb to mid-May. This 12 weekends of ACC play leaves only 2 weekends of non-conference series available. I really hope one of those is UGA. Would be a shame to "regress" back to something other that a weekend series with them.

ETA... ACC should kill the divisions too if you're playing all but one conference team.
3 possible scenarios I see with the UGA series:
  1. Open the season with a 3 game set against them. This may be unlikely because Georgia loves to play a cupcake schedule before conference play starts. Until COFH hate moved back to a weekend set last year, their toughest weekend before conference play was almost always against Georgia Southern
  2. Go back to a midweek 3 game set. Agree it would be a lateral move from the weekend series, but given Georgia’s scheduling history this might be the most likely scenario
  3. Don’t play at all. Which would be extremely disappointing. Given how much Georgia lost from last year’s team, and how much better Tech is projecting to look this year, I think UGA might try to duck the series altogether. They didn’t want to play in men’s basketball (but played women’s ironically) because Tech was projected to be better than them, I think the same thing may happen in baseball.
I don’t think either team will want to play on conference bye/finals week against each other, so if they keep the weekend format, I think it will have to be opening weekend. The B1G has nixed OOC games, so if UGA doesn’t want to play opening week, I would assume Tech would play a mid-major school for 3 games to open the year. I don’t think the Atlanta challenge will be in-place this year. Tech traditionally plays 11 games against in-state opponents, so that leaves 3-6 games against OOC teams depending on what happens with COFH. As I said, 3 of those 6 will be on opening weekend against UGA or some other team, and the last 3 on conference bye/finals week.
 

FredJacket

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3 possible scenarios I see with the UGA series:
  1. Open the season with a 3 game set against them. This may be unlikely because Georgia loves to play a cupcake schedule before conference play starts. Until COFH hate moved back to a weekend set last year, their toughest weekend before conference play was almost always against Georgia Southern
  2. Go back to a midweek 3 game set. Agree it would be a lateral move from the weekend series, but given Georgia’s scheduling history this might be the most likely scenario
  3. Don’t play at all. Which would be extremely disappointing. Given how much Georgia lost from last year’s team, and how much better Tech is projecting to look this year, I think UGA might try to duck the series altogether. They didn’t want to play in men’s basketball (but played women’s ironically) because Tech was projected to be better than them, I think the same thing may happen in baseball.
I don’t think either team will want to play on conference bye/finals week against each other, so if they keep the weekend format, I think it will have to be opening weekend. The B1G has nixed OOC games, so if UGA doesn’t want to play opening week, I would assume Tech would play a mid-major school for 3 games to open the year. I don’t think the Atlanta challenge will be in-place this year. Tech traditionally plays 11 games against in-state opponents, so that leaves 3-6 games against OOC teams depending on what happens with COFH. As I said, 3 of those 6 will be on opening weekend against UGA or some other team, and the last 3 on conference bye/finals week.

This D1baseball story has more detail. Most notably... it sounds like ACC games will be consecutive 12 weekends after 2 weekends of (potential) non-conference play to open season.

Feb 19th is planned opening weekend.


It’s important to point out that the 14 non-conference games can be played anyway a coach would like it to happen. It’s believed most coaches will use up six-to-eight of the non-conference games in weekend series the first two weekends. However, the ACC is allowing coaches to use their own discretion when it comes to scheduling.
 

JacketOff

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This D1baseball story has more detail. Most notably... it sounds like ACC games will be consecutive 12 weekends after 2 weekends of (potential) non-conference play to open season.

Feb 19th is planned opening weekend.


It’s important to point out that the 14 non-conference games can be played anyway a coach would like it to happen. It’s believed most coaches will use up six-to-eight of the non-conference games in weekend series the first two weekends. However, the ACC is allowing coaches to use their own discretion when it comes to scheduling.
Ah. I didn’t know they were playing all 12 conference weekends consecutively. Which I guess makes sense given the virus. Given Tech’s and the ACC’s scheduling history im sure Tech will draw a road series at UNC, Miami, or Louisville for finals week.

Also that makes me more confident the UGA series will remain a weekend series, and be played the 2nd week of the season. Given the SEC implements the same or similar scheduling protocols.
 

FredJacket

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Several "mid-tier" conferences are announcing their schedule structure for 2021. Below is an example (from the AAC). Most I've seen are similar to ACC. Some stretching (imo) for over 50 games & over 20 non-conf games. 2 reason I'm mentioning it...
1) I'm starved for something (college baseball) to look forward to
2) Encouraging as more conferences announce non-conf plans that Ga Tech can manage to put full 50 game plan together.

Some key conferences yet to announce as far as I know are Sunbelt (Ga St & Ga Southern), Southern (Mercer), Atlantic Sun (Kennesaw).

 

JacketOff

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Word is there will be no weekend series against Georgia this year. The SEC is dragging their feet with scheduling protocols, and won’t commit to playing OOC games on weekends. This also means FSU-UF, Louisville-Kentucky, and USC-Clemson will probably be affected as well. Could be the SEC trying to limit comparisons like they did in football, even though that ended up working out for the ACC more than the SEC. Potential to play them in a 3-game midweek series, but most likely will only be 1 game at Truist Park if we play them at all. I’m sure there will be mid-majors chomping at the bit to get the 2 OOC series, not sure who might be lined up.

Also of note, attendance at RCS will be capped at less than 1,000 this year, probably somewhere close to 750 fans allowed.
 

FredJacket

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SEC is "considering" 10 weekends of conference play - 40 conference games
-4 game series (Sat-7inn DHs & Fri/Sun-standard 9inn)
-No midweek games after conference play begins
-14 non-conf games (all schedules before conference play begins

If this is where the SEC lands, I guess this does leave possible weekend GT/UGA series 2nd weekend of season (Feb 26-28). Otherwise, will be no GT/UGA in 2021 OR must be midweek games all complete before SEC starts conference play (mid-Mar).

 
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