some great views in this conference.

I've seen 10-12 games at San Josè Municipal Stadium. It gets packed for SJ Giants games because of its affordability for pro baseball, MLB affiliate, and unique promotions like the beer batter (If a designated opposing player strikes out before the 7th certain beers are half price for a limited time.) What is pretty neat is that the outside of the ballpark is decorated with pictures of notable SJ Giants alumni like Brandon Belt and Brandon Crawford. It's a pretty old park-built in the 1940's.

So it's a nice place to see a minor league game but looks like a ghost town for the Spartans. They are the secondary tenants, and from looking at the Spartans schedule it looks like they play a lot of day games, and some of their games end early not due to weather (time crunch w/the Giants' practices?) It's a city ballpark just a couple of blocks from the football stadium.

I would recommend for anyone thinking of going there to see an SJ Giants game instead of SJSU, so as to see the place at its best. Also, and this is important, you pretty much need to drive there. There is no public transportation whatsoever that will take you within even 1/2 mile of the place + you definitely don't want to walk there. I thought I was clever just walking from the America's Best Value Inn (closest lodging), avoiding parking. Do not do this ! Like other parts of San Josè there are missing sidewalks + you're forced to walk really close to a large homeless encampment on E. Alma Ave. each way because there's no sidewalk on the other side of the street. Not a nice part of town either. Stay in a nicer area + drive there.

I have been to Peecole Park (Nevada), but it doesn't really have anything on Dobbins Stadium. If Greater Nevada Field (where the Triple-A Reno Aces play) is any indication, the altitude definitely thwarts pitching. The other day the River Cats played an 11inning game there. After 10 innings it was tied 7-7. Sacramento won in the 11th by a score of 15-13 ! Greater Nevada is a nice stadium, but I thought the food sucked. Better just to eat and gamble at "The Row", which is maybe 2 blocks from Greater Nevada and about a mile from the UNR campus.

UNLV's ballpark looks sharp. I was going to include it on a visit to LV during COVID-19 but wound up cancelling it + going to El Paso, where I was able to eat inside Applebee's while all the losers in CA had to socially-distance outside or get take-out. Getting away from CA made the whole trip worthwile. UTEP doesn't have a team but the AAA El Paso Chihuahuas have a really neat-looking park, the interior of which you can completely view from the pedestrian path behind the third base stands. One could hypothetically set up a lawn chair + watch a game as well as anybody in the park It has a much smaller capacity (only 7-8,000) than Sutter Health Park but still has two decks.

This is a really helpful post! The minor-league and college stadium relationships are interesting..

The answer to the early SJSU games turned out to be much simpler- the Mountain West Conference has a 10-run mercy rule after the 7th inning ! Even with that rule the Spartans managed to lose one game in Albuquerque 25-5!!!!

The mercy rule will really help out UC Davis because its pitching is not elite (really never has been) and it's going to get clobbered playing in all these hitter-friendly environments. The only way they really will win conference games on the road is to develop elite hitting so they can win HR derbies. Much easier said than done when half of the games are played at Dobbins Stadium. At least this way when they're getting destroyed they don't have to waste pitchers on the last 1-2 innings. That last part is important too because starting next season the maximum roster size drops from 40 to 34, so they can't carry as many pitchers.

The baseball roster for 2026 will be interesting too. According to UCDAVISAGGIES.COM 9 players were seniors this year, and junior Leighton Helfrick also graduated. So you have 30 potential returning players for 34 spots. However, they have at least 5-6 incoming freshmen per FieldLevel.com, and they're going to need a few junior college transfers too to make up for losing so many players to graduation, so I'm guessing these would-be returners may not be on the roster in 2026

OF Jack Castagnola- 2 years with the team. Barely played as a freshman, did not play as a sophomore.

P Sal Batres-borderline call. He pitched 2 years for UCD and was initially touted as a closer/starting pitcher, but he gave up 10 walks in 3 innings in 4 appearances this year per the UCD website, and had mixed results as a freshman. The talent is there but on a smaller roster I don't how many spots on the pitching staff they'll have.

P Zach Romero-another borderline call. His first two years were pretty decent for essentially getting just mid-week work. This year though he pitched in just 1 game, and it was late in the season, so it makes me wonder if he was injured or just dropped in the pecking order behind the freshmen ?

P Jack Meek-on the bubble. He just didn't pitch very well. On the bright side, junior college transfers tend more often than not to complete their senior seasons at UCD, and they usually improve. Also, he kept the walks to a minimum, which is very good.

P Sam Papp. He's been on the roster for 2 years and hasn't appeared in a game. In baseball that has more meaning than in football.

OF Caden Pinnick-he'll likely be too busy with football. If he were the third QB, a kicker, or punter and not as crucial to the main football practices I could see him playing baseball.

I did not include any of the other freshmen who didn't play this year (Schelp, Ireland) because it's not clear whether that was due to injury or coach's decision.

While I did use playing time as a metric in making this list I left Bonanno off of it because his UCD profile says he had TJ surgery during or prior to his true freshman year. It stands to reason he wouldn't play much this year. Perhaps others on the list have similar situations ?

GCU looks so flush with cash....surprised they aren't pushing football already.
Overall, I think the MWC has better facilities, by the BWC scenery is going to be missed (CP, UCSB and UCSD are tough road trips to beat).

Grand Canyon spent over $1 billion to build 10 new athletics facilities not so long ago. They have a dedicated practice facility for basketball and immaculate fields just for their club teams. They don't half-@ss anything and they don't share facilities with anyone. I don't know how big their appetite is to spend several hundred million at least to build a football stadium but also to make the financial commitment to have the program be FBS very quickly. Who is going to want to come to GCU to see FCS football when they could just go see an ASU game ? I could sooner see them taking over the Phoenix Coyotes' facility and adding ice hockey.

GCU has 20 teams without football and they concentrate on doing them all well. To add football would probably require adding 3-4 more women's programs to balance it.

I often think UCD spreads itself too thin with 25 teams (9 men's, 16 women's). There are a few sports (equestrian, field hockey, beach volleyball) that are clearly just there for Title-IX purposes and do not compete in venues intended for the community to really come out and support them; they're like private clubs . Two of the three are also redundant. But it's so difficult to see a path to UCD cutting redundant, under-performing, or low-interest teams when football is around- but you want to keep football. The only clean reduction in sports I could see reasonably happening is discontinuing both golf teams, giving them 23. I think college golf is unnecessary anyway. It's more of an elitist individual sport being passed off as a team sport.

Grand Canyon spent over $1 billion to build 10 new athletics facilities not so long ago. — yolohw

It's amazing how the Good Lord can motivate His followers to dig deep into their pocketbooks and spend their money! :halo: :lol:

You're not wrong. People do like to donate to colleges that they think promote their values. GCU does promote its religious aspect in ads, although I don't know how much of that comes through in their many online degree programs.

Grand Canyon has a supreme edge in fundraising because it is for-profit. It can raise huge amounts of money more easily by offering investment opportunities. When you "invest" in UC Davis it is a straight donation. You have to be satisfied with whatever token non-monetary item it is in position to offer you in the way of thanks (opportunities to purchase preferred seating/parking, invitations to meet+ greet events with athletes and coaches, etc.) and the knowledge that you helped a cause you believe in. It's not so much unlike when you donate to charities to feed poor hungry children, and the kids write you thank you letters.

At Grand Canyon they can actually offer you a monetary return, and that's huge. I used to be anti-GCU, but really it's no worse than any other legal highly successful business. It raises and invests money well, then it turns its gains into improving its product for consumers (students) and compensation for investors.

I'm surprised more private colleges don't do this-they are more business than school anyway. You can get a degree anywhere, but private colleges are in the business of selling exclusivity. You want smaller classes ? More gates and less-accessible locations to keep those townies and poor people out ? More rigorous academic standards (not necessarily in all cases) to keep the dummies from disrupting your learning with their dumb questions and general dumbassery ? You want classmates who only believe in your god ? In that bloated tuition you are paying a premium to keep people away.

Also, NIL has further blurred the distinction between college and pro sports. Are we really even rooting for students anymore or just free agents who agree to wear the jerseys of schools we support for a year or two?

They have a public prayer before each athletic contest also.

I grew up in a small town in Indiana and the Catholic kids went to their own school through the 8th grade and then they attended the only high school in town with everyone. They had the biggest and most ornate church in the town and it all seemed shrouded in mystery to me as a kid.

In basketball, they always crossed themselves whenever they shot FT's and, when we would play them in middle school basketball, I always thought they had an unfair advantage shooting FT's because they had the Lord on their side! :rofl:

Jessup U. has the public prayer too. It struck me as unusual because other religious-affiliated schools I've been to for games (Saint Mary's, Santa Clara, San Francisco) don't do this. If not for the big chapel, a first-time visitor to University of San Francisco would scarcely know it has a religious affiliation. The campus looks kind of like American River College on a hill in 1970.

I think the different prayer practice is because USF, SMC, SCU are all featured prominently in the cities in which they are located, They attract all kinds of townies who may not be religious. They still want these fans' business. Rocklin is already a bit exclusive . So anyone who follows the private college baseball team from Rocklin all the way to Lincoln to watch them play is probably a close-knit group that knows the drill and is totally good with it.

Did the Catholic kids really play better ?

They had some very good players and they were tough at the middle school level but, once they started attending the only high school in the town, they just blended in with the rest of us and didn't seem to have a heavenly advantage anymore! They even quit crossing themselves when they shot FT's. Probably because they didn't have a nun with ruler to whack them for breaking any of their catholic school rules anymore. :lol: