May 14, 2012
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By Marc Daniels
UCFAthletics.com
ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFAthletics.com) - Back on Jan. 16, Conference USA released the preseason poll of its baseball coaches who were asked to rank teams from top to bottom. Eight coaches voted Rice as the choice to win the league. One coach voted for UCF. Perhaps that guy knew something no one else did. Perhaps that guy had the vision to see that UCF was poised for a big year and that while no one else in the league believed Rice could be dethroned, this voter was confident his ballot just might be right.
The ballot was a secret one and therefore it's not known who voted for whom. I will let you guess who that one coach is that voted UCF as the choice to win C-USA. He may be exactly right.
Schedule makers may have also known something. When the matchups for the season came out, UCF and Rice were set to play a season-ending season in Orlando. Who knew that after nine weeks of conference action, the top two teams all season long will decide a champion beginning Thursday at the UCF Baseball Complex.
It's quite simple. The first team to win two games wins the regular season title. In college baseball, winning a regular season title seems to carry more weight than in basketball. It just does. You play 24 games and face each school three times. It's a true balanced schedule and one team gets to be called champs.
There is a conference tournament in Pearl, Miss., next week and that event may also play a very key role in UCF's ability of hosting an NCAA Regional, but this weekend will be special.
UCF is 40-12 overall 15-6 on the league heading into its final non-conference game against rival Stetson on Tuesday. Come Thursday it's time for the showdown.
Rice is 36-14 and 15-6 with a non-conference game on Tuesday before arriving to UCF. The Owls have been to C-USA baseball what Memphis has been in basketball. They have been the measuring stick all other teams are compared to.
Terry Rooney, UCF's fourth-year coach, has been building for a series like this. When he arrived on campus he talked about getting to Omaha. The reality is Rooney didn't have a team to get close to the College World Series that season. But three years later, he has the pieces in place with a team that can make a run.
Despite hammering the message about "On The Road to Omaha," Rooney knows a statement that can be made with a series win and conference-clinching performance. This is why he came to UCF. This is a chance to move further into the national spotlight.
UCF will play in the NCAA Tournament regardless of what happens in the series with Rice. But what's at stake is huge. If UCF wins the series and takes the conference crown, it may just be enough to land that coveted regional. Should UCF lose the series, it could be back Tallahassee or even Gainesville as a second seed for a regional.
It is also a big weekend for UCF fans. There are no "written-in-stone" guidelines to host a regional, but the NCAA selection committee would know if one of the side stories for the big series was record crowds that created an atmosphere worthy of a regional.
UCF baseball has never won a C-USA title. Rice has won plenty. Come Saturday late afternoon another champion will be crowned. The question to ask is, whose preseason ballot was the right one?
Knights notes and more: Before the big Rice series, there is the second of two in-season games with Stetson. The Knights won May 2 5-4 in 13 innings in a game highlighted by the jawing session between the two head coaches. This is a big RPI game for UCF as the Hatters come in with a top 40 RPI...As for the Rice series, get your tickets. Don't forget the series begins Thursday with night games for games one and two and Saturday's finale begins at 1:30 p.m...UCF softball earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament and will play in the Gainesville Regional where the Knights will face USF on Friday. Regional top seed Florida faces Florida Gulf Coast...Congrats to track & field for another Conference USA Championship title...FInal thought: Football, always. Basketball, often. Baseball, rarely. Baseball this week, non-stop. That would be requests I have gotten for UCF tickets.
Marc Daniels' columns run several times per month on UCFAthletics.com. Listen to Marc during UCF football, men's basketball and baseball radio broadcasts on the UCF IMG Sports Network. Each weekday, Marc hosts The Beat of Sports on ESPN Radio 1080 in Orlando.