SEC Dixie-nary: X is for X-Files

X is for X-Files

"Sometimes the only sane answer to an insane world is insanity." (Fox Muldur)

♦ Minor League team lampoons SEC

Fort Myers Miracle to Poke Fun at SEC with Fake Diploma Giveaway (LarryBrownSports.com, 8/24/11)

According to MinorLeagueBaseball.com’s Promo Preview page, the Miracle will be saluting the Southeast Conference on Wednesday night with a series of promotional giveaways. Of course by saluting we mean completely patronizing the conference, but what’s the difference?

The celebration will include pregame tailgating, the Georgia Bulldog throwing out the first pitch, Tennessee whiskey available for purchase, and cowbells in honor of the University of Mississippi. Best of all, fake diplomas will be handed out to mock the notoriously easy educational requirements SEC schools are known for.

♦ Fantasy College Baseball Camp

This past January, LSU hosted an LSU Baseball Fantasy Camp for adults. I'm not sure whether this is incredibly cool or a bit odd. What qualifies it for this X-Files list of SEC insanity is the cost per head: $1,600 for a two-day camp.

The camp will allow adults to experience what it's like to be an LSU baseball player for one weekend. Campers will occupy the Alex Box Stadium locker room, attend team meetings conducted by coach Paul Mainieri, and participate in the same practice and game routines that the current LSU players go through.

Campers will play two games in Alex Box Stadium complete with a fully operational scoreboard, public-address announcing and LSU-issued equipment with personalized uniforms.

Campers will be instructed by the LSU coaching staff the entire weekend. In addition, they will have access to the players' lounge and training room, and they will be fed pregame and postgame meals. All campers will receive an authentic personalized game jersey with their last name and preferred number, a camp T-shirt, batting gloves, wristbands and socks."

The socks alone make it worth the $1,600.

Christian Walker

♦ 2011 SEC All-Swag Team (collegebaseballdaily.com)

The SEC All-Swag Team, a team that consists of players who best exemplify the rare combination of confidence, style, appearance, apparel, and talent. 

1B: Christian Walker, South Carolina: Walker’s hitting song is the theme song of The Fresh Prince of Belle Aire, and the Gamecock fans move their arms left and right to the beat of it. That’s swag. Eye black never hurts, either. . . 

♦ Mustache May continues at SEC Tournament (ArkansasNews.com, 5/11)

Mustache May. It’s a mantra most members of the Arkansas baseball team have adhered to, doing their best to sport mustaches the entire month.
. . .
The result made Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn admittedly cringe Monday.

“It’s not a pretty sight,” Van Horn said. “It really isn’t. It’s not just the mustaches. It looks like they’re doing a little dying of those things. I could tell you what I thought they looked like, but it might not be appropriate.
. . .
“And when we win a big game we call it the power of the mustache,” McKinney said.

♦ Why is College Baseball so White? Where are Black players in the College World Series? (stuffblackpeopledontlike.blogspot.com)

Only 4.5% of all National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) baseball players were African-American during the 2004 season. This includes all divisions, in addition to the historically African-American colleges and universities. On the contrary, 42.0% and 32.3% of NCAA basketball and football players, respectively, were African-American in the 2003-2004 academic year (Bray, 2005).

When specifically examining one of the perennial collegiate conference baseball powers, the Southeastern Conference (SEC), only 4.2% of 2006 roster players were African-American, as noted in Table 1. The twelve universities that make up the SEC represent states with an average African-American population of 20.8%.

♦ Lottery Scholarships

"Since 2000, SEC schools from lottery states have made 22 CWS appearances. SEC schools from non-lottery states have made one CWS appearance." 

"You can only have 27 (of 35) players receive a portion of baseball's allotted 11.7 scholarships. (And you have to get a min. of .30 or .33 scholarship if you're getting any for baseball). That means you could give an in-state kid x-amount of the scholarship (or even ZERO) and the state-picks up the rest of his tuition...which means he pays nothing out of pocket, compared to what he'd pay if he took a partial to say, Alabama. Thus, you can theoretically give a player less money, freeing up more of the 11.7 for other players (especially out-of-state guys)."
(both quotes from TiderInsider.com Dugout Forum) 

• Arkansas Scholarship Lottery 

• Georgia Lottery HOPE Scholarships

• On the other hand:  Lottery Scholarships Will Not Make the Tide Roll or the Tigers Roar (Alabama Policy Institute)