Report: Exit Erik Bakich
Thanks to the inaction of the conference over decades of shortsighted corruption at the NCAA, the Big Ten is a mid-major when it comes to America's Pastime, and that mid-major conference is now watching a Major pick off its best head coach in a century. Per reports, Bakich has accepted the open Clemson job.
Sources: #Michigan HC Erik Bakich is leaving for #Clemson. https://t.co/653hBf6Qdo
— Brandon Justice (@BrandonJustice_) June 15, 2022
Also per reports, Clemson, which plays in the ACC, and where Erik Bakich got his first assistant job in 2002 before moving on to Vanderbilt, tripled Erik Bakich's salary; he was making $400k/season at Michigan and would be getting $1.2 million/year or thereabouts after bonuses. For college baseball that is a Saban-to-LSU contract (only Vanderbilt, TCU, and Louisville pay their coaches more than $1 million), and as long as they play in a mid-major conference it made no sense for Michigan to pony up anything in the ballpark.
In ten seasons at Michigan, Bakich led baseball to a 328-216 record, two conference tournament championships, five NCAA Tournament appearances, and to within one win of a National Championship in 2019, their first World Series appearance since Barry Larkin was at shortstop. Bakich's .603 winning percentage is higher than that of Don Lund and Moby Benedict, and the best of any coach here since 1989. The future was looking even brighter; because the sport's recruiting cycle is so long, this year's and next year's freshmen were the first recruited with Michigan in mind as a contender. As Bakich said last week "we've got some absolute dudes coming in here." Certainly, some of those absolute dudes might not be coming anymore.
But such is life for a school in a conference that doesn't care about the sport. Over the last 30 years, an alliance of big and small schools in the South have pushed the baseball and softball seasons deeper into winter, forcing northern teams to play tournaments in Florida, Arizona, and California in January, February, and March, before trying to squeeze in a conference schedule in April and half of May. They've also allowed the NCAA to limit schools to 12 scholarships (which can be divvied up in fractions) per sport. It's an arrangement that's great for Southeastern power schools, which no longer have to compete with the moneyed programs, better degrees, and richer baseball histories of the North for top talent, and have always supplemented the meager scholarship restrictions by other means. It's also perfect for small southern programs, which often get to host those tournaments, and don't have to divert funds from football to be reasonably competitive. Talk of the Big Ten joining with other northern conferences to stem this tide, either by threatening to leave the NCAA, doing so, or hosting a second season over the summer, has thus far only amounted to that.
Michigan is in considerably better shape than when Bakich arrived, and has a couple of very good options to replace him from his direct coaching tree. Detroit Tigers pitching coach Chris Fetter is a rising star in the sport and coached at Michigan through the 2019 run, though he's probably not interested in coming back unless he desires the lifestyle. Assistant head coach/infield coach Nick Schnabel has been with Bakich since he arrived, and should be ready to take the head job if Fetter wishes to remain in the majors. If they go outside the program, they won't have to go far; CMU's Jordan Bischel has been interviewing for major jobs. Either way, assistant coach/former Tiger Brandon Inge has deep local ties and would be likely to stick around. Current pitching coach Steve Merriman was probably gone either way.
Thus is life for a mid-major program. Trying to match Clemson's offer—and doubling up Carol Hutchins' salary for her men's counterpart in the process—would have been facially ridiculous considering the way of things in college baseball. What really grinds for fans of this team and sport is that it doesn't have to be this way. The few games they do get to play at Ray Fisher are usually well-attended, and a delight. With no other revenue sports active in the summer, and little else (apologies, friend/owner of the local soccer club) going on in town, Ann Arborites would be a sure bet to fill those seats in June, July, and August. Hopefully Michigan will use this as a wakeup call to start pushing the league for more direct action on its own, its players, and its fans behalves. Until they find the guts, ours will get wrenched exactly thus.
Would it really be that ridiculous to have matched the salary? It doesn't have to be a Michigan Baseball revenue to Clemson Baseball revenue comparison -- it can be a department to department comparison.
You're going to pay him twice what you pay Hutch? More than you pay Kim Barnes-Arico? I'm sure they tried to get close like they did to keep Kim, but what's the point of putting that much money into your baseball program if you're only going to have 3 weeks of home games? The Big Ten is a mid-major. Either commit to fixing that or live in the reality others create for you.
" but what's the point of putting that much money into your baseball program if you're only going to have 3 weeks of home games?"
The alternative is spend it on waterfalls and min-golf for the football program, or more administrators salaries, or...
It's getting spent one way or another - are coaching salaries really the worst option?
Build an indoor baseball stadium. /s
It would've been a real power move for UM to buy the Silverdome when it was on sale for like $10 that time. They could've turned it into an all-purpose winter/spring sports facility to stick it to the southern schools.
Interested to hear your complete thoughts on the "summer season", because from talking to current/former college players, they all almost universally hate that idea, say it would bad for player development, and bad for program revenues...
Which players are you talking to? Hutch has been a vocal proponent. Some athletes who play semi-pro don't want that competed with, but I was just at a former softball player's wedding and when someone told them I write about college sports they came to me to ask me to talk more about it. The players have spent their lives preparing to play at this level. Living out of a suitcase and barely seeing your own fans sucks. They're going to be playing ball all summer anyways, and would rather play games than anything else.
I think I may have misinterpreted what you said, I was referring to baseball, not softball summer season, my bad.
The baseball players ive talked to (including several Michigan players) want the summer to train and go play wood bat leagues in an attempt to get drafted/more scouts look at them.
Well, to be honest, going to wood bats is another change the NCAA should do.
i think that's exactly the point of going rogue with a wooden-bat alliance of northern conferences. exposure and possibly-better prep for professional baseball.
Softball doesn't have the same summer league set up and pro aspirations, it doesn't make sense to link to the two for this discussion.
I also think the weather thing is slightly overblown. Oklahoma winters suck, a lot. They aren't some warm weather paradise in oklahoma and they are also traveling to the southern early season tournaments and are the most dominant program the sport has ever seen. Weather in Louisville or Lexington isn't meaningfully different than Ohio or Illinois. We played a series in the snow in Louisville this year. Virginia is obviously more southern but having grown up in the mid atlantic playing baseball in March isn't a joy either.
Exactly right. B1G can't compete with the summer league like Cape Cod because these are basically MLB prospect showcase leagues plus there's the wooden bat.
The NCAA or Big 10 if splitting off can adopt wooden bats. Brian has talked about this as well a bunch of times for a long time. Play in summer with wooden bats.
If you think the weather factor is overblown, I'd ask you to go take a look at college baseball and softball rankings, keeping geography in mind when you do.
Average weather in February (High/Low)
Ann Arbor: 35/19
Champaign: 38/21
Columbus: 40/22
Louisville : 46/28
Norman OK: 54/32
On average, it's 11 degrees colder in Ann Arbor than in Louisville & 20 degrees colder than in Norman OK (not taking wind & snow into account) IMO, that's a big difference
Big XII actually might be an ally here. Oklahoma State was making noise about this earlier this year.
If your conference is a mid major you can still try to be Gonzaga.
I don’t think it would’ve been crazy to just pay the man.
Gonzaga is allowed to provide scholarships for all of its players. It plays a full home schedule. Those are not options for Michigan baseball.
Michigan has already spoken with their actions that they are not serious about baseball. Bakich squeezed everything out of what he was given. A couple May weekend series in Ann Arbor might be well attended, but they are nothing like the SEC. LSU, Mississippi State, Ole Miss and Arkansas have state of the art venues that are nicer than every minor league ballpark up to the AAA level, average around 10,000 fans per game, sell alcohol at the park, have designated student sections, etc. They are the kings of the NCAA for good reason. Michigan and the Big Ten have been accepting the reality that they aren't that for awhile now.
gonzaga, i'd also point out, can be an elite-level (or, at the least, a perennially-ranked regional power) by recruiting occasional 4- and 5-stars. a single superstar can carry a program to great heights. that's simply not possible in baseball or softball.
I have to agree with Seth. Sam Webb and Mike Spath discussed the same points of bumping up the salaries that would either match or compare to Bakich such as- Arico, Hutch, plus gymnastics, swimming. The list was pretty long. They asked, could Warde Manual afford to pay these coaches $1M each if Bakich were to make that salary? The answer was no.
This would be like arguing that, since Harbaugh makes $8M, Bakich should demand similar. Coaches should be paid according to their peers in their respective sports. What do other top softball coaches make? Then that's the Hutch range, not what Bakich would theoretically make.
I mean...yes? And when another school comes after Hutch (or as they did with Kim), open the wallet and try to keep them around, too.
I think I understand what you're getting at with the whole mid-major argument, but it's not convincing to me. Sure, the landscape of college baseball puts Michigan and other northern teams at a significant disadvantage. But as your own article points out, Michigan also already came within one win of a national championship within the last 3 years, and was on the cusp of seeing a recruiting uptick as a result. That alone could have produced some level of self-sustaining improvement.
I get that, in theory, there's a threshold beyond which an uneven playing field suggests you're better off not even trying. If we were only allowed half the scholarships of the SEC schools, sure, I get it, don't waste money trying to compete with that.
But...one win away from a national championship. More talent coming. That doesn't feel like the moment when you decide to take your ball and go home.
Just playing devil's advocate here because, like you, I'm not sure I'm convinced either way on this. But doesn't this view of recent history just kinda make us Butler? I mean, they did that *two years in a row* and it's not like that magically turned them into a power. I think the point is that if the deck is stacked against you, you can have a good run now and then, but it's just nearly impossible to sustain.
That's a fair point, but I think where it falls apart is that at some point, Butler couldn't afford to pay Brad Stevens what he would be offered elsewhere. That shouldn't be a problem for Michigan.
(This is, of course, only looking at the "why pay that much" part of the argument. Maybe Michigan matches Clemson's offer and Bakich decides to leave anyway because he believes Clemson has greater competitive potential.)
Completely agree. Michigan is very much not Butler in that part of the equation. And then I guess if we acknowledge that he might leave anyway, we have to acknowledge that the reason he might leave anyway is because just being able to pay him more doesn't solve the other built in disadvantages. So it just becomes a question of whether you empty the pockets to be a fairly relevant high mid-major or you don't and see where you land.
I'm not saying they should pay Bakich that much because it does screw with the salary bands for other coaches (though I'm sure there are people here who'd argue mens sports should be paid more because of reasons that definitely don't have to do with centuries of ingrained biases and gender discrimination), but as you noted UM nearly won a national title a couple years ago and have made the playoffs pretty consistently.
If the goal is to be a consistent national power who makes it to Omaha more often than not, then sure, UM is a mid-major program. But that could be applied to a number of teams both at UM and across college athletics. But to me a mid-major program is one that doesn't have a path to competitiveness on a somewhat-consistent basis, and that's not UM. They seem perfectly capable of puttering along at a top-3 spot in the conference and, when the chips falls right, compete for bigger titles and championships.
It's up to Warde to make a good hire here; he's done a pretty good job in his tenure at UM replacing top guys with coaches capable of building on that previous success (most prominently Mel and Howard). I am confident he'll do the same and UM will (hopefully) be able to keep the momentum going and continue to be a team that can compete at the national level somewhat consistently.
Such nonsense. A $700-800k bump in pay for an athletic dept whose revenues are around $200m annually is a literal drop in the bucket.
Always easy to spend other people's money. Just like when you shit all over the OL 2 years ago when Skene was.
Are we paying Hutch under market rate? If we are then she needs a nice raise. If not, I don't see how that is relevant.
Here’s what Warde SHOULD have done - make a call to Fred Wilpon. The baseball complex is named after him, for God’s sake! Tell him - “you know what some rich MSU alums did for them to keep Tucker? How would you like to help us keep our baseball program nationally relevant?” This alleviates the issue with coaches in some other sports because it’s a “donation” directed specifically at the baseball team. Hell, if he covers the full salary (plus for the assistants), raises for Hutch and KBA could be provided based on the savings from what the school pays the baseball staff.
Since Warde obviously sh*t the bed on this, he can redeem himself by doing the same thing but with the money directed at Chris Fetter or CMU’s head coach, Bischel.
I know Warde has a budget he needs to keep balanced, but with NIL and rich alums - especially one like Wilpon that we know loves baseball - he needs to think creatively. Don’t get cheap on me Dotson!
As the story says, there is much more to it than the salary.
Recruiting, weather, travel, et cetera more attractive in the South and West
I think he started his coaching career at Clemson, I seem to recall an interview he had with Sam Webb a few years back where that was brought up, so it may be like going home for him in a sense.
Best of luck to him, hope they get a good replacement.
KOK law is on point, though surprisingly succinct given his long winded nature. Seth is wrong. It’s that simple. Great guy, one of our fearless leaders but not always right.
Though, like the Southern vs Northern schools situation, it’s not a fair fight. KOK law has forgotten more about college baseball than most of the board knows. Hell, there was a Moby Benedict tribute at Fisher this year and KOK law was the only non-player/coach invited.
I attended an M Detroit Alum Assoc event a few years ago where Bakich & Hutchins spoke back to back. They were inspirational. And most of their talk had nothing to do with the sports or games they coached. I had tears in my eyes. It reminded me why I am so proud of my (and two of my daughters) Michigan degree!
Nothing but thanks and good luck wishes to Bakich. The only potential upside to this is maybe they’ll ditch those ugly giant block M caps and return to the classic baseball cap that Bo used to wear on the sidelines.
Sucks but is a good move for coach. Clemson has a good program and wants to get back to where they were and are willing to spend for it. Also easier to recruit in the South. SEC and ACC put more into baseball and they can take coaches out of the midwest when they want. Really surprised Michigan was able to hold onto him this long. The money is huge, but it is more than that. Left the program in really as good a position as you could ask for, hopefully they can hold on to the recruiting class.
The money is outrageous. It's more than hinch makes with the tigers. If it's actually over 1 M, it's more than all but 2 or 3 MLB managers.
Now, I understand.. recruiting, a college coach is basically manager and GM, it is a more demanding job, etc..
But you are absolutely right. There are inherent advantages for southern teams.. Link Jarrett just left ND. A top 15 program that just hosted a regional and won it.. he was just on the cover of the abca mag and he's gone.
I also have not seen this mentioned, but bakich was big on pushing back the season by a month about 2 years ago. He had a lot of well respected coaches with him too. Corbin at vandy and schlossnagle at tcu being the biggest names.
I never say this because I know that AD is an impossible job, but: get to work Warde!
Unless the Big Ten/Northern schools leave the NCAA (pipe dream anyways) the presence of summer collegiate baseball leagues like the Cape Cod, Northwoods, Coastal Plains, etc. make this idea nearly impossible. Those summer leagues use only wood bats, simulate a minor league schedule/environment, are heavily scouted and well funded (MLB has their own summer league now) and have been around for decades. A lot of northern school players success stories are uncovered in the summer leagues, rather their own college careers.
Unfortunately, simply making it to Omaha as a Big Ten school should be celebrated as a national championship. In college baseball its a Power 4, not a Power 5 which is pretty well summed up in how the NCAA Tournament played out this year, as well as the final 8 in Omaha.
Yeah, as someone who lives in the Northeast I can attest to the fact that summer baseball is really popular around here and it's hard to imagine northern college baseball being able to change that.
It doesn't need to take over. I don't follow college baseball much but seems even on par with those leagues would be a lot better than the situation now. Not to mention basically no one except Rutgers is in the northeast. I don't think minor league baseball in the Midwest is that huge with fans.
You should have stopped after "I don't follow college baseball much"
The Madison Mallards in the Northwoods League average almost 6,000 fans per game. I would argue Michigan baseball has never had a crowd close to that.
The combined talent levels and MLB alumni from the Cape Cod and Northwoods League alone would crush any made-up summer Big Ten league and are not close to "on par"
The Midwest League (Lansing Lugnuts, West Michigan Whitecaps, Dayton Dragons, etc.) have some of the best ballparks in the minor leagues for High A. The Dayton Dragons averaged over 5,700 fans per night in 2021. The Whitecaps in Grand Rapids almost average 4,000 tonight. Not sure where you got that take, but Minor League baseball is a huge deal in the Midwest.
If the Big Ten/Northern Schools broke off into their own league, what would the point be other than making more $$ for home games? If you "won" the summer league, it would be the equivalent of winning the current Big Ten. No chance at winning a College World Series or National Championship, how would you recruit anybody to come to Michigan (understanding that it's already tough to recruit to Mich, but you can sell a chance at a CWS, as Michigan has been in the mix)
Been in the mix? 2019 was the first CWS appearance since 1987. The last team from the Big Ten to with the CWS was Ohio State...in 1966. Big Ten teams have a total of 21 CWS appearances. The two Arizona PAC12 schools have 40.
I would argue the opposite: might as well break away from the NCAA because you're not winning it anyway. Sure, you won't attract MLB talent, but that's not really happening anyway. In 2020, the B1G had 33 MLBers. The SEC had 181. 50 major leaguers were from Division Freaking Two.
This is simple. You get the MAC, the b1g, and 10 to 12 northeast schools.
You sell it with the b1g football rights to fox. They have btn, fs1, fs2, and all of the Rsn's that they have to program.
You have 30 ish schools in their own baseball and softball leagues. 25 full scholarships. This is where you get your talent. Better schools, and you don't have to pay a dime as opposed to now. 11.7 scholarships for a roster of 35. The best player I have seen only got 85 pct from his d1 school.
Don't have to play until may, so you can play school during the year. Have a majors/minors schedule after that. 75 games from may 1 to Aug 1. Wood bats. Playoffs thru Aug, but before football starts.
Networks run games from noon til the major league teams come on at 7, 8, 9, or 10 depending on where they play.
If btn runs a softball at 12 to 2, baseball from 230 to 6, softball from 6 to 8 and a baseball from 8 to it ends..they win..it's original content.
Fs1 goes with a baseball 12 to 4 and a softball 4 to 6 before their national game.
The Rsn's do the same before their majors game, with another game put in before an MLB west coast game..
There are a lot of opportunities for the college teams to recoup the money on extra scholarships. For the athlete to get in more games, be a real student and show their talents, and for the networks to deliver content/ make some money.
So close to being a baseball school too. This is a real bummer.
Seth's point about the B1G being a mid-major is spot on though. Why we kneecap ourselves by not playing baseball during baseball season is a real head scratcher.
The NCAA is the kneecapper in this case, not ourselves. Northern schools didn't petition the NCAA and change the rules to play over winter, the Southern schools did that - and got away with it.
Yeah, the idea that Michigan can unilaterally change the baseball season to a less beneficial one for themselves was always a weird reading of the situation.
Good points both. Instead of "we" there I should have used "The B1G/northern schools". You're both right that this isn't something Michigan can fix on its own. It would be nice to see Michigan and the B1G trying to do something to change the status quo.
It's cute that Michigan has the political horsepower, financial wherewithal, and marketing benefits to force some change in how the B1G operates in baseball. But the reality that we all know too well is that the current AD administration will do nothing whatsoever about it, at all. We don't have Don Canham sitting in that office. What we have is a fine administrator. Warde is a guy that can do the bean counting as well as any of his peers, he can find great coaches, he can build an atmosphere that players and coaches want to be involved with. But he is not a trail blazer. He does not have the force of spirit, the personality, or the command of a room needed to bring others behind him. He is the leader of his department, but he's a follower in his peer group. And that hurt's in cases like this.
Kevin Warren is the same way. He'll be a good administrator for the B1G, but he won't be a leader among his peers in the other conferences. For the next however many years, we will not see the B1G lead the way in anything the NCAA needs to improve*. Settle in, it's going to be a long ride...
I do hope Erik has a long and wonderful career. Hopefully, he won't work too hard against Michigan in the future. But I will not be rooting for Clemson.
(* - 'Improve' is a relative term. What we (UM/B1G/northern teams) think needs to be improved, like baseball seasons and schedules, are not necessarily what anyone else thinks need to be improved.)
Don Canham is proving to be a one of kind AD and we were so lucky to have him when we did. Unfortunately, that legacy no longer exits. It passed away when he did.
I don't think Kevin Warren is even a good administrator. He's all the worst parts of Delany minus any kind of vision. He does whatever Ohio State tells him to do, and nothing else.
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