Kerry Eggers article on Casey and next years team.

Typical great Eggers article. Thanks for the link.

So who dropped the ball at OSU, as far as lobbying for us in the post season goes?

Pat is smart to realize there's more to life than money. Being happy and in a happy place for your family is what really matters.

Sounds like the incoming class is really special. Surprised that Eggers thinks all five of our draftees will sign. Time will tell on that one.

Tragic news on the loss of T-Mo's father to cancer (on June 4th). No wonder he has looked profoundly sad for much of the season. Beaver Nation mourns the loss with you, Trevor.

Most important news:

The Beavers will return three pitchers who also underwent Tommy John surgery — ace starter Drew Rasmussen, who was lost for the season in late March; and sophomore Sam Tweedt and freshman David Brosius, who both redshirted. Tweedt and Brosius will be ready for the start of the season; Rasmussen “is going to be close,” Casey said. “The way he works, I’d bet on it.”

If Drew can be ready to go, we look to be stacked across the board.

"Stacked"?

Drew coming back anytime before the 15-16 month mark is a huge mistake for him personally. Tweedt was  a non-league guy... no real experience in Pac 12 play, and a year removed from D1 ball. Brosius... I will take a wait and see. He was not overly impressive in the 6A ranks and has very inefficient throwing technique, that is largely responsible for his injury. Plus... not an inning of D1 work.


I'd say we are far far from stacked. It's Fehmel and a prayer right now. 

I believe that Pat Casey is saying that South Alabama's AD did not have his facts straight, so the Pac-12 representative (Washington's head coach, Lindsay Meggs) dropped the ball in lobbying for Oregon State.  Casey said in other interviews that Meggs did not speak with him at all in the process, which Casey said always happens with Pac-12 bubble teams.  I believe that Casey, in other articles, strongly hints, without saying it, that Meggs intentionally kept the Beavers out of the field.  I am curious, if Pat Casey, the athletic department, and/or the university is contemplating some sort of legal action against Meggs and the University of Washington for fraud and/or breach of duty or at least submitting the incident to the conference for further inquiry. Washington is a state school, so any records should be public.  The West was very under-represented on the committee and was very under-represented in the Tournament, plus two members of the full committee recently applied for and did not get the open AD job at Oregon State.  In that cast of characters, something is rotten with what happened.  

Even if you straight up use RPI, Oregon State is still in.  Instead, the Beavers got passed by four teams with lower RPIs: Nebraska (48), South Alabama (50), Minnesota (51), and Washington (55).  Oregon State beat Minnesota on a neutral field and beat Washington in a series.  South Alabama's AD headed the committee.  Washington's head coach was the only Pac-12 representative on a regional committee.  Something is rotten with what happened.

The other thing, too, is that Oregon State did better in pretty much every other metric (with the sole exception being the Nolan Power Index--NPI--produced by Warren Nolan).  Boyd's ISRs had the Beavers 19th.  Sagarin had Oregon State 25th.  Massey had the Beavers 28th.  Oregon State finished 24th in the final NCBWA ballot.  Everything but the committee says that the Beavers are in and in easily, most likely as a two-seed, and the committee comes out the other way.  Something is rotten with what happened.

I should add that the NPI amplifies the regional bias.  The final NPI had Bryant as the #1 overall team, Wright State as the #10 overall team, and Kent State as the #12 overall team.

bbfan, I will ignore your first sentence for a bit in favor of asking questions, as I do not believe that I read any of the foregoing the same way. Who at the Athletic Department dropped the ball? It wasn't Casey, so was it the Athletic Director or someone else? That is the first that I have heard of this being an internal Oregon State problem, as opposed to a conference problem.

As far as the legal issues, if someone intentionally lied about Oregon State, in order to advance their school's interests, that is fraud, as well as potentially defamation, depending on the circumstances. Additionally, Washington, as a Pac-12 representative has a duty to promote the interests of the Pac-12. If he did not do so to the detriment of the conference, then he has breached his duty to the conference and its members. If there is an associated monetary loss, then Meggs has breached a fiduciary duty. Meggs and Meggs' employer, the University of Washington, and the State of Washington could potentially be liable for damages, pursuant to respondeat superior. Those are the thoughts that are swimming around in my head. Now, if Oregon State dropped the ball here, then obviously, my line of thinking is flawed, but you stating it is the first time that I had heard anything about that.

The thing I keep coming back to is this:
Oregon State knew it was a bubble team.
Oregon State knew that in past years, the regional rep would call bubble teams to gain information to bolster their case
Oregon State did not receive that call, and yet.....
Oregon State NEVER PICKED UP THE PHONE TO CALL THE REGIONAL REP

At some point, someone should've made the decision to be a little proactive here.