Mississippi State has decided to become the premiere baseball program in the country. That is the only conclusion that you can take away from the announcement to the new Dudy Noble Field. Mississippi State has always been in the conversation for best baseball programs in the country, but Scott Stricklin and the rest of the Administration has decided to put the argument to rest.
And boy did they ever.
At worst, you could describe the plans for the new Dudy Noble Field as impressive. At best, you can describe the Master Plan (as they are calling it) a way to take the reins and try to dominate college baseball. It’s bold. It’s aggressive. And I like it.
Mississippi State has often been criticized in football and basketball when it comes to facilities. Right or wrong, the perception has been created that Mississippi State can’t compete with the rest of the SEC in terms of facilities. Whatever you have liked or haven’t liked since Stricklin took the reins as Athletic Director, you can’t fault him for doing everything he can to eliminate this perception. He has overseen the most recent expansion to Davis Wade Stadium, helped fund the football only complex that is now on campus, but the Master Plan for Dudy Noble Filed is his masterpiece. It may end up being his legacy as well. He didn’t hire Mullen, Byrne was responsible for that. He was responsible for hiring Rick Ray and we still have no idea how that is going to turn out. So you could say that Stricklin had done some positive things in fundraising up until this point, but there wasn’t anything very memorable. That is no longer the case.
Mississippi State has often claimed to play in the “Carnegie Hall” of College Baseball Stadiums. What the school has done is give the school a stadium worthy of that distinction. To say it is on the scale of major league parks might be an over reach, but to say it is on par with the high tech minor league parks is not. I live just south of Memphis, TN and AutoZone Park is one of the best baseball stadiums you could ever visit for a minor league team. Mississippi State is going to offer Bulldog fans a similar experience to that with the new Dudy Noble.
Make no mistake, this is a game changer in the SEC for baseball. Mississippi State recruits really well in baseball already, but that is only going to get better. Why would a recruit want to go play for any other school when they can play in a park and in front of fans that follow and pull for their team like the fans of MLB teams do? Baseball is a money maker for most schools in the SEC, but most don’t support it with tenacity that Mississippi State fans do. Other SEC schools now have to ask themselves if they want to make the same kind of commitment to baseball as the Bulldogs are. A few might. I’d look for LSU, Ole Miss, and South Carolina to step up and try to keep up with the Joneses. I don’t know that the rest of the SEC will. For once, it is nice to be the trend setter instead of the ones trying to keep up.
I have only seen one or two, but I’m sure there are some Bulldogs’ fans that are sad because of the announcement today. The current Dudy Noble holds a very special place in the hearts of fans. Some never wanted to see it change, and I can understand that. Change isn’t always easy, and sometimes we have to be forced into it. When plans were announced to begin seeking out ideas for the future of Dudy Noble in 2013, there were a lot of people who were afraid that we were going to totally screw the whole thing up. There are going to be some to think that making any changes is a screw up. They may think that, but this had to be done. Dudy Noble currently is a great place to watch a college baseball game and has tons of character, but there had to be some changes no matter how difficult they may be to accept.
The New Dudy Noble will be a world class facility that will be the envy of college baseball programs. The best college baseball program and college baseball fans are finally getting the cathedral that they deserve.