The debate over whether wintry weather unfairly hinders Northern college baseball teams' ability to compete nationally has raged for years -- it seems almost as old as the sun.

But a committee formed last fall by the Division I Championships/
Competition Cabinet is studying whether a sunnier forecast for cold-climate schools could improve competitive equity in the sport without raining on warm-weather schools' success.

Members and observers of the new Division I Baseball Issues Committee agree the effort represents the most serious attempt by the NCAA to address a longstanding -- and turbulent -- topic.

"I received an article from a committee member that talked about this issue...that it finally was coming to a head and something was going to come of it, and I thought it was a very interesting article," said Dennis Farrell, commissioner of the Big West Conference and chair of the issues committee. "Then I looked at the top, and the article was from 10 years ago.

"So it's an issue that's been out there festering for some time. As far as I know, this is the first time the NCAA has dedicated a committee to looking solely at this issue."

Baseball programs in warm-climate regions long have been perceived to have a competitive advantage over programs in cold-climate areas, because they typically can play contests earlier in the year and generally can play more games without interference from weather.

"Why can't an Ohio State, a Minnesota, a Notre Dame, a Washington, a St. John's be like LSU, or Texas, or Texas A&M, or Miami or Florida State? A big reason is because of the weather; there's no doubt about that," said Dave Keilitz, executive director of the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA).

"Those programs are way ahead of the North as far as facilities, tradition, support and fan base, but the reason they got there is because they were able to play under good weather conditions, which attracts fans, creates better facilities and greater tradition, and so forth."

Keilitz, a longtime baseball coach and former athletics director at Central Michigan University, has advocated leveling the playing field for Northern and Southern teams since assuming the ABCA post 10 years ago. He believes most baseball coaches want action, citing a 1996-97 survey in which 77 percent of Division I head coaches supported moving the end of the season three weeks closer to summer.

Another factor many agree contributes to the problem is that there is no established start date for spring baseball practice and competition. Many teams in the warm-weather Sun Belt typically play the first games of a 56-game season at or near home in January, while cold-climate programs often must practice indoors in February and March and may play most games scheduled during the first month or more of the season on the road, before finally playing on home fields in April.

The result is that, as a practical matter, teams playing in cold-climate areas and aspiring to contend for national championships must travel more often in a compressed period of time to play a full schedule of games against quality opponents.

"It's kind of crazy in the most weather-sensitive sport that there's no start date," said Jim Delany, commissioner of the Big Ten Conference. Delany has presented data during the past three years to panels ranging from the Championships/Competition Cabinet to the Collegiate Commissioners Association supporting his contention that Northeast and Midwest teams are handicapped by a combination of differences in weather and Division I Baseball Championship selection criteria.

"All of those factors taken together set off a red light for me, that competitive equity in baseball was sort of an oxymoron," Delany said. "There's no way you could take a weather-sensitive sport like baseball, extend the season to the early part of the semester, put an RPI (Rating Percentage Index) on it, do national (rather than regional championship) seeding, and then expect to move teams along with the kinds of weather differentials that were occurring."

Farrell, Keilitz and others credit Delany's presentations with prompting the Championships/Competition Cabinet to form the issues committee, whose primary charge is to address competitive-equity issues in the sport.

"There's a chance for us to do a couple of things in baseball that we've never had a chance to do before, because of the attention the issue is getting now," said Skip Bertman, director of athletics and former head baseball coach at Louisiana State University, and a representative of the Division I Baseball Committee on the issues committee.

"Even if the issue can't be 100 percent resolved in favor of what Jim Delany asked in the beginning, maybe it can still benefit most everybody. I can't think of anybody who wouldn't benefit by moving (the season) back a little bit."

Start date first step

At this point, the issues committee appears to support much of what Delany is seeking, although it is reserving judgment until at least June 21, when it will review results of a survey of athletics directors and feedback from commissioners and baseball student-athletes.

"We recognized that a start date would probably be the first piece of a puzzle that we'd have to agree upon," Farrell said about discussions by the committee, which met in January during the NCAA Convention in Nashville to hear presentations by Delany and Keilitz.

The committee already has outlined four concepts, which athletics directors and others are reacting to in the survey:

* Establish March 1 as the first permissible date of competition.

* Move the start date for the Division I Baseball Championship two weeks later.

* Establish a nonchampionship-season window during the fall.

* Establish February 1 as the first permissible date of practice in the championship season.

The committee features representation from all regions of the country, including three institutional administrators and a coach representing the Division I Baseball Committee, two administrators representing the Championships/Competition Cabinet, and four conference commissioners.

"We were all somewhat shocked -- pleasantly shocked -- at how quickly we came together," Farrell said about the committee's agreement on the concepts.

"We're certainly making a sincere effort to address the issue, and hope that at the end of the day, we do have something that won't disadvantage the currently advantaged, but will create some opportunity for what are perceived as disadvantaged programs to grow even stronger in the future," he said.

Keilitz, who unsuccessfully proposed adding three weeks to the end of the season in 1997, is excited about the issues committee's concepts.

"Someone asked me, if this were to take place as the committee has proposed, what would be your feeling?" Keilitz said. "I said I'd get up from my desk, go out in the hallway, and try to do cartwheels all the way down the hall, I'd be so excited about it.

"Personally, I think this is realistic, because I think you can prove this would create greater equity, this will help more programs become better, it's financially feasible, it's academically feasible -- I see very few minuses with this."

Several drawbacks

Of course, there are reasons why the debate has persisted for so many years without resolution.

"It's not an easy solution," Farrell said. "You have a lot of provincialism here, with programs that are successful in Sun Belt locations that want the sport to be successful nationally, but not at their expense."

LSU's Bertman, whose baseball program annually leads Division I baseball in attendance, cites several concerns.

"Many people feel it will cost too much, by keeping teams longer after the school year. Many feel it will severely injure summer baseball, sponsored by the big leagues. Many feel it will badly injure USA Baseball. Many coaches are afraid of it because of their baseball camps, because they run all summer and, in some cases, it's a very good source of income."

Bertman worries about the impact on his own school's program, as games are played in hotter weather and fans move on to summertime pursuits, like vacations and children's activities.

"As an administrator, I think it's very possible that the Southeastern Conference, and other people in our area, could lose attendance by backing it up, because of the competition. But could I weigh that against the greater good? Sure."

Farrell also notes philosophical concerns with extending the season beyond the academic calendar.

Next steps

But Delany suggests moving the season back is no more harmful than the status quo. "I understand we're in an academic world, but everybody points to, you can't move baseball season back a few weeks because of the cost and the academic impact. I say, what about a 60-game schedule with people traveling all over the country in January and February? Isn't that a student-athlete welfare issue, and doesn't that cost money?"

The issues committee hopes to make recommendations to the Championships/Competition Cabinet in September, after reviewing survey responses and determining the level of support that exists for the concepts.

Bertman suggests those responses will be important.

"It won't work 100 percent for everybody, no matter what you do," he said. "So the question is, in my mind, is it for the greater good of college baseball to put in these changes? Personally, I'm not ready to answer that; I don't know enough at this second. I need the surveys; I need to talk to people before I'm ready to make that recommendation."

He quickly adds, however, the time has come to take some kind of action. "A bad outcome is to do nothing," he said.

Delany understands the committee's desire to solicit reaction, but he also worries the issues already are well-defined and that feedback could provide justification for avoiding meaningful action.

"I guess it will be informational," he says of the committee's survey. "I hope it won't be directional."

Farrell believes the committee is committed to making college baseball strong and viable at a national level, and to achieving solutions to the weather dilemma.

"We all have our hearts in the right place, and we're trying to do the right thing for the sport of baseball."