MSU Notebook: NCAA Shifts Course On Postseason Crowds and More
Assuming Mississippi State is indeed chosen as an NCAA Regional host in the upcoming days, it now appears as though Bulldog fans will be able to pack out Dudy Noble Field.
The NCAA announced new guidelines on Wednesday that paves the way for local public health authorities to set fan capacities at championship events. That means, should MSU be chosen to host as expected, Dudy Noble Field would fall under Mississippi's guidelines, which no longer have capacity restrictions for sporting events.
Previously, the NCAA had announced attendance would be capped at 50 percent in its postseason events, including the College World Series. But with Wednesday's announcement, that is no longer the case.
Mississippi State will learn if it will host a Regional on Sunday, May 30, one day ahead of the NCAA announcing its baseball tournament field on Monday, May 31. A total of 20 venues, including Dudy Noble Field, were announced last week as possible Regional host sites. As a consensus Top-10 team, the Bulldogs appear to be in good shape to be a Regional host, and possibly a national seed that would be in line to host a Super Regional should MSU advance past the Regional round.
Simmons picked to community service team
The following is courtesy of MSU media relations:
In his first season on campus, second-year freshman baseball student-athlete Stone Simmons was honored for his off-the-field work on Wednesday, as he was a part of the Southeastern Conference’s Community Service Team, as announced by the conference office.
Simmons’ community service activities include participating in the Starkville Auxiliary Reading Railroad to recorded book readings for children to use during the COVID-19 quarantine and getting involved in a video initiative for the children’s hospital where student-athletes recorded videos of themselves sending encouraging and positive messages to lift the spirits of the patients.
On the field, Simmons has been a steady force out of the MSU bullpen with 15 appearances and a 3.92 ERA in 20 2/3 innings of work. The right-hander has not allowed a run of his own in 10 of his outings and has issued just six walks to 26 strikeouts on the season. The transfer from Furman owns a 1-1 record and two saves on the season and seven of his outings have lasted longer than one inning out of the bullpen.
SEC distributes supplemental revenue
The following was released from the SEC:
The Southeastern Conference announced Wednesday it has provided each member university a $23 million supplemental revenue distribution to help mitigate the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on SEC athletics programs.
The SEC is using future conference revenues to provide the one-time supplement for the regular 2020-21 fiscal year distributions that will be made to SEC athletics programs.
“The extraordinary circumstances produced by the global pandemic have presented colleges and universities with an unprecedented disruption to their programs and budgets,” said SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey. “This supplemental revenue distribution will help ensure each SEC member will continue to provide high levels of support to its student-athletes.”
This one-time supplemental distribution of revenue is designed to help offset a portion of lost revenue that each campus experienced while operating in the COVID-19 environment. Revenue shortfalls varied across SEC members but averaged approximately $45 million per SEC athletics program.
The SEC is using future increases in media rights revenue to facilitate this supplemental distribution to its 14 member schools. Beginning in 2025, the SEC will allocate a portion of the media rights fees to be received by the conference to fund the supplemental distribution. The SEC projects that its annual distribution to each school will still increase in 2025 and beyond, even after a portion of the new revenue is reallocated.
While each athletic department will be permitted to utilize the supplemental funds at its discretion, the expectation is that the supplemental revenue will be used to maintain each school’s historically high standards for academic, athletic, medical, nutritional and mental health support for their student-athletes and help offset the significant costs associated with COVID testing during the 2020-21 athletic year.
Thank you for coming to Cowbell Corner for coverage of Mississippi State sports. Be sure to follow Cowbell Corner on Twitter (@SIBulldogs) by clicking here, and like it on Facebook by clicking here.