Don't believe we have discussed the upcoming schedule yet:
2/14-16 - @ North Alabama (4)
2/21-23 - @ Saint Louis (3) (In Lexington SC)
2/28-3/1 - @ SE Missouri St (4)
3/6-8 - @ Marist, Wagner & E Tenn St (3) (In Johnson City TN)
3/13-15 - @ Siena (4)
3/20-22 - @ Bowling Green (3)
3/27-29 - vs Eastern Mich (3)
4/3-5 - @ Miami (3)
4/10-11 - vs Evansville (3)
4/17-19 - vs Western Mich (3)
4/24-26 - vs Akron (3)
5/1-3 - @ Kent St (3)
5/8-10 - vs North Ill (3)
5/14-16 - @ Toledo (3)
3/10 - vs Marshall (Home Opener)
3/18 - vs Morehead St
3/24 - @ Marshall
4/1 - @ Morehead St
4/7 - vs Youngstown St
4/21 - @ Youngstown St
5/5 - @ Ohio St
5/12 - @ Marshall
The MAC schedule is comically great for Ohio:
**The Akron baseball program returns in 2020 and will presumably struggle. **With 8 MAC series, we miss 2 MAC opponents...
**Defending champ (both reg season & tourney) Central Michigan
**Defending runner-up (both reg season & tourney) Ball State.
Out of conference also is not particularly challenging:
**North Alabama is new to D-1 and was 16-38 last year.
**Saint Louis was 25-30 with an RPI of 204.
**SEMO was 23-32 with an RPI of 262.
**Siena was 18-23 with an RPI of 246
***Marist, Wagner, ETSU, Marshall, Youngstown St...similar mediocrity or below.
**OSU, Morehead St & Evansville probably the 3 best OOC opponents but none super dominant.
This is not a criticism. Overall I like the schedule, a lot of very similar competition should make for some great baseball. Hard to believe we are 16 days away.
Schedule definitely seems weaker than most years. I'm not necessarily a big fan of scheduling a tough SEC/Big 12 series just for the hell of it. I would rather compete against similar programs so that the team learns how to play a complete game and is in pressure situations early on in the season. I really don't think much comes from getting drilled 20-1 against a top 25 program in February other than a humbling experience.