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West Virginia coach pushing April start for college baseball

Snow patches cover parts of the outfield of Haymarket Park, home of the Nebraska NCAA college baseball team, in Lincoln, Neb., Monday, Feb. 23, 2015. Under an ambitious proposal by West Virginia coach Randy Mazey, NCAA college baseball's regular season would run from April to August instead of February to June. Nebraska coach Darin Erstad said he would favor pushing back the season two weeks, to the first week of March, but he wouldn’t want to play past the Fourth of July because that would interfere with prime recruiting time. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik) Snow patches cover parts of the outfield of Haymarket Park, home of the Nebraska NCAA college baseball team, in Lincoln, Neb., Monday, Feb. 23, 2015. Under an ambitious proposal by West Virginia coach Randy Mazey, NCAA college baseball's regular season would run from April to August instead of February to June. Nebraska coach Darin Erstad said he would favor pushing back the season two weeks, to the first week of March, but he wouldn’t want to play past the Fourth of July because that would interfere with prime recruiting time. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)

By Associated Press February 23, 2015 1 min read

The college baseball season would run from April to August instead of February to June under an ambitious idea pushed by West Virginia coach Randy Mazey.

Mazey said Monday he plans to finalize the proposal this fall. He would need a conference to submit it into the NCAA legislative process.

Mazey said playing in the summer would increase ticket revenue and exposure. Among other benefits: decreasing the amount of money northern programs spend on travel and raising graduation rates because players would be enrolled in summer school.

But drafted players would have to hold off signing with major-league teams that selected them in June. Also, an agreement also would have to be reached with ESPN to move the College World Series from June to August.