There's nothing like a long, boring bus ride to Starkville, Miss., to improve your mood.

For Tennessee baseball coach Todd Raleigh, it was a chance to vent some frustration.

The NCAA and its decision to shorten the college baseball season was Raleigh's target.

"This whole schedule is the craziest thing I've ever seen and I know (Mississippi State) Coach (Ron) Polk has been fighting it," Raleigh said en route to a three-game series with the Bulldogs. "We might as well be in major league baseball right now."

In 2007, UT began its season on Feb. 2. In 2008, the NCAA mandated a uniform start date of Feb. 22 for all of college baseball.

The result has been the same amount of games crammed into a shorter amount of time.

"We went to Arkansas last Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday," Raleigh said. "We got back late Sunday, gave them one day off Monday, played Tuesday (Appalachian State), played Wednesday (ETSU) and we're back on the bus Thursday morning.

"Then the NCAA says they're trying to do what's right for the student athlete."

Raleigh's words would make Polk proud.

The outspoken Bulldogs' coach has been a longtime critic of the NCAA and its policies.

When he submitted his resignation this season, Polk admitted he "hated" the NCAA, the NCAA "hated" him and he wasn't going to put up with it anymore.

Frustration with the powers that be at the NCAA has bubbled over into a frustrating season for the Bulldogs (16-25, 4-14 SEC).

MSU goes into tonight's 7:30 game struggling and apparently on the verge of handing Polk his first losing season in the SEC.

That comes after Polk taking eight teams to the College World Series and advancing to the NCAA tournament 24 times.

"Obviously Coach Polk's record speaks for itself," Raleigh said. "He's a certain first-ballot Hall of Fame type of guy and a coach every other coach in the country looks up to.

"I have the greatest respect and admiration for him and we hope to build the same kind of program here."

A good start for Raleigh and the Vols (24-17, 10-8 SEC) would be adding to the rough final season for Polk. UT has yet to win an SEC road series this season, but vultures are circling Starkville.

"I think we're similar type teams," Raleigh said. "We're very, very young and they're young. The good thing about being youthful is we lose (Wednesday night to ETSU) and for some reason I don't think it will affect us very much."

Raleigh wants to put any doubts of making the SEC tournament to rest as early as possible.

The Vols are tied with Florida and Ole Miss for fourth-best record in the league. The top eight teams advance to Hoover, Ala., May 21-25.

"With a young team, we don't want it to come down to the last weekend," Raleigh said. "You start doing that and baseball becomes a tough game. You start pressing.

"This is a huge weekend for both of us."