College Baseball Rule Changes

[Slugger_16]

According to this article from BA (subscription needed), there will be two major rule changes starting next season.

 

Here's a snippet for the first rule change:

 

One is the uniform start date for baseball, a good idea whose execution might not end up working well. Starting next year, college baseball's season will start in the last weekend in February, with a 13-week season to squeeze in 56 games.

 

And here's a part about the second rule change:

 

The second is the sport's reaction to the NCAA in the wake of its poor performance in three years of Academic Progress Reports (APR).

 

Now, we haven't found a coach who likes the legislation--rules that force players to sit out a year when they transfer, become certified academically in the fall to play in the spring and, most significantly mandates a minimum of 33 percent scholarship money for every player who receives athletic aid.

 

And [Georgia Tech coach Danny Hall's] irate over the 33 percent change, which was instituted to indicate a stronger commitment from schools to players and to try to cut down on the high number of transfers in baseball. Transfers are singled out as the biggest culprit in baseball's low APR, scores that have risen for three straight years but still rank below all sports in the NCAA except men's basketball and football. The APR working group that recommended the changes approved by the NCAA proposed an end to the one-time transfer rule in baseball, forcing players to sit out a year when changing schools. But in tandem with that, they decided to tell college coaches how to spend their 11.7 (or fewer) scholarships.

 

Can someone explain this second rule change to me? What is the 33 percent in reference to and what is the part about scholarships? I don't understand the ins and outs of college scholarships very well.

 

Also, does anyone have any thoughts about either change?

[Dirt Dog Sparly]

Both bad rules trying to do the right things.

 

The season rules mean that Michigan and Florida State start at the same time. Instead of saying you have 13 weeks to play your season from start to finish, you now have to play from this date to this date.

 

I see it as an effort to address the complaints of the northern schools that the southern schools have unfair advantages in starting earlier and stretching their games out. (Not having to play so many in such a short time.)

 

The rules dealing with the money is awful to say the least. The NCAA says that if you give a kid a penny it has to be at least 33% of the cost of tuition for the year.

 

This is going to hurt the kids in the end. There are alot of freshmen and sophmores who are getting one or two thousand in baseball money that wont get that money now.

 

Its bad enough that baseball is compared to softball for Title 9, and even worse that football screws over the other mens sports in scholarships. This is just an additional load of bovine fertilizer that the NCAA has dumped on college baseball.

 

Note the two sports that have the worst records in reguard to graduation rates are the biggest money makers and not one thing is being done to them to reign in transfers.

[NCCubFan]

Can someone explain this second rule change to me? What is the 33 percent in reference to and what is the part about scholarships? I don't understand the ins and outs of college scholarships very well.

Just a guess on my part, but my interpretation is that it's saying that any scholarship awarded needs to be large enough to pay at least 33% of the student's costs (however that's defined). I may be way off base on that

[tfarks]

I agree with Dirt Dog about the scholarships. I went to a private college last second, thus they could only give me a 1,000 scholarship first year. I'm pretty poor, and just that much helped me a ton. Theres thousands of deals like that now that are going to be ditched, not renewed nor given in the future. Doesn't make sense to me to take that away.

[Derwood]

you can't compare baseball to the "big 2" (basketball/football) because those players aren't on partial scholarships. The transfers in those sports are almost always going from one full ride to anotehr

[Derwood]

btw, anyone else read this headline and hope the words "wooden bats" would appear somewhere?

[davearm]

Both bad rules trying to do the right things.

 

The season rules mean that Michigan and Florida State start at the same time. Instead of saying you have 13 weeks to play your season from start to finish, you now have to play from this date to this date.

 

I see it as an effort to address the complaints of the northern schools that the southern schools have unfair advantages in starting earlier and stretching their games out. (Not having to play so many in such a short time.)

 

The rules dealing with the money is awful to say the least. The NCAA says that if you give a kid a penny it has to be at least 33% of the cost of tuition for the year.

 

This is going to hurt the kids in the end. There are alot of freshmen and sophmores who are getting one or two thousand in baseball money that wont get that money now.

 

Its bad enough that baseball is compared to softball for Title 9, and even worse that football screws over the other mens sports in scholarships. This is just an additional load of bovine fertilizer that the NCAA has dumped on college baseball.

 

Note the two sports that have the worst records in reguard to graduation rates are the biggest money makers and not one thing is being done to them to reign in transfers.

This is simply not true.

 

The sit-out-a-year rule, which was adopted in response to trends in basketball/football, is designed to reign in transfers.

 

The APR rule also provides an incentive for coaches/programs to keep guys from transferring. AFAIK this rule was also adopted in response to trends in basketball/football.

[BeerHere]

btw, anyone else read this headline and hope the words "wooden bats" would appear somewhere?

 

 

Although I think the sound of a metal bat hitting a fastball on the screws is the best sound in all of sports.

[Derwood]

btw, anyone else read this headline and hope the words "wooden bats" would appear somewhere?

 

 

Although I think the sound of a metal bat hitting a fastball on the screws is the best sound in all of sports.

 

i could not possibly disagree with you more