Some hope for college baseball and softball teams not in lottery states...

TideFever · Apr 27, 2022

It's just the NCAA Transformational Committee and most if not all of what they are planning to push will not happen. But they are at least aware of the dumb scholarship situation in equivalency sports like baseball and have continued to beat the drum for a change there. Their wish list of changes is pretty ridiculous overall though. Imagine Bama football with no restrictions for on field coach counts and no 25 man limit each year for recruited players. So yeah, a lot of this isn't happening anytime soon but one could hope the equivalency thing slides through.

Link at the bottom, but some quotes first....

Several athletic administrators and college sports insiders discussed the Transfer Committee’s concepts under the condition of anonymity. They include (1) eliminating scholarship caps on sports that offer only partial scholarships; (2) abolishing the limitation on the number of coaches per team; (3) expanding direct payments from schools to athletes; (4) reconfiguring the recruiting calendar; and (5) implementing closed periods in the NCAA transfer portal. At least the first three items will be left in the decision-making hands of individual conferences, if the concepts are approved.

The expansion of scholarships would be a historic move, but it would not impact sports such as football and basketball, known as “head count” sports. They offer full scholarships to a roster of players: 85 in football and 15 in basketball. The concept pertains to sports offering partial scholarships, known as “equivalency” sports, such as baseball, hockey, track and field, and swimming. For example, the NCAA maximum scholarships allowed in baseball is 11.7 for a roster of 35—a figure often criticized by high-level baseball-playing schools from rich conferences that want to spend more. Under the transformation’s plan, a school could conceivably offer 35 full scholarships in the sport.

Lifting the “countable coach” rules would also be unprecedented, as NCAA rules currently restrict the number of coaches by sport. For instance, a football team can have no more than 11 coaches (one head coach and 10 assistants) and a basketball team no more than four (one head coach and three assistants). Other staff members, such as analysts and consultants, are considered non-countable personnel who are not supposed to coach players—a rule that is often bent, if not completely broken at many programs.

Apparently ADs are already terrified of how to make these work.

“It’s going to make some heads explode,” says one athletic director.

“Change is coming,” says another athletic director on hand for the committee’s three-hour presentation Monday in Dallas. “We better get prepared. We shouldn’t be shocked if all this does happen.”

“Every G5 AD is like, ‘Holy s---!’” says one Group of 5 athletic director who attended the presentation.

If the concepts are any indication, spending handcuffs appear to be off. They would eliminate NCAA bylaws that attempt to legislate competitive equity and curtail costly spending—measures that have failed in a college sports industry ballooning at the top with cash from football.

“It doesn’t work in the collegiate model,” says one Power 5 AD. “It works professionally. There are drafts and salary caps.”

So yeah, it will be an uphill climb.

New NCAA committee poised to turn college sports upside down

pwestbro61 · Apr 27, 2022