Yes, the NCAA’s Division I Council on Monday approved a measure to grant an extra year of eligibility to all spring sports athletes due to the cancellation of the 2020 season.
However, as far as college baseball coaches are concerned, plenty of questions remain.
“We had a conference call today with the SEC coaches, and it was more questions than answers,” Bulldog baseball coach Scott Stricklin said. “There’s still some clarification needed on some things that the NCAA and SEC compliance officers are working on.”
Along with the the decision to grant an extra year of eligibility to all spring athletes, the Council also adjusted baseball specific rules to relax restrictions on both the 35-man roster and the maximum of 27 players on scholarships.
In other words, returning seniors will not count toward either cap. Georgia–with four seniors on its 2020 squad–could technically have a roster consisting of 39 players next spring.
But herein lies the problem. Some big changes to the Major League Draft could potentially put college programs in a roster crunch.
The annual June Draft has already been pushed back to July, but the big news was MLB’s decision to significantly cut the draft from 40 rounds to between five and 10.
This obviously wouldn’t affect players projected to go in the first round like Emerson Hancock and Cole Wilcox. But for other draft-eligible Bulldogs, there will be tougher choices to make.
“The biggest issue is the juniors that you expected to get drafted, but might not have been top three- or four-round picks. We’ve got several of those guys, guys who are really good players,” Stricklin said. “You could name six juniors right off the top of your head from our roster, that you know could be eighth rounders or 10th rounders or 12th rounders, that now most likely won't get drafted.
“Now what happens? Those are all guys that, when you recruit them, you expect those guys as juniors to sign and move on. So that's the biggest issue that every coach right now in Division One is dealing with, is the roster crunch of the juniors that aren't going to sign now that you expected to sign originally. Also, you look at your high school seniors. Yeah, you've got several of those guys that were highly touted. Do they end up going in the top five rounds? Do they end up signing? So those are the things that every D-1 coach is kind of dealing with right now.”
Potentially, depending on how many elected to return, teams could have more players than the 35-man maximum allows, even with returning seniors not counting toward the cap.
Although schools are being allowed to determine how aid is given to returning players, from nothing all the way up to what they received from this season, the fact baseball teams are only allowed 11.7 scholarships remains an issue.
Stricklin wishes he had an answer.
“We don't know how it's going to affect us. Right now, what we're doing is communicating with our players, and in having them understand the situation, let them evaluate where they are, as far as the draft goes, you know, our juniors or draft-eligible guys,” Stricklin said. “Throughout the next six weeks, we'll be having conversations just so we have a better idea of where we're going to be. By that time, hopefully we have a better idea when we talk to pro scouts and evaluators and find out where these guys are going to get drafted. There's going to be some tough decisions to be made at every single Division 1 school in the country because of the roster crunch.”
