Roster limitations to test coaches
Seniors’ extra year will lead to tough decisions
NORFOLK — The NCAA’s recent decision to grant an extra year of eligibility to athletes in spring sports was a nobrainer, area college coaches agree.
But for baseball coaches in particular, the decision raises a series of questions whose answers remain to be seen.
Baseball is the only Division I spring sport with roster limitations, with teams limited to 35 active players. Of those, 27 split a maximum of 11.7 athletic scholarships, with no scholarship player receiving less than 25% of one full scholarship.
With seniors potentially returning next season, rosters can be expanded by the number of scholarship seniors back. Therefore, if a team had five scholarship seniors, rosters can grow to as many as 40.
Factor incoming freshmen, transfers and the major league draft into the equation, and, well, it can be confusing.
Old Dominion coach Chris Finwood believes his program, with just two scholarship seniors on the roster in 2020, is betterpositioned than most moving forward.
The Monarchs, who were off to a 12-4 start when the remainder of the season was canceled last month in light of the coronavirus outbreak, expect to have outfielder Kyle Battle and second baseman Matt Burch, both star senior players, back.
A promising recruiting class of seven scholarship freshmen — ODU has no transfers slated to join the team — means Finwood and his staff will have to decide which players to keep around and which can move on to make room for the new and returning ones. Otherwise, Finwood has a pretty good sense of what his roster will look like when play resumes.
Everyone is not as fortunate.
“I’ve talked to a lot of friends in the business that absolutely don’t,” Finwood said. “There’s a lot of tough conversations that are going to be had.”
At Norfolk State, which operates under the same 11.7-scholarship rule but doesn’t have the budget to fill all of them, coach Keith Shumate is also weighing decisions on his players’ futures.
The Spartans have six incoming freshmen, and they were slated to lose five scholarship seniors and another five senior walk-ons. Shumate expects to have all of the scholarship seniors back, but he’s been in discussions with his non-scholarship seniors — some of whom have jobs, marriages or graduate school lined up — about what’s next.
If NSU signs only in-state players, its budget allows for seven scholarships. For out-of-state players, for whom tuition is about $32,000, that number drops to 4.9.
Still, Shumate believes the NCAA chose wisely in granting eligibility relief, even if it didn’t fund its execution.
“They did the right thing, and they’re to be applauded,” Shumate said. “We just hope that all schools can do everything they can to help those young men come back to school.”
The major league draft, originally scheduled for June 10, can be pushed back as late as July 20 in accordance with an agreement reached recently between Major League Baseball and its players association.
Additionally, the draft will be reduced to between five and 10 rounds, significantly limiting the number of college players likely to be picked.
For incoming college players, the playing field could be tilted. A corner infielder hoping to replace a senior star, for example, will now have stiffer competition for early playing time than he might’ve planned.
“That’s the other side of this, right? The high school kid,” Finwood said. “You had a senior at that position and thought he was going to come in and compete for a spot next year. Well, now he’s battling a 23-year-old who’s got 600 college at-bats. I mean, who are you going to play?”
Because of its scholarship limitations versus those of its opponents, NSU plays its non-conference schedule at a decided disadvantage. Many of the teams the Spartans face, including some in the MEAC, meet the 11.7scholarship maximum, meaning that NSU essentially pits walk-ons against players on at least partial rides.
The Spartans, who won the MEAC North Division title last season, were 3-13 and less than two weeks from beginning league play when this season was canceled.
Any allotted scholarship money, Shumate said, was spent when the program signed its recruits in the fall. The players Shumate plans to retain have been informed, and he’s waiting for approval from the school’s administration.
“Your mind just races with you about what to say to each kid,” Shumate said.
ODU, meanwhile, had its foundation rocked last week when an independent study of the athletic department recommended the elimination of the school’s 63-year-old wrestling program, among other potential cuts.
The study, written by former college athletic director Dr. Richard L. Sander, also cited lost revenue for departments nationwide after the NCAA basketball tournament was canceled. The tournament was expected to generate $867 million, 60% of which was to be divided among member institutions.
Furthermore, the study concluded that additional eligibility for spring athletes next year would cost ODU approximately $500,000.
Finwood said the smaller MLB draft is likely to help the college game, keeping players who might’ve otherwise been selected in school.
But it will force him and others around the country to make difficult decisions.
“There’s work to be done on the roster side of it, obviously, for everybody,” Finwood said. “You couple that with budget cuts that are certainly coming for everybody — I think not just for Old Dominion sports, but I think a lot of people — we’ve got to figure out who we can have back on our team. So when we get that number of what we have, then I’ve got to put my accountant hat on and figure out what our roster’s going to look like next year.”