Division II shortens schedules for all sports
Baseball is among the sports that will be most affected by a new “one year only” rule limiting the number of games in NCAA Division II for the 2020-21 school year.
Because of the financial impact caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the DII Presidents Council announced Wednesday that they have lowered the minimum and maximum number of games that will be allowed in 2020-21. Locally, this will impact Barry and Nova Southeastern universities.
Not counting playoffs, baseball schedules will be cut from a maximum of 50 games to no more than 40. Coupled with another recent decision because of COVID-19 — this year’s MLB Draft was cut from 40 rounds to five — this figures to also have an increased impact on baseball.
With a 40-round draft, there would’ve been a solid chance that Barry players such as Myles Gayman and Willie Escala would start their pro careers in 2020. Now, with the likelihood that the 2020 minorleague season will be scrapped, those players could return to college.
“We’re going to have a larger roster because of that, and now we’re eliminating 10 games,” Barry coach Juan Romero said. “That’s 90 innings of experience, and that’s big, especially for our young pitchers.
“It’s tough. I wasn’t for it. I thought we could look at other things [to cut costs], but we have to make the best of this.”
NSU baseball coach Laz Gutierrez will also have a bigger roster in 2021, including six freshmen. Of his seven seniors from 2020, six of them will return. The only player who decided not to return for 2021 is pitcher Anthony DiFede, who has secured a good job in the business world, Gutierrez said.
“The [NCAA’s] decision makes complete sense, but it will be a challenge to develop our guys at a high level with less games,” Gutierrez said. “We don’t know what fall will look like or if we will have fall baseball.
“But, overall,’’ he added, ‘‘we’ve been fortunate when you consider some Division I programs such as Furman and Bowling Green have dropped baseball within the past week [because of the financial impact of the pandemic]. We get to keep our program and bring back nearly all of our seniors.”
NSU athletic director Michael Mominey said he supports the decision to cut schedules.
“Our intent at NSU is to compete within the maximum allowable games,” Mominey said. “I don’t see this decision being reconsidered.”
DII basketball teams will also be impacted as they will go from a maximum of 28 non-playoff games to
22. The 20-game conference schedule remains the same, but the out-of-league games will be cut from eight to just two.
NSU men’s basketball coach Jim Crutchfield, whose 2019-20 season was cut short by the pandemic right before the Sharks were to play Embry-Riddle in the NCAA Tournament opener, said the new rule could impact the 2021 playoffs.
Instead of four Sunshine State Conference teams qualifying for the NCAA Tournament, as happened this past March, the league might have fewer entrants in 2021.
“It hurts teams in our league [SSC],” Crutchfield said. “We have a strong league. But we won’t have nearly as many chances to prove ourselves against other leagues in the regular season. This will probably cost us a team or two in the regionals.”
Because of the reduced schedule, the margin for error will be smaller, and the conference schedule will mean almost everything, according to Barry men’s basketball coach Butch Estes.
“It’s a financial decision, and all DII schools have to save money,” Estes said. “I hate this for our kids, because they want to play. As coaches, we will have less games to prepare them for the playoffs.”
Steve Hendricks, who coaches the Barry’s women’s volleyball team, said he will have to cancel a trip to Boston as volleyball schedules will be cut from 31 matches to a max of 20.
“But I don’t think it will have a huge negative impact on our student-athletes,” Hendricks said. “They will still be able to train hard and play highlevel volleyball.”