a decision today by the Division I council per Kendall Rogers of D-I baseball
The NCAA Division I Council approved a blanket waiver for all spring sport athletes to get an extra year of eligibility on Monday.
How much financial support given to the student-athletes will be up to the school itself as they can offer the same, less or zero of what they offered this year.
Rogers also tweeted that the thought is seniors would be exempt from the 11.7 scholarship limit in baseball.
As expected, the Council declined to do that for winter sports such as basketball.
No roster limits applied to returning seniors (we only had one, Cole Austin).
This only really helps with Opitz though doesn’t it? I can’t imagine the Kjerstad or Martin will be back. And of course I’m sure a few stud freshman we wouldn’t have seen will show up too.
Even a five-round draft, Opitz is likely to be taken as well.
Just making sure I understand the ruling, this means if you were a Sophmore this year, you are still a sophomore next year? Or does it just mean that Seniors get an extra year?
If it is the first, then would Juniors eligible for the draft now have 3 years to get drafted rather than 2?
Everybody gets an extra year. We only had one senior this season and DVH says he isn’t coming back, so it doesn’t really help us, but it gives our draft-eligible people an extra year of leverage. It may be more useful for softball; Coach Deifel had six seniors this year, so as I read it those players would not count against her limit of 12 scholarships.
Swine’s summation is accurate
Where it does hurt is the roster will have to be at 35. There are some recruits that will not want to lose a year of development in case a bunch of juniors (who were expected to get drafted and leave) stay now. Those high level recruits may sign with an MLB club after being drafted or spend a year in JUCO and be eligible for the draft next year. Older recruits like Wohlgemuth and Wallace could make campus because they would be Soph eligible in 2022. Bottom line is there are 38 returning on the roster (includes redshirts) and that doesn’t include Opitz, Kerstad and Martin. There are 19-20 new recruits schedule. That’s 60 players in fall, no chance they can keep scholarship at 11.7 and if they tried, some high level recruits may say they want AB’s or innings so they stay sharp. Any way this is sliced, coaches have a tough road to manage this. There will be some current frosh, sophs and juniors told they won’t be back and also some incoming signees.
That said, it is no different - except in having no seniors - than what Coach Van Horn has to deal with every year. There have always been some tough decisions that have to be made.
Nope. Seniors are in excess of that. In our case, the limit would have to be 35 because we have no returning seniors if Austin doesn’t come back. But if he did return we could have 36 on the roster and 28 on scholarship, and exceed the 11.7 limit by whatever amount Austin was getting. DVH has been making cuts for years so this isn’t anything new. But we may have some draft-eligible people stick around who wouldn’t have otherwise because of the shorter draft and reduced bonuses for free agents.
Also of note: If we have any junior college kids coming in next year, they could come in as a sophomore with 3 years to play 3 or even a 4-to-play-4 freshman in the case of a one-year transfer like Goodheart was. The D1 school would have to request a waiver from the NJCAA, but the NJCAA people say they will approve all such waivers.
I’m reading that the roster cap change may be more than a one-year adjustment, and they’ll decide later what to do about 2022 and beyond.
Had 49 on roster this fall. Jumping to 58-60 is a major leap. So not the same juggling as before. All I am saying is some recruits may not make it. All of this depends on MLB draft. If MLB has a half season, the draft will be 10 rounds.
Keep in mind, MLB collective bargaining agreement is up after 2021. They plan on cutting draft and minor league teams. This will happen and that means bigger logjams at college.
I would guess that some of the players redshirting or lightly-used this season will probably end up somewhere else before the fall. Cole Austin isn’t going to return, so that’s another open roster spot. It is inevitable that some signees are weeded out by the end of their first fall and go to JUCO.
If the draft is five rounds, Arkansas will probably lose three or four players. If it is 10 rounds, I could see some other juniors being drafted.
A 10-round draft probably wipes out most of the speculation about whether there are enough scholarship dollars to go around. I’ve seen fall rosters at Arkansas in the 50s before.
Matt, would the 4th player be Vermillion?
No, I’m thinking of Goodheart. Baseball America has him as its 250th best prospect in the draft. That doesn’t mean he’ll be drafted in that range, but it’s an indication that scouts like him. The big question surrounding him is where he can play in the field.
I tend to think Vermillion falls in more of the round 8-15 range, depending on how much money he wants. There is just enough evaluation of him this year to like the jump he had made, but I think there might be some skepticism about the quality of batters he faced. If he had been able to pitch against SEC hitters and maintained how he was throwing, I don’t have much doubt he would taken in the top 10 rounds.
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