The pandemic change in college sports is still receiving tremors from the shutdown.
I am sure everyone has heard about how it has delayed the major professional sports but how has it influenced collegiate athletics, specifically, college baseball? In this article I want to address this situation, so as a player or a parent of a player you will be in better understanding of the landscape.
College baseball is not a money machine like college football or college basketball. There are only a select few programs in the country that generate revenue from their college baseball program.
The 2020 season being cut short has already taken a toll on some of the schools that do not generate revenue. A few college baseball programs have already been shut down or have been close to shutting down. For example, Furman University shut down its baseball program and Bowling Green State University just reinstated its program after the community raised $1.5 million to keep afloat.
The Furman shut down has led to all of their players scrambling to find new homes to finish their careers. While Bowling Green currently has 29 players in the transfer portal. Recently the Mountain West Conference canceled its 2021 conference tournament to cut costs on participating schools. Athletic departments are still shuffling trying to figure out how to survive this pandemic, especially with the college football season still a question mark.
The abrupt ending of the 2020 college baseball season has caused the number of scholarships to rise for each school for the 2021 season. The normal scholarship allotment of 11.7 will only apply to players that were projected to be on the roster for 2021. This does not include the 2020 senior class because they all have been given one extra year of eligibility. Another aspect that affects the scholarships in college baseball is the shortened MLB draft. The 2020 MLB draft will only consist of 160 selections in 5 rounds, whereas the 2019 MLB draft consisted of 1217 picks in 40 rounds. This means there will be even more players coming to college baseball or staying another year because there is a huge drop in selections. A positive of this for college baseball fans is this means that rosters will be more loaded with talent than ever.
College baseball is in the process of discussing a new schedule due to the pandemic. The proposal for a new schedule is meant to continue the growth of college baseball and to help athletic departments financially. A panel of coaches is recommending starting the college baseball season in the third week of March instead of February and pushing the College World Series back to mid-July.
They have recommended this because they believe it does not make sense financially or medically to play baseball in February. This change would put a big cut into travel expenses for northern teams. They wouldn’t have to travel as much to get away from the weather. This could also lead to more spectators at games because Winter sports will be over and hopefully better weather.
Another major impact in scheduling are the college summer leagues like the Cape Cod and Prospect League. This would push the college season back into these seasons which will take players out of these leagues. These leagues are important to the college game because players that do not get playing time at their school get the chance to get quality reps.
Overall, this pandemic has sparked mass change in college baseball. It will be interesting to see how programs handle the student-athletes that received an extra year of eligibility and how they’ll manage rosters. This story is far from over.