Monday, January 19, 2009

Foul Play at the NCAA


Last week, the NCAA denied a motion to increase the scholarships for baseball to 14. We at Rounding Third just don't understand the rationale. Many of our readers who have sons that aspire to play at the next level should be outraged and we really encourage you to speak out and write the NCAA, it's member schools and complain. This week, we will address this issue and supply you with members to contact.

Baseball is grossly underfunded based on the amount of time and effort players put into it. No other sport at the NCAA level demands so much of its athletes than baseball. Consider this...

1. 45 sanctioned fall practice days peppered with 6:30am strength and conditioning sessions throughout the entire fall semester. Many warm weather teams have extra team captain supervised practices on top of this.

2. Practices/games the entire spring semester as well as strength and conditioning and team captain supervised practices.

3. Up to 5 games a week...no other sport in amateur or the pros with the exception of MLB has this kind of grueling schedule...and that's on top of 12-14 units of college courses. These guys are working the equivalent of two full time jobs...for what $5,000????...that's a serious violation of civil/worker rights.

4. In reality 14 scholly's are not even enough...To make things equal for a sport that IS generating a profit at many schools...baseball should offer at least 20. 14 is an embarrassment and 11.7 is a moral outrage.

5. The time demands of baseball and the costs many parents have to invest in College Development Programs, showcases and lessons just to get to the next level at many of the top producing programs is upside down. More money is spent to qualify a kid to get to the next level than is granted to him once he gets there.

6. The irony is...many schools ARE investing more and more money into facilities, top coaches and marketing...I guess the mantra...if you build it..."they" (scholarships in this case) will come does not apply to the NCAA and their opinion of baseball...However, they encourage schools to build new basketball palaces, and football venues and get rewarded...

7. The NCAA is dead wrong and legal action must be taken to challenge this ruling.

8. I wish an official from the NCAA would take the time to answer us in this type of forum...on this web site...their rationale for rulings that have the potential to ruin this great sport. Unfortunately, the tuition paying/hard working average Joe is not granted this type of transparency. The NCAA is a cloaked and secret organization/dictatorship that answers to no one apparently.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is a good article and touches upon every point that is needed to improve the game of baseball in college. Whoever is reading this, please contact the NCAA. Express your concerns. It may or may nor help, but it certainly won't hurt.

Anonymous said...

We spend over $5000 for our son to go to camps, play on a travel team and go to showcases. If all we are getting is a $5000 scholarship, then is it all worth it? We are all new at this and we had no idea that the scholarships awarded to players was that low. I guess at this stage (our son is a sophomore) everyone is new at this. Too much work and too much skill goes into playing baseball. I'd think that they should at leasy get 75% or more to play. I'm not happy.

Anonymous said...

We spent about $15,000 from start to finish for our son to do 2 Perfect Game showcases, attend a few college camps, take some lessons, and do 4 years of travel ball in the summer. Our son's scholarship is worth about $6,000-$7,500 per year, depending on the number of hours he's taking. It's pretty sad that it could take 2 1/2 years to even break even on the deal. It's no wonder that fewer and fewer lower-income kids are able to play ball at 4-year programs. With such a low return on "investment," they simply can't afford it.

Anonymous said...

Good info. The NCAA leadership apparently doesn't support or promote the concerns of most coaches at the college level. Parents are even lower on the power totem pole, but perhaps a new or better coaliton of coaches/parents and even players would be in order to challenge NCAA's dishonesty. This new player/parent/coach coalition could upset status quo of collegiate baseball and bring fairness and integrity to the ranks, rather than corruption. It's all about the football and basketball money, isn't it?

Anonymous said...

This is a good article, however, arguing that you aren't getting an even return on your investment as parents (as some commenters are) will never sway the NCAA. Its not a good argument.

The points in this article and the next one are about time-invested (once in college) versus return (scholarship money). This is a stronger point, however the NCAA would likely respond by reducing the number of games and practices...not increasing scholarships.