There are 287 division I and 246 division II schools that offer scholarships for baseball. This means that there are 5,594 scholarships on offer from NCAA schools. These are not "full ride" scholarships. Baseball is classed as an equivalency sport which gives the coach the opportunity to divide his scholarships between a larger number of players. IE: 24 players could receive a up to 50% scholarship instead of 11.7 full ride scholarships.
National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics colleges can offer a maximum of twelve scholarships per college. Baseball is also classed as a equivalency sport so a larger number of scholarships can be offered by each college.
The National Junior College Athletic Association allows twenty four baseball scholarships per member institution. These are full-ride scholarships but some community college's offer partial grants in aid.
There are 184 division I colleges and 129 division II colleges that offer baseball scholarships. Each school can only offer twenty four scholarships in total, unlike the NCAA the NJCAA cannot offer a larger number of scholarships at a lower percentage.
These are the facts...Now the reality. Sometimes we wonder if what we write about day in and day out is worth it. Families spend thousands of dollars to help make their sons better baseball players...because they and their sons love the game of baseball...but the game really doesn't love them back as much as football and basketball. They have to work harder, play more games and practice more than any other NCAA sport and get the least amount of money.
Get this folks...Women's crew gets 17 scholarships. Listen, I have a daughter and if she was in to crew, I'd be proud if she got some money...but a full ride???? I would never expect that. In fact, I would be embarrassed if my son or daughter got more than 25% for that sport.
Baseball is a Big 3 sport. It's still America's greatest game and more and more Major League clubs are turning to college players come draft time each and every year. They are more mature, disciplined, seasoned and in better condition that the high school athletes. But are the best athletes playing the game in college or are the better athletes that may prefer baseball playing football because the scholarship money is better?
This is our last post on this subject for a while...now it's up to you...the parent and athlete to take the next step and lobby the NCAA to change the NCAA scholarship limits for baseball.
2 comments:
What are the next steps? Letters? Lawsuit? Lobby the MLB to push change? Everyone in the HS and college baseball worlds completely agree this is injustice but the complaining doesn't seem to get us anywhere. We need action!
It would be awesome if Baseball was allowed to offer 20-25 full ride scholarships, but the reality is that schools are closing down baseball programs due to cost (and title IX which enables 17 woman to get full rides to do crew). Wouldn't this put more programs out of commission leaving less opportunities for players to go? Especially for the Northern kids who have fewer local opportunites Div I wise and probably pay more per year (indoor workouts, further travel) for travel ball then kids in the West or South.
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