BillTheCat

IMO this should help schools like SLU and many of the A-10 schools tremendously if they commit to utilizing this expanded scholarship opportunity to it's fullest extent. The opportunity to get a great education, and now take the formidable burden of tuition expense out of the equation. Why go to a SEMO or MO State if you get accepted to SLU for baseball? As for power conference schools agreeing to the roster size limitations, that's apparently a done deal or the announcements never would have went public. To your point on stockpiling, what this WON'T limit is some programs bringing in 40-50 players in the Fall, knowing they'll cut to the 36 for Spring. This has been the case for a lot of ACC/SEC programs for awhile now... Fall is essentially 'tryout season' for many of those players... it's even called that by some of the coaches we know. Not all programs in P4 conferences play that game however.

The number bantered around has always seemed between 32 and 35... what Kendall w/ D1 is referencing is that just because schools can give out 34 scholarships doesn't mean they have to... they could in fact offer less, but the max is now 34. I think the next logical question is whether D1 conferences will mandate the scholarship number for their members, or leave it to the individual member administrations to decide how much they like baseball. When you get right down to it, how much does a baseball scholarship actually 'cost' a University? You have a student in classes who might otherwise not attend the university if not for baseball, but what ultimately does one more student in a class cost at that point? You're either going to have a sports program or you're not, whatever that sport is... I would venture to say the significant cost of team staffing, logistics, meals, etc are going to be there whether the individual athletes are on a full ride or not. I think if the reduced income of 22.3 scholarships a school would otherwise get impacts a university that much where it's actually a problem to someone besides the keepers of the endowment, then yes maybe that school needs to look at dropping a sport. This opens up a whole other discussion on just how 'profitable' non-profit universities are with today's cost structures, and how mis-managed they are if they're overly impacted by adding 22.3 baseball scholarships. A recent study found 10yr returns for higher-ed endowments average around 7.2%... I believe SLU's is around $2B... big math. The scholarship increase IMO is a big net benefit to college baseball overall. As for whether you'd want to be a JuCo coach? Well, your talent pool just in fact got bigger not smaller, because the big impact on the tweener athletes is the new roster limit also being 34 at the D1 level (has been 40, with 32 allowed on some portion of scholarship). With 300 D1 teams having 6 less roster spots, starting Fall 2025 there will be 1,800 less D1 baseball athletes. Players who might have taken these last 6 spots at the D1 level will find themselves at a lower division level (or at JuCo). I have yet to see how roster/scholarship parameters will shake out for D2/D3, but the trickle down of talent will be immediate and inevitable.

FWIW the new scholarship limit is projected to be 34... the 25 number is softball. So in essence a program committed to supporting baseball can have 34 full scholarship players. This should ultimately benefit the mid-majors who wish to compete in baseball but don't have the NIL resources of the Power 4.

Well - DH expects to be able to tell his players one of two things today. ….and I hope everything works out great for everyone involved, and I think it will.

I don’t know the answer to that, but the timing of a decision is apparently today. Not sure I would use the term ‘bad’, but potentially very, very different. Hope everything works out for the best for all parties involved.

It will happen today.

Yes - there will and likely should be an upgrade to softball facilities along with baseball facilities... SLU has a similar glaring opportunity to create a notable Mid-Major destination program in softball as there is in baseball. But given the struggles to support upgrades of any kind to this point, I highly doubt any upgrades would require 'moving entire fields'. This current leadership group doesn't strike me as one that would put together anything ambitious as that... players were forced to pay for their own meals in the newly minted and highly celebrated Champions Center. Also - if there were actually facilities projects in motion for one or either of these sports even if on paper, then yes the athletic department absolutely announces that. To not do so as you mentioned would be... not business savvy. To put it mildly.

There have been a couple of adds, but nothing announced from the D1 ranks as of yet. Priorities are pitching and catching. Need to replace 270 of innings of pitching, and 99% of the (451 this year) innings of catching. Plenty of quality in the lower divisions of baseball, but it still needs to be sifted through… just like a lot of the D1 portal with no experience will end up in those lower divisions later. UConn’s super regional team had 10 former D3 guys on it, and they had numerous quality wins over teams like Oklahoma, Duke, UCLA and others this year. 8 of those 10 former D3 guys were major contributors. There are guys playing in the College World Series now that used to play at Central Missouri (D2) for example.

This is pathetic. The crowd size is limited to vested interest parties alone because the facilities in question negatively impact any casual baseball fan’s decision on whether or not to attend. The ‘product’ on the field at least this past year was on par with programs that draw far larger paid attendance. Those programs do not have fan facilities along the lines of a little league. This isn’t hard to figure out.

FWIW - May and the assistant AD lady were both at the A-10 tournament in Tysons VA, and the hope of many is that they were taking notes on that facility, and how a similar concept could be accomplished very reasonably at SLU. The seats were modest but 10x the comfort level of what SLU has currently (think SIUE), there were ramps so the facility was actually ADA compliant, the lights were top notch LEDs, and the sound system and press box were good. Tournament aside - This was a year results-wise that DH can sell to portal guys and recruits… a facility upgrade to bring in press box, better seating and lights could be done in one offseason and be ready for 2025 spring.

Probably not gonna disintegrate. The portal is wild though…

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No ESPN+ for today's game... that sucks. Yesterday's broadcast was pretty pathetic for most of it, so maybe our production crew uses programs like SJU as the benchmark. Freshman Jackson Yarberry will likely take the mound today... 4-2 w/ a 4.29 ERA... 1.28 WHIP. Richter has been effective in the lead-off spot while Moore recovers from the fracture received against @#$%&^ Cincinnati. Now has a .420 average which would easily lead most clubs but... Clohisy has an otherworldly .462 average going.