The National Collegiate Athletic Association announced today that it intends to provide “eligibility relief” to Division I athletes whose spring seasons have been cancelled due to the spread of the coronavirus. Baseball teams are obviously included among the universal cancellations.
Details are yet to be finalized, with the expectation being that new one-off rules will be drafted in the “coming days and weeks.” It’s hard to know exactly how the system will work — both for those players who expected to exhaust their eligibility and those who’d stand to lose one year of it without playing. There’s also a potential impact to near-future collegians who had committed to schools based upon anticipated departures of certain fellow athletes.
There are obviously quite a few moving parts. For most of the players involved, it’s about pursuing their personal dreams of collegiate competition. But for others, there could be a real impact on their hopes for a professional future.
At present, the MLB Rule 4 amateur draft is scheduled for June 10-12 — just before the scheduled start of a College World Series that will no longer take place. That left quite a lot of time for draft-eligible players to showcase their talents for MLB teams. But with games cancelled and scouts currently held back from air travel, that’s all on pause.
Just how the NCAA cancellation will impact the draft is impossible to say now, and won’t ever be fully untied. It’ll do so in a multitude of subtle ways. Supposing the draft occurs at some point this summer, some diamonds in the rough will not have had a chance to show through. Seniors that now have a shot at returning to college ball could gain newfound draft leverage. If juniors are granted extra eligibility — and it isn’t even clear if that’s on the table — then they could conceivably have an extra bite at the draft apple.
MLB’s own draft eligibility rules may require some modification to accommodate the changes. No doubt there’ll be some amount of interaction between the league and the NCAA on the matter. In all likelihood, college eligibility relief will not factor as heavily at the very top of the draft. But it poses many potentially tricky issues. Sorting things out poses yet another challenge to the league.
The smart players would take the offer to come back. They’re young, and it’s only a year out of their lives, but it will certainly affect the upcoming MLB draft…
I couldn’t disagree more.
1) That’s 18-21 months without playing since the season didn’t really even start for some teams. Meanwhile these players could sign quickly and get a couple months this year before the milb season ends.
2) One year is en wternity, especially when you consider they already burned some of their develppment time in college hoping to fast-track their development and to raise their signing bonus.
3) For guys coming out of universities, they will be almost 22 or 23, meaning they have 2 years to climb from short season A-ball to the majors without burning their draft stock. Justin Dunn was great and only 24 last year at AA for Seattle and most pundits have already dropped him from their top 100 prospects list despite improved results and a cup of coffee at the majors.
4) Graduating at 23 with two years in the minors means they will be 32 at the youngest when they finally hit free agency, and that’s if they don’t get optioned and they make it to the show by 25 in September and stick out of training camp at 26. Meaning they well cost themselves hundreds of millions. 32-year-ols make less years and dollars per season.
*an eternity
*development
*32-year-olds
Sorry my phone is garbage to write on.
Well considering most guys never play pro ball…
Career students and those with some degree of no use in the real world might choose to come back. Ditto those who are in school that shouldn’t be in the 1st place, or just above Dexter Manley IQ in other words.
Great comment Johnny boy!
So glad this is happening. Those seniors have one more year to give to their teams
silly to be more concerned about the teams than the players themselves. what good does it do for guys like Hancock and Torkelson to stay another year and get passed in the draft by simmilar players a year younger than them.
I guess you cant read?
Padres458, what part did he not understand? Your comment makes no sense.
Hancock and Torkelson will both leave anyway, what in the world are you even talking about?
what i am saying is adding the extra year complicates draft eligibility. if they’re saying this year doesnt count, are those guys eligible to be drafted?
Unless there is a corresponding increase in scholarships for in coming Freshmen then your just shifting the loss from one group to another.
At this point in the year most of the scholarship offers have already been doled out for graduating seniors. So I think the colleges have already locked down the commits and offers for the 2020-21 school year. It hurts highschool jrs more since they might also have shutdown seasons so they wont get the normal college scout showcase of there jr year. Its the fall commits for this years jrs that could get wonky since the colleges will know which ones take the extra year by then.
Schools will be overbudget on scholarships. Down the money that this seasons games would have generated. They also will have more scholarship players and fewer spots on the roster for walkons.
Will they make the retuning seniors take classes next year? One work around is if they take online classes now and graduate on time this spring then next year they can be offered part time jobs in the school/athletic department or something and not need the scholarship money (since there wouldn’t be tuition). I know student athletes normally need to be enrolled but if there is ever a time to make an exception I would think it would be when an entire class isn’t able to play a season… I know it’s not a perfect but it at least solves the scholarship issue
STUDENT athletes, most will never play pro ball. The ones who will be left out of educational opportunities are the ones that will suffer.
should just let it ride. this yeat counts as a year of eligibility. players that would be draft eligible should be allowed to be drafted at the very least
This is ridiculous. It’s going to be nearly impossible for high school seniors to get onto an NCAA roster. If a team has a roster spot to fill, are they going to take the 5th-year senior, a JUCO player who now suddenly will have 3 years of eligibility, or a high school graduate who only got 3 years of high school baseball?
most schools are closed, too!
Those who say this is wrong are fools. If HS seniors are good enough to take a 5th year senior spot….prove it. It’s called competition and it happens every year. Roster limits will be relaxed for a year. Prove you can compete. Simple.
Lots of seniors were scouted as jrs and offered scholarships in the fall so schools have already given out offers for all the top recruits. Its March school year is almost over. They may be overloaded on scholarships in the fall so they cant offer as many for next years class, and they wont be able to scout the HS season if it is also cancelled as well as summer leagues potentially.
Why just D1? Scouts be scouting at the D2/D3 level too…
I believe eligibility rules are different in D1 than in the other divisions. I could be wrong.
With sports gone I want corona
I just bought a couple of cases tonight. Plenty of it because for some reason people suddenly stopped buying it the guy at the store said.
I only had a Corona
5 cent deposit
You’d think that these scholar-athletes would have finished up their classes and need to move on. It’s almost like getting an education isn’t what they’re their for.
God forbid you coach or correspond with one of these student athletes to see the actual work they put in…… With all due respect your sentiment rings hollow, especially when you can see the other end.
So, putting education over athletics is wrong?