College Baseball Third Assistant Proposal Defeated

[VectorVictor]

Maybe I missed this (I've been away due to some malfeasance), but I didn't see a thread about this topic.

 

There was a proposal to add a third paid assistant position to NCAA Baseball programs, as well as NCAA Softball programs. A fourth, unpaid assistant could still be retained, and not every school had to hire a third coach--it was up to the program. 

 

The SEC was in favor, the Big XII was in favor (until they weren't), and the B1G rejected it.

 

And while the B1G Athletic Directors voted against it...our own coach Erstad was in favor of the proposal.

 

Quote

During his weekly radio show on “Sports Nightly,” Nebraska baseball coach Darin Erstad made clear his preference to have a third full-time assistant coach. In fact, the Big Ten coaches were unanimously in favor of it at their fall meeting. However, Erstad cleared up a misconception attached with the recent decision by the NCAA.

 

“It never got to the (Big Ten) ADs,” Erstad said after host Greg Sharpe acknowledged that the nay vote was pushed for by Big Ten faculty representatives. “There’s some people out there saying that one AD in the Big Ten was the only one in favor of it (and) that’s just not an accurate statement.”

 

Though this proposal was defeated, both the Baseball America and the AP Article with Erstad bring up another proposal that may happen soon: allowing NCAA Baseball programs to offer everyone a full scholarship:

 

Quote

“If we’re going to spend money on college baseball, just my personal opinion, is more scholarships,” he said. “I mean, 11.7 for 27 is just not enough. Kids don’t want to walk on, they want scholarships and 25% minimum that you could put on it. No other sport has that. I don’t understand why we can’t use our 11.7 for all 35 guys (on the roster).”

 

I don't understand that either, and I think if we could get scholarships for all players (even if it means trimming rosters down to, say, 30, to facilitate this), we could then revisit the third paid assistant down the road.