TPM:
As usual, I agree with you. In my hypothetical college baseball program, I "spent" most of my budget on impact starting pitchers and power hitters and tried to find "fill in players" around that nucleus who would cost me NO MONEY from my athletic scholarship budget. There are a hundred different hyptheticals that we could think of to posit that would demonstrate the same conclusion. The difficult reality facing real coaches under the new rules is compounded by the fact that they will in 2008 have whatever they have with regard to undergraduate baseball talent in school and scholarship money that will be freed up with the exit of this senior class. Therefore, their needs are much more sepcific and immediate for next year's incoming class of transfers, jucos and freshmen. Maybe they MUST recruit 2 impact starting pitchers AND a center fielder who can hit the ground running. If the players leaving the program in 2008 only yield 2 full scholarships, what is the coach to do? I certainly do not envy his dilemma.
CollegeParent:
I think we are on the same page here. What I was trying to explain with my long winded hypothetical was I believe under the new rules (especially the 25% requirement) college baseball players that need finiancial aid to go to college AND are qualified under NCAA rules to receive academic aid in lieu of a baseball scholarship will be sought after and recruited harder by coaches under the new rules than they were under the old rules where three or four thousand dollars a year might be enough to get a young man to commit. A back up 2B, a long reliever, a utility player that plays several positions well who costs a coach nothing in NCAA countable scholarship aid is more valuable to the team than the same role player that must receive at least 25% of his aid from the limited baseball scholarship pool. Consequently, the smart coach will seek out those student athletes more than in the past. But, as you say, only time will tell.
I certainly agree with you that any coach that gets caught trying to put a square peg into a round hole by giving academic or need based aid to a player that would not be eligible for it if he were not a player will get the coach into a world of hurt with the NCAA.
TW344