Bizarre New Restrictions D1 College Is Placing On Pro Scouts

If my son was ever considering this program for an opportunity to play at the next level I would be inclined to encourage him to cross this college off the list.

This is fine for players who could care less about being drafted, but for those that have that as a goal, this sends a clear message that this program does not want those type of players. 

 School's that don't do this, are gonna have an easier sell.

Agree

can u imagine treating "pro scouts" this way in football or basketball? 

It's only ONE school.

He is from WA state, so you wanna guess which it might be?

The school being discussed is not in Washington.

J H - if you're sure, do you know the school?

Without that info, this is useless it seems.

It is NC State.  

Wow, big time school too.  Can't believe that will have a positive impact when they are recruiting top tier players.

Did they have some scouts tamper with kids or something that made some ineligible? That is a bizarre list of rules.

I'm going to make an educated guess and say this is probably a misguided attempt to deal with the media circus they expect every Friday night when Carlos Rodon pitches.  Last time I checked, Rodon was the consensus choice to be the No. 1 pick this year.  That means every Friday night N.C. State is going to be flooded with scouts, wannabe scouts, cross-checkers, GM's , etc.  

Historically, attendance at N.C. State games is not great (unless they play the Heels).  The students generally do not support the team and they don't have a lot of hardcore fans.  BUT, between last year's CWS appearance, Rodon, and a pretty decent team coming back this year, that could a lot more tickets this year, especially on Friday nights.

But, there's another problem.  N.C. State's stadium is not very big.  More importantly, it is also poorly designed.  There is not much seating behind home plate. And my guess is that's where the hardcore season ticket holders, and any bandwagon fans they have picked up this year, want to sit.  It's also where the scouts want to be.  

This is very rare.

It's not like the college coaches I know to cut off their noses to spite their faces; and none I know are naive enough to not recognize the potential difficulties it could cause their recruiting. Nor is it common for a conflict to exist without there being two sides to the story.

While it could be the sort of frenzy that high draft picks tend to attract, my guess would be that the coach is reacting to some sort of scouting behavior that he deemed unacceptable. Like all professions, scouting has those who should be emulated and others whose tactics many might find questionable.

A couple of specific possibilities come to mind: (1) A scout or scouts could have been approaching players during the season; enough so that it threw them off their game due to the increased pressure they felt; or (2) during summer ball, a scout could have persuaded a player to leave the team a year earlier than his college coaches expected.

While draconian measures like the ones listed in the article are considered quite rare, many college coaches make it well known that they expect scouts to give their players a wide enough berth that it doesn't detract from their quality of play, and there's an unwritten rule that a scout let the college coaches know when they intend try to sign a player earlier than it was expected that he'd leave.

In any event, if my son were considering the school that allegedly imposed those restrictions, my counsel to him would be to talk with the coaches and players about it. At the very least, the coaches deserve the opportunity to describe and explain their position, themselves.

I'm still not exactly clear why the school finds this necessary, or necessary to be so seemingly over the top with it at least... Though I'm sure it falls along the lines that MTH listed. Seems like this might come more from the ADs office rather than from the coaches. Also surprised to hear that this particular school doesn't get much student and general fan support... I just assumed such a powerhouse would draw well.

Prepster may well be correct about what precipitated this policy.  But, it looks like they are already reconsidering, at least to some degree.  Probably because of the pissed off scouts, AND because they're afraid that it will be used against them on the recruiting trail.

https://twitter.com/keithlaw/s...s/432251551764459520

That's the problem with big sweeping written policy announcements, the horses are already out of the barn now. If they soften their stance now or even if they completely reverse it, there's no doubt that it becomes one more arrow in the quiver for their recruiting competitors.  And the other school might have much the same policy or issues of concern, but just didn't draw so much attention to it. Usually wise to measure twice and cut once when handing down inflexible rules. Often times the back channel is more effective for getting changes implemented... ie in this case talking with the scouts directly about whatever the issues are and working out mutual understanding. Of course that's all JMO from the outside looking in...

Apparently, good sleuthing MTH!

Prepster good post. We have no clue what happened that may have caused this situation (now to be changed).

No one can fully understand how distracting it can be and maddening to a coaching staff trying to get your team to win their conference championship, regionals to get to Omaha ( a yearly goal for many programs) and you have the stands filled with scouts, many, many scouts night after night.  I can tell you first hand as a parent and in watching others, it puts a lot of undo pressure on the players (like they don't already have it). I have seen many top ranked college players not perform well because of it.

Telling your HS son to cross this school off the list is silly, I agree that the player should speak with the coaches to find out why they feel this way.

Wonder if the coaches made this decision without consulting the AD?

During sons college draft year, he was not allowed to speak to the scouts, all the questions were directed to his pitching coach. I feel he was very much distracted by all of the scouts, cross checkers, and sometimes GM's,  in the stands.

This is why the NCAA should allow them to have advisors that can speak to the clubs, so  the player can concentrate on taking care of business.

Something has got to change.

You make very good points.  I watched the same thing happen at the High School Level last year.  I thought that it put undo pressure on not only the kid they were coming to watch, but the other players too. 

So should I tell the big league scouts asking my son for his HS schedule not to come for fear he might get nervous and not play well?  in my opinion focus is part of the game. 

 Scouts have been hanging around amateur baseball forever, its part of the game. Parents, coaches, and players should get use to it!