In the days of 11.7 scholarships for baseball, the ability to come to school with money OTHER than baseball money is important. Full scholarships in baseball are as rare as ivory-billed wood******s. Therefore, it always helps a coach if the players he is recruiting can get loads of academic money, because then the athletic money can be stretched farther.
Now, in the new world of 2008 and beyond (at least for the present) the other factor to consider is classroom performance and ability to graduate. If a school brings in too many who can't cut it academically, they are now going to start losing scholarships and games. This of course will make recruiting even harder.
The bottom line is, you have to be good enough to play in whatever conference the team is in, BUT, if two kids are equal or close to it, I think that a kid with better academics is going to win out.
