I cannot say for a fact that his kind of stuff happens "everywhere", but I think that would be a pretty safe bet. It certainly happens at every college and university in my state, including the Power 5 schools. I'm not saying that it happens to the same degree as it did with Marks. But, it is not unusual for college baseball players to end up with significant student loans when their playing days are over. Morrison's $40,000 in debt is not unusual. According to one article I read, the average student loan debt for all 2016 grads is around $37,000. Why should baseball players be any different than other students? In response to this article, Michael Roth tweeted that he had $25,000 in student loan debt when he left South Carolina. And, that's a kid who got athletic money, a lottery scholarship, and possibly other academic aid.
To those with kids headed toward college in the near future, I would not put a whole lot of faith in the suggestions that coaches will "find" your kid money. All they have is the 11.7. They have zero influence on academic and need based scholarships.
Parents with kids that may walk on, I would not get my hopes up about coaches later giving your kids money if they contribute. Some certainly do. But many others do not. Once your kid gets on campus and drinks the KoolAid, the coach knows he's not going anywhere. If he's got money that he can use to bring another asset on campus, that's what he's going to do. Of course, if he has extra money lying around, he probably didn't do a very good job of planning/recruiting. Football walk ons get money far more often than baseball walk ons.
Very few, if any, coaches are going to counsel a kid against going into debt to play college baseball. Nor will they counsel a kid against a worthless major in order to play baseball. Do you think financial aid people counsel kids against taking out big loans and/or taking worthless majors? Not if they want to keep their jobs. It's all about putting butts in seats. (Which is the main reason some schools have JV baseball teams). It seems unrealistic to me to expect coaches to do something that college financial aid folks aren't going to do.
From my perspective, academics should drive everything. But, people have different perspectives and priorities, and that's fine. College baseball is a business, pure and simple. There is nothing surprising in this article.
Some schools do have programs that pay for tuition, room and board after a player exhausts his eligibility. At that point, the 11.7 rule no longer applies. I suspect they do this because it helps with their 5 year graduation rates. After 4 years, my son needed 1 class to graduate with his ME degree. His school paid for the extra semester, and I mean everything, tuition, room, board, etc. They would have paid for the full year if he had needed it. I really hope Coastal has the same deal, but without the football revenue of a big D1, they may not. Although, a friend tells me the NAIA school at which his son played has the same deal.
