Seems like this or something similar is coming. Now seeing coaches from low D1's advertising that "x" number of players from their program have gone onto P5s, or high level mid-majors. As well as coaches at that level passive aggressively posting about players being poached over the summer via their summer teams and/or training facilities. Seems inevitable.
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Yes, that’s exactly where we are headed and I don’t think it’s good for college baseball. It’s only good for the very best players in college baseball. It’s a problem for everyone else. But you have to remember that this is what MLB wants and the NCAA (who is supposed to look after student athletes but never does) is complicit in what’s going on. There is only a fraction of schools that have the right combination of ingredients to compete for a CWS championship. Those ingredients being a rabid fan base, an institutional commitment to baseball, wealthy donors that give to baseball, top of the line facilities, a history of success, and above all a desire to play the game of being a professional sport disguised as something amateur.
The idea the NCAA once implemented the sit out transfer year and APR because players weren’t progressing towards degrees seems almost funny now. Now transferring from mid major to major conference (can’t call it P5 anymore) is the first step on the potential minor league ladder. There are players who have attended three schools in four years.
What I dislike as a fan is an underdog team like Kent State is very unlikely to make the CWS anymore. A team like Coastal is unlikely to win a CWS. Can Eastern Carolina, Southern Miss and similar programs survive long term in the new environment?
