NCAA should end its neglect of college baseball, bolster scholarship numbers

Nothing new here.  Same story.  Same grumbling.  You can find multiple old threads on the HSBBW beating this horse to death.  Bottom line is it is a math problem.  Very few schools, even in the Power 5, could afford to do this.  And the college presidents do not support it.  The ONLY way I could see this possibly happening would be if the Power 5 went rogue, which is unlikely.  And if they did you'd be left with something resembling FCS and FBS, which mid-majors would fight tooth and nail.  

Here are some of the numbers that you've alluded to.

I doubt anyone invested enough to be an active member on this board would argue against more scholarship opportunity.  The thing to remember though is it's often stated that most schools don't even fund the 11.7.  I agree with MTH that the only likely way to see an increase is if the Power 5 somehow split off and do their own thing.  That would put schools in non power conferences, many of whom can compete pretty well against those schools, at a bigger disadvantage.

All that said, let's not forget that the third paid assistant was voted down this past spring, so more scholarship money seems like just a fantasy right now.

The third paid assistant issue is essentially the same as the 11.7 scholarships issue.  I know of several mid-major schools that don't  fund 2 assistants.  Many others "fund" their second assistant coach positions (and sometimes the first) at far less than minimum wage.  What good would it do them to have another "paid" assistant?  

And let's face it, a lot of the Power 5 schools are already getting around the 2 paid assistant to some degree.  Some have enough camp revenue that the "volunteer" assistant is getting paid pretty substantially from that pool. 

The recent gimmick is the "director of player development."  LSU, Louisville, Clemson, South Carolina, and Vandy all have them.  I'm sure there are/will be others. Among other things, they analyze film and develop plans for player development.  They also scout.  About the only thing they don't do is off campus recruiting and hands on coach.   As such, they are not "coaches" in the eyes of the NCAA, so the schools can, and do, pay them.  Some of these guys are former coaches.  Others are former players.  Other schools have "video coordinators" who also get paid for quasi-coaching work.

And, of course, many bigger schools also have "Directors of Baseball Operations," who handle many of the mundane administrative tasks, freeing up coaches to do more actual coaching.  

Funny story.  About 10 years ago I had the pleasure of sitting with former Clemson head coach Bill Wilhelm and former South Carolina head coach Jack Powers at a Clemson game.  It was great to be a fly on the wall and just listen to those two talk about the old days.  At one point the conversation took an interesting turn.  This is pretty much verbatim:

Coach Wilhelm: "Jack, you know they got a Director of Baseball Operations here now."
Coach Powers:  "What does he do?"
Coach Wilhelm:  "Hell if I know."

Since I knew the DBO (great guy who does a lot), I just smiled and nodded. 

Great feedback

Yup, one son is looking at his next college coaching move and is seeing/hearing about a lot of Director of Baseball Ops positions.  Many are technically volunteer positions and still tied to camp money.  One in particular combines DBO and Director of Player Development as one role, still volunteer, still tied to camp money.  Supposedly, this allows them to be involved in coaching practices but not in-game coaching.  Don't know if that is letter-of-the-law for NCAA or not but would be curious to hear from anyone who knows more detail... 

From what I gather, an entire speaker session at ABCA convention was dedicated to how to use these types of go-around positions to bolster a program's coaching staff, considering the NCAA limitations on number of paid coaches.   

I think it is time for the Power 5 to "go rogue" and staff up baseball and provide more scholarships and coaching resources.  Just as in football, there are haves and have nots in college baseball.  Of the 300 D1 programs, 25-50 are pulling away from the pack in terms of facilities, resources, TV exposure, crowds, and talent.  Why should the bottom 250 programs hold the top 50 back?  Football created the FCS and FBS to solve this problem.  We already have the "Power 5" and "everyone else" in baseball anyway.  I agree with Jake Mangum from MSU - it's time.

Of course, for something like this to happen there's got to be a forcing function.  For example, if the MLB draft sucked the talent dry out of college baseball this could force college baseball to respond.  There seems to be an equilibrium between college and MLB draft right now that works for both sides, so until this changes I agree with those who say things will stay the same (at least for now).  Perhaps the next CBA negotiation, or increasing pay of MiLB will shift the balance.

It's more complex than this. Unlike football, the mid majors in baseball compete very well. You're now making the rich richer. Mid majors who were stealing kids away from some of the lower level P5 schools with a 40% offer instead of 25% are going to lose that option. 

Now in state vs out of state/private also comes into the equation. The coaches of UF, UGA, Auburn, Ole Miss, GT, UNC, etc don't need to offer their kids 50%. In state tuition is so cheap that a 25% scholarship only costs them a few thousand and probably housing every year. Throw in academic money and programs that allow students with a certain GPA to attend for free and they almost have too much money to spend. Schools with a lot of in state talent are not the one's with the problem, and if you give them more they're just going to offer the out of state kids more money. 

Now that being said I'm not against more scholarships. Allow 18 full that way the publics are not at an advantage. In state guy only pays 7k a year - full ride. Out of state kid pays 45k - full ride. The in state kid will go elsewhere if his tuition is going to be free. Now for the schools that aren't fully funded, it is tough. But at least even the playing field so things like tuition do not become deciding factors. 

Neglect is an interesting word.  What is it that they are neglecting?  The finances of college sports other than football and basketball is blood red with some exceptions here and there.  The only way baseball will have more money to spend is if it generates more money.  The conference TV deals might actually do that.  There are roughly a 1,000 hours of TV time from mid March to Mid May which is baseball season.  If the TV audience is there to improve the quality of the game by spending money - they might just do it.

Otherwise - nothing will change.

I do think the improvement of Big 10 baseball in the last decade is could be partially attributable to the TV netork which went on the air in 2006.  Michigan will play for the National championship for the first time since JFK was President and the conference hasn't played for the Championship since 1966.  That is a LOOOONNG LOONG Time ago.