Big news tonight from the NJCAA. The big question is why would they make this decision? I spoke with many JUCO coaches tonight to see if they knew why the NJCAA did this. Every single one of these coaches was caught off guard.
I just posted a new article with all the quotes from these guys.
Here's the link if you'd like to check it out:
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I’m not convinced why is the question we should be asking right now. Will learning why change their decision? No. Here’s the question I’m asking - what is this going to do? What will the impacts be. My 2021 verbally committed to a JUCO in July. Will he actually be there next fall?
My 2021 told me the news today. His take was if he goes the juco route, he’ll be playing against 24 year olds, so he better keep working in the gym. If nothing else, these kids are learning to deal with adversity.
So if you are a freshman this year in JC, you could potentially have 6 years to finish your college baseball career and play for 5 of those seasons? This uncountable year in JC, 2 more years of JC, then move on to a 4 year program, red shirt a year, then complete your 2 playing years there. If I am a player who knows they are not ever going to play beyond the college level and getting out and getting a job after college is not a priority, I would go this route. Play as long as you can.
I don't think this assessment is right. It does not change the overall count for present freshmen for how many years they can play so the only ones who will take advantage of it is those that can't find a place to move on to. The sophomores that are not drafted or high enough and cannot find the spot at the level they want to go. Talking to a couple of juco coaches they will only offer it to one or two of their players. Remember, if the coach does not want to keep you, then it is of no use to you. Plus unless the colleges change their hour rule it is useless what the sports side wants to do. Unless you are behind in classes or willing to take meaningless classes for a year there is no place for you so I do not think it is as big a deal as it is being made out to be. The real reason they did it is because of football. Many football teams only played a couple of games and there are several basketball teams that they feel will get the same thing so that is why they did it.
@ARCEKU21 - as someone who put himself through college, I can tell you one thing for sure. College gets expensive quickly, and life can come at you fast. Give it a year or 2, and I have to believe all this craziness will sort itself out.
@adbono @PitchingFan @JRudd_Scout so if someone goes this year as a 2020 HS grad and plays JUCO, do they transfer next year as "Freshman" vs the 2021s that will graduate HS and attend College in 2021 and the Corona SOs (Jrs in 21) who didn't draft, Corona FR (SO in 21) and 2020 True Freshman (SO in 21)?
Tomorrow, we'll be able to clear a lot of this up. I'll be interviewing the NJCAA President & CEO, Dr. Chris Parker, for a podcast coming out later this week.
I’ll have the full interview with Dr. Parker available on YouTube tonight around 9 PM. I’ll post link here for you guys.
JUCO Talk with @JRudd_Scout / NJCAA President & CEO, Dr. Christopher Parker / College Baseball
Thank you will listen/watch later
The JuCo HC that I’m closest to says that this decision was made to level the playing field across the country. It had already been ruled that the 2021 season will not count against a players eligibility if his team didn’t play at least 50% of the games on their schedule. Apparently there was enough speculation that a significant number of programs (especially in the NE) wouldn’t get half their games played. So rather than have some players granted an additional year (and others not) the NJCAA decided to make the 2021 season not count against every JuCo player’s eligibility. No coaches that I have spoken with think this is a good development.
Did we time travel or was this for Fall sports only?
Baseball hasn't started yet....
@Eokerholm posted:Did we time travel or was this for Fall sports only?
Baseball hasn't started yet....
Premature decision without a doubt
This is HUGE.
Great news for JUCO option, for those to step up there game, get some college classes under you and NOT burn a year of eligibility. Also gives them a jump academically and physically on the HS athlete graduating in 2021 and going to D1-3.
Example Current Juco in fall ball 2020, gets a free year to play/school and comes in as a NCAA "Freshman" next year if they transfer in Fall of 2021.
There will be a huge sucking sound as the NCAA athletes concerned about playing time will be shifting to Juco.
Assuming there are spots of course.....
Is that about right, @adbono
I agree that more talent will be headed the JuCo route over the next few years. However, I don’t think spending more than 2 years at any JuCo is a good plan for academics. I have never been in favor of redshirts being put on JuCo players (except in case of injury) for the same reason. It’s hard to predict whether an additional year of JuCo playing eligibility will help more players than it hurts. IMO it just spreads out the roster logjam to the JuCo ranks. Therefore I don’t think it’s a helpful decision.
I'm expecting a great purge over the next 6 weeks. JUCO's and D2's will also purge players to make room for the kids who are getting dropped at the top D1's. There will be some very tough conversations take place over the next few weeks.
You will also have 2019 D1 drop downs who will have 2 years of JUCO baseball and be able to re enter D1 next year having used zero eligibility. They will be freshmen and 2020s will be sophomores along with all the covid sophomores. Even bigger mess.
@baseballhs posted:You will also have 2019 D1 drop downs who will have 2 years of JUCO baseball and be able to re enter D1 next year having used zero eligibility. They will be freshmen and 2020s will be sophomores along with all the covid sophomores. Even bigger mess.
Exactly!
This is the best social media community I’ve ever seen. 😂 I didn’t know it was possible to have an internet site where people can have reasonable conversations on polarizing issues.
Personally, my “day-after reaction” is somewhat different to the responses I’m reading here. I’m still trying to process it, though, and get feedback from coaches on the information provided by Dr. Parker.
@Josh Rudd (@JRudd_Scout) posted:This is the best social media community I’ve ever seen. 😂 I didn’t know it was possible to have an internet site where people can have reasonable conversations on polarizing issues.
Personally, my “day-after reaction” is somewhat different to the responses I’m reading here. I’m still trying to process it, though, and get feedback from coaches on the information provided by Dr. Parker.
Well, if you searched this site for any of the many threads that got railroaded by Covid bickering it might change your opinion a bit. But by and large we do pretty good on here.
@Josh Rudd (@JRudd_Scout) posted:This is the best social media community I’ve ever seen. 😂 I didn’t know it was possible to have an internet site where people can have reasonable conversations on polarizing issues.
Personally, my “day-after reaction” is somewhat different to the responses I’m reading here. I’m still trying to process it, though, and get feedback from coaches on the information provided by Dr. Parker.
I enjoyed the interview. I thought Dr. Parker did a very good job of explaining their thought process and why they made their decisions. He also talked about the ramifications. The reality is that there aren't many correct answers. We are just making the best out of a bunch of bad options.
@d-mac posted:I'm expecting a great purge over the next 6 weeks. JUCO's and D2's will also purge players to make room for the kids who are getting dropped at the top D1's. There will be some very tough conversations take place over the next few weeks.
I have an opinion on purging. I don't think that you are going to see a huge purge. If next baseball season is anything like fall practice, teams need enough players to successfully field a team, because when 1 tests positive, the roommates can't play either.
I think a lot of coaches are giving next spring a long hard look as to the best way to utilize their rosters with their allowed budget.
JMO
They can't keep unlimited rosters forever. They will have to scale back next year. We have 46 on our current roster, 20 in the 2021 recruiting class. There is no way around huge cuts for next year. After watching the Fall World Series for my son's school the last couple of weekends, the talent is ridiculous. Not sure how they are going to do this. Lots of really talented kids aren't going to play.
@TPM posted:I have an opinion on purging. I don't think that you are going to see a huge purge. If next baseball season is anything like fall practice, teams need enough players to successfully field a team, because when 1 tests positive, the roommates can't play either.
I think a lot of coaches are giving next spring a long hard look as to the best way to utilize their rosters with their allowed budget.
JMO
Barb, you have to remember that Mac doesn’t over-recruit and what goes on at Florida Atlantic isn’t representative of what goes on at almost every other ranked D1 program. Baseballhs has a kid at TCU and her comments are on target for most every program like that. Texas State currently has 30 pitchers on campus this fall. Ten of them will be looking for a new home in 30 days. And so on and so on....
@adbono posted:Barb, you have to remember that Mac doesn’t over-recruit and what goes on at Florida Atlantic isn’t representative of what goes on at almost every other ranked D1 program. Baseballhs has a kid at TCU and her comments are on target for most every program like that. Texas State currently has 30 pitchers on campus this fall. Ten of them will be looking for a new home in 30 days. And so on and so on....
Maybe you misunderstood my point. If you can't get thru a full weeks practice because you are short staffed with pitchers especially due to Covid, even with larger than normal rosters what will coaches do next spring when players get sick? Will coaches have to cancel like football teams have had to do?
There is no cap on rosters, so I think that many programs with 40, maybe 45 will think about not purging too much, I am not talking about programs like you mentioned that have much, much more than needed on the rosters.
Sadly, the comments from Dr. Parker bought me zero comfort/relief. Again, my 2021 is verbally committed to a JUCO.
Josh says “This decision was made with this goal in mind…"
Dr. Parker says "This was completely made to support the student-athlete.”
Allow me to more accurately say what he means. “This was completely made to support the CURRENT COLLEGE student-athlete. Not the student-athletes that have already committed to a JUCO program or who have/had trajectories to play JUCO ball in 2021, 2022… Being on campus and heading to campus are completely different privilege levels. Some were born a year or 2 too late."
But we need not worry. Dr. Parker offered up some great advice for 2021s, 2022s, etc? "Keep grinding." Ah, nothing like the mother of all coaching clichés to give you a warm fuzzy. Again, please allow me to translate. "Keep doing what you've been doing this entire team but pray more and hope even harder." Thanks, Doc.
Lots of kids will now play 0 years of college baseball just so all the current ones can keep all 4 years of their eligibility. Feast or famine, I guess. #famineblows
@DanJ posted:Sadly, the comments from Dr. Parker bought me zero comfort/relief. Again, my 2021 is verbally committed to a JUCO.
Josh says “This decision was made with this goal in mind…"
Dr. Parker says "This was completely made to support the student-athlete.”
Allow me to more accurately say what he means. “This was completely made to support the CURRENT COLLEGE student-athlete. Not the student-athletes that have already committed to a JUCO program or who have/had trajectories to play JUCO ball in 2021, 2022… Being on campus and heading to campus are completely different privilege levels. Some were born a year or 2 too late."
But we need not worry. Dr. Parker offered up some great advice for 2021s, 2022s, etc? "Keep grinding." Ah, nothing like the mother of all coaching clichés to give you a warm fuzzy. Again, please allow me to translate. "Keep doing what you've been doing this entire team but pray more and hope even harder." Thanks, Doc.
Lots of kids will now play 0 years of college baseball just so all the current ones can keep all 4 years of their eligibility. Feast or famine, I guess. #famineblows
I watched the interview too and my reaction was the same as yours.
Well adbono, this topic full agreement on. The whole system is going to be clogged up with 26 year old juniors by the time this is over. What a mess.
Age 19 plus 4 years plus 1 redshirt/injury plus 2 covid = 26
Enough time to earn a doctor degree or a triple major in parks and rec/ sports management/ university studies.
Also enough time to rack up 250k of student debt, or blow thru a college fund down to zero.
When the dead period was getting extended in the Spring/Summer, it was a no brainer that student/athletes who didn't make a verbal commitment before Covid, then their choices would be a D3, NAIA, or a JUCO. All 3 of these levels are going to be better than they were before because they are going to get more talent that hasn't been seen/evaluated or that they couldn't touch. It is pretty scary that this year will not count towards eligibility and what it will do to roster sizes. I know that people commented on the draft, 4 year schools, etc. but my worst fear is that there won't be any room for some of these student/athletes. For example, do we know how many rounds the MLB draft will have next year? Also, with the reduction of Minor League teams, this will have an effect as well. This is going to be a rough stretch for 2020s, 2021s, 2022s - I hope that they can fulfill their dreams of playing college baseball (4, 5, or 6 years) while getting their education. I am fearful that it will be a numbers game and some student/athletes will be forced to just be a student in my opinion.
@6-4-3 everything I've heard is 20 rounds for the draft. So bigger than last year but nowhere near the previous years.
MLB draft has to be at least 20 rounds this year. The memo sent out says that it is expected to be 20-30 rounds.
I think that TPM is onto something. There are so many guys testing positive and we are wondering how many are true positives and how many are false positives. Rumor has it that they will start testing over in January so even if you were positive in the fall you will have to start testing again in January. Plus many are still making you quarantine even if you have tested positive so unless they are going to redo rooming in January if your roommate/apartment mate tests positive then you are out for 14 days. That means that you may lose 4 or 6 guys for two weeks which could greatly change a season. Plus if they have been around many guys then you could lose more. The problem is a lot of pitchers room together so if you lose 6 pitchers for two weeks you are definitely going to need a lot more guys. I know coaches are even thinking now how to make the spring work so they don't lose a large group of guys at one time. Some are talking about making sure only certain players are around each other in the spring so that if you lose a player you don't lose all your pitchers or middle infielders. It will be interesting. So understand it can greatly affect a team. There are football teams in Mississippi that missed so many games they are not eligible for the playoffs when they only had to play 6 of 10 games but they will only get 5 games in due to quarantining.
Thank you Baby Jesus... 20-30 will help unclog this mess...
@PitchingFan posted:Some are talking about making sure only certain players are around each other in the spring so that if you lose a player you don't lose all your pitchers or middle infielders. It will be interesting. So understand it can greatly affect a team.
Our school is already mixing the guys up for workouts to eliminate losing an entire group of pitchers and or catchers.
@d-mac you are completely right! I meant to write 20...correcting now.
See...that's how rumors start.
@adbono posted:Everything I have heard suggests 20 rounds from now on
The key will be raising the undrafted signing cap. 20k is too low. I know it is locked at 20k for the next draft but have you heard anything about the future?
They don't need to. Why would they? I agree they should, but there is no motivation. Guys take what they get or they walk away from baseball.
@PitchingFan posted:I think that TPM is onto something. There are so many guys testing positive and we are wondering how many are true positives and how many are false positives. Rumor has it that they will start testing over in January so even if you were positive in the fall you will have to start testing again in January. Plus many are still making you quarantine even if you have tested positive so unless they are going to redo rooming in January if your roommate/apartment mate tests positive then you are out for 14 days. That means that you may lose 4 or 6 guys for two weeks which could greatly change a season. Plus if they have been around many guys then you could lose more. The problem is a lot of pitchers room together so if you lose 6 pitchers for two weeks you are definitely going to need a lot more guys. I know coaches are even thinking now how to make the spring work so they don't lose a large group of guys at one time. Some are talking about making sure only certain players are around each other in the spring so that if you lose a player you don't lose all your pitchers or middle infielders. It will be interesting. So understand it can greatly affect a team. There are football teams in Mississippi that missed so many games they are not eligible for the playoffs when they only had to play 6 of 10 games but they will only get 5 games in due to quarantining.
Thanks for helping to clarify my position on comments about purging. The virus certainly isn't going to go away, and if a player has had mild COVID, there is no guarantee you won't get it again.
