Roster size at Army (USMA)?

Of all the concerns/questions a parent could express about their child attending a military academy, I could have never imagined this one.

I haven't been back on this forum in a while.   My older son pitches in the A10 so I know about how some schools have used the expanded rosters.  My middle son has accepted his appointment to WP.  He was hurt as a sophomore and junior year was lost to Covid.  So he's been talking to WP about walk on spots - because the Service Academies are distinctive just hoping someone here has a current set of information

Congrats on your sons acceptance to West Point. I have no idea about how they handle their roster but I would imagine they have had minimal impact on roster size compared to conventional schools. I would think the bigger risk would be no season at all. But that’s just speculation on my part based on what’s happened to date.

You can contact the sports compliance officer with your questions.

Just for the future, anyone can contact the compliance officer at their sons/daughters programs.

Congratulations.

Congrats!

GO ARMY! BEAT NAVY!

@adbono posted:

Of all the concerns/questions a parent could express about their child attending a military academy, I could have never imagined this one.

I was thinking the same thing. To me, the only questions regarding military academies are, go/don’t go and which one. Once deciding go anything baseball becomes very secondary.,

@ALF648 posted:

I haven't been back on this forum in a while.   My older son pitches in the A10 so I know about how some schools have used the expanded rosters.  My middle son has accepted his appointment to WP.  He was hurt as a sophomore and junior year was lost to Covid.  So he's been talking to WP about walk on spots - because the Service Academies are distinctive just hoping someone here has a current set of information

Several years ago I read “Civil Wars.” It’s about the Army-Navy football rivalry. An impression I got from the book is the academies alone are so demanding there’s a lot of roster turnover in sports. I wouldn’t worry about roster size. I would show up prepared to compete and assess the situation once there.

The go/don't go decision was made long ago by our son.  The which one decision actually was influenced by baseball, although in the final analysis he chose WP because of academic focus.  My question here was simply to gain insight from a set of people who tend to be plugged in to recent information about baseball.

While the are explicitly "N*ot college" athletics are still a key part of many of the Cadets/Midshipmen's lives. Baseball may be secondary, but still important

good luck and tell the boy to give them hell!

My old boss was at West Point the late 40's, he was forced to leave due to some kind of a heart condition. When I met him he was 60 years, healthy as could be, a huge fan and alum of Lehigh and of the biggest regrets he had in life being forced to leave WP. In my experience they bleed the colors up there.

Just did a good old google search and it looks like the three D1 academies are carrying from 36-41 players on public rosters so I guess that's the empirical answer

Spoke to a friend who's son graduated a few years ago. He said that most of the cadets from the 2020 and 2021 classes are graduating on time (4 calendar years). (I can't find any information online to back that up.) If that's the case, I would think that things would be pretty "normal" for your son next year. It not like they'll have 5th year seniors and grad students on the team, right? Or incoming transfers?

Pretty sure that Patriot League does not allow 5th yr athletes, even more so for Army and Navy.  You will find that each of the PL teams have 35ish man rosters, not going to carry much if any more than that.  Kids are less likely to hang around if they don't play as baseball is not as important as it would be at a P5 school.

Good luck to your boy.  FYI I know that Middies don't have summer ball due to assignment, probably the same for Cadets. 

Thanks for the info @MidAtlanticDad and @Texas1836.  I'd forgotten that the roster exception was only for 2021.  The question is whether they will give kids a fall spot to try and earn a roster spot or if they will have  the classic tryout day.  For incoming plebes a single day tryout is a tough spot because they will have been going through BCT all summer and won't have a chance to pick up a baseball

Is there any promotion your son’s travel team coach can direct towards the Army coaching staff?

My son is in pretty active communication with the coaches.  He was just late in the recruiting game - teh nice thing is he's had some connected people reach out to Army on their own after seeing him this season so he should be in an ok spot.  The coaches are in the thick of PL games now and they know he's already committed

@MidAtlanticDad posted:

Spoke to a friend who's son graduated a few years ago. He said that most of the cadets from the 2020 and 2021 classes are graduating on time (4 calendar years). (I can't find any information online to back that up.) If that's the case, I would think that things would be pretty "normal" for your son next year. It not like they'll have 5th year seniors and grad students on the team, right? Or incoming transfers?

NCAA only removed the 35 man roster limit for 2021. I would assume that it's going back to 35 next year.

Based on an article from d1baseball.com

NCAA-D1 will allow 40 man rosters for 2022

https://d1baseball.com/busines...ip-aid-through-2022/

Trying to find additional information

With respects to Army, current roster size is 41.

They are on the upside end of the spectrum in the Patriot League.

@CollegebaseballInsights posted:

Based on an article from d1baseball.com

NCAA-D1 will allow 40 man rosters for 2022

https://d1baseball.com/busines...ip-aid-through-2022/

Thanks, I'll removed that from my original post.

@ALF648, I was going to ask about him attending USMA Prep School, but looking at their website I don't see a baseball team.

Great discussion, thanks everyone. My kid is also interested in a service academy and is planning to attend their camp this summer.

@MidAtlanticDad  MAPS and NAPS are common paths for athletes,but typically for those that have to get prepared for the academic rigor of the academy.  Opportunity to take the right classes, better study habits, time management, ACT/SAT prep etc.

@2022NYC  there are a huge number of steps and things to understand if your boy wants to attend an academy.  PM me and we can connect on all of that if it would be of value

@ALF648 posted:

@MidAtlanticDad  MAPS and NAPS are common paths for athletes,but typically for those that have to get prepared for the academic rigor of the academy.  Opportunity to take the right classes, better study habits, time management, ACT/SAT prep etc.

Just one source, but my buddy says that's changed some in the past 5 years. He knows of athletes with excellent academic credentials who have been steered to USMAPS mostly for sports prep (football and wrestling).

My son has a buddy who is going to MAPS for lacrosse next year.  For anyone looking at this thread in the future MAPS and NAPS are referred to as "the golden ticket" on other forums dedicated to getting into a Service Academy.  A very large % of those offered a spot at one of the prep schools are able to get an appointment the following year.  They are reputed to be excellent options for any number of reasons.  Returning to some of the comments above - job #1 is to get into the school if you feel called to serve and the prep schools are great avenues to do so

I should amend the point above.  His buddy is going to MAPS...he also is planning on playing lacrosse eventually for USMA