Volunteer Assistants Paid

In Kendall Rogers' article today on this issue, he pointed out that the NCAA is probably trying to shed civil liability from potential lawsuits challenging their unpaid coach rule (working without being paid).  There was a suit filed recently by at least one volunteer coach.  Now, colleges will have to make that judgment if they wish to expose themselves to some liability because the NCAA isn't requiring the unpaid status any longer.

In light of what Kendall wrote, I think many colleges will not carry a volunteer assistant past this July.

Doesn't this assume that a given college will come up with money to pay for another assistant?  Or is it assumed that they will all do so?

I know the big well-funded schools will, but what about all the others?

Older son's team has a HC, and 3 ACs, on the website none are listed and volunteer, but I'm sure one is. Younger son's school, has a HC, and 2 ACs, so they don't even have a volunteer assistant.

Be interesting what happens at the smaller programs like my kids go to. Do they try and get an unpaid coach, or go with 2 ACs? When my oldest is done playing he wants to coach, so this is potentially good for him.

The NCAA's ruling which goes into effect 7/1/23 is for the unpaid volunteers to receive benefits just like every employee does on a university staff. As far as I know pay would be determined by the coaches budget.

There are no restrictions on recruiting.

Most volunteers do get a salary through camps.

I am not sure how this will work but I will let you all know when I hear.

FWIW, many programs stopped referring to their 4th coach as volunteer for a year. It's been "assistant" for awhile and I think the pending lawsuit had a lot to do with that.

FWIW, the ruling does not guarantee a salary.

According to Kendall, it only increases it to 3 paid assistants.  I think they will just add another paid and keep their volunteer.  Plus all the other guys they have not getting benefits and salary.  One of son’s best friend is Director of Quality Control.  Unpaid, no benefits, but gets camp money and can do lessons.

in the end this is a supply and demand issue

As far as I am aware, according to the NCAA after July 1, 2023 the position of  volunteer will not exist so not sure how any program could still have an unpaid NCAA assistant.

Also there have been paid positions legally created in baseball and other sports to assist in programs, one being Director of Player Development but these are not NCAA  positions but rather university positions.

Last summer DK was offered Director of Player Development at his alma mater, great salary and all university benefits. It was not an NCAA position. He still could not recruit on the road and not allowed to dress in a uni at gametime.

As the volunteer at UF, he decided to remain with the hopes that the NCAA would make changes sooner than later.

There are a few folks here whose sons have left coaching because of lack of pay and benefits. I hope that this new change will enable them to return as full time NCAA coaches with benefits and follow their passion.

I think in a few months the dust will settle and things will become clearer. And I hope that universities will make the necessary financial adjustments to improve upon their programs.

There was a discussion a while back about lack of instruction at many programs. Going forward make sure that when your sons are in the recruiting phase, doesn't mater the size or conference, that they have the necessary personnel to assist in making a program work.

This was way overdue. There's no telling how many talented coaches college coaching lost over the years because a promising volunteer assistant couldn't make ends meet.

I agree it was long overdue but many will lose money when they become paid.  They will get benefits but I know several P5 VA's that will take a cut in pay.  They were getting almost all of the money from the camps and some of the did camps every week in summer and camps throughout fall and Christmas break.  I know one that made almost $200,000 as a VA.

There's nothing that prevents head coaches of well-funded programs from augmenting "Third Assistants'" salaries with a portion of their camp LLC's net income. Meanwhile, the large majority of Third Assistants will see their situations improve.

@Prepster posted:

There's nothing that prevents head coaches of well-funded programs from augmenting "Third Assistants'" salaries with a portion of their camp LLC's net income. Meanwhile, the large majority of Third Assistants will see their situations improve.

The above statement is correct.

Many programs do supplement  assistant coaches pay for prospect camps with camp proceeds. At the larger camps, you need the help of  support staff, especially in summer, to assist and they get paid as well. This can include the players on campus during summer.

As a VA making a comfortable salary from camp proceeds, with a lot of responsibility, son more than welcomes the opportunity to become a full time paid assistant, able to perform coaching responsibilities as well as receive benefits. So do hundreds of others.

I don't think anyone knows specifics, so it's hard to speculate how it will work.

The HC position is a huge responsibility. I don't think that there are enough hours in a day to get things done. I think a lot of them, if not all, welcome the opportunity.

JMO

TPM, do you think the HC's will keep their VA's as paid assistants or will they go get more experienced guys?  I was just thinking that most of our P5's will go after the more experienced guys and the VA's will have to stay VA's or go to other smaller schools as paid assistants.

@PitchingFan posted:

TPM, do you think the HC's will keep their VA's as paid assistants or will they go get more experienced guys?  I was just thinking that most of our P5's will go after the more experienced guys and the VA's will have to stay VA's or go to other smaller schools as paid assistants.

Depends. There are a lot of VA out there that should and will become paid assistants.

My opinion is the VA was an on the job training position and many do more, much more than camps.  They assist in hitting, catching, pitching, etc.They just have no university or state benefits.

A lot of programs now list ALL assistants as assistant coaches,   you can read their job responsibilities on their bio.

Once again as far as I am aware, the position of VA in baseball no longer exists. I am not sure why you keep referring to the VA position.

I could also name lots of VA who have become paid assistants due to the coaching carousel.

Actually it does until July 1, 2023.  So that is why.  I think there are a lot of VA positions that have just different job descriptions because you can only have 1 until July 1 and then none.  There are only 2 paid assistants until July 1.

@PitchingFan posted:

Actually it does until July 1, 2023.  So that is why.  I think there are a lot of VA positions that have just different job descriptions because you can only have 1 until July 1 and then none.  There are only 2 paid assistants until July 1.

Right... July 1 is a new beginning for D1 baseball.