College baseball nearing the end of ?free agency' - Daily Oklahoman (5-27-07)

[ORUTerry]

College baseball nearing the end of ?free agency'

Daily Oklahoman Link

By John Helsley

Staff Writer

Missouri second baseman Brock Bond considered the positives associated with the NCAA's overhauled baseball transfer rule.

Less turnover.

More school loyalty.

And oh, improved academic scores, the impetus behind the change that will require players transferring ? like football and basketball players ? beginning in August 2008, to sit out a year before becoming eligible at his new school.

"Overall, it's for the better,? said Bond, who himself parlayed a move from Arkansas to the Tigers into a starting spot and a locale closer to home.

And then, he reconsidered.

"You never know what you're going to get when you go to a school,? said Bond, a former St. Louis-area prep star. "You try to make the right decision and that's what I did.

"It didn't work out. Luckily I was able to come here. Closer to home. My family can come and see me play. That's the downside (of the rule), I guess.?

These are just some of the issues, potentially divisive issues, as college baseball approaches the end of the free agency era.

For decades, baseball has been different from football and basketball, with players free to change schools with a one-time transfer exception allowed by the NCAA, if granted a release.

Unlike football and basketball, baseball deals not in whole scholarships awarded to its athletes, but divided pieces, as entire rosters that typically number 30 or more deal with an allotment of 11.7 scholarships. So players often have left one school for another for a boost in aid, which can be a significant amount of money, especially in cases of out-of-state tuition.

Most baseball players also carry hopes of playing pro ball. And many are drafted after their junior years, meaning the clock is always running on their futures. That makes playing time a key factor for players who either don't think they can afford to be patient and develop, or aren't given the opportunity to do so.

For those players, an open door elsewhere represented a chance to catch a scout's eye. According to the NCAA, 27 percent of all Division I baseball players have transferred.

"The main reason guys go to college is they want to get drafted,? Bond said. "So they want to play. They won't get drafted unless they play.?

For years, baseball's transfer exception worked well for the sport and its players, although not completely without complaints.

"There are some programs that have gone out and recruited players in the summer,? said Baylor coach Steve Smith. "Some overtly and some covertly.?

Still, transfers were welcomed by most and tolerated by others.

Until now.

When the NCAA instituted academic reform with APR (Academic Progress Rate) requirements that feature retention as a key variable, baseball faced a problem. Not only were players leaving early for pro ball, more were leaving for other schools.

As feared, baseball took a hit, with low APR scores resulting in lost scholarships and threats of more severe sanctions like shortened schedules and postseason bans.

In an effort to be proactive, a committee ? the Baseball Academic Enhancement Working Group ? put together a proposal package aimed at boosting APRs.

Among the recommendations: align baseball's transfer rule with football and basketball, despite their differences.

"I think its good,? said Oklahoma coach Sunny Golloway. "I think it's fair. I think coaches around the country are really being held accountable for their APR.?

The new rule polarizes coaches.

On one side are coaches who regularly benefit from transfers. On the other side are those who don't, or those who only occasionally accept players from other schools, like the Sooners, whose ace Stephen Porlier pitched at Tulane a year ago.

"We get freshmen like Aaron Baker and Bryant Hernandez to come in and it's, ?No matter how tough it gets, you're sticking, you're a Sooner, for life,' ? Golloway said. "We tell them that in their house when we recruit them.

"Then all of a sudden things go bad and it's too easy for them to leave. Football and basketball, they couldn't do it. Now they know if they leave, they have to sit out a year.?

At Oklahoma State, Cowboys coach Frank Anderson has seen transfers become key cogs in his program.

Matt Mangini, a potential first-round draft pick, came from North Carolina State this year. Shelby Ford, formerly at TCU, starred a year ago.

Tyler Mach, the Big 12's Co-Player of the Year in 2006 and one of the nation's top hitters this season, spent a season at Washington, then went to junior college before finding his way to Stillwater.

While uncommon until now, similar paths may be the way of the future for unhappy freshmen looking for a change of scenery.

"You definitely want to make sure you want to go to a school you like, because you're going to be there a while,? Mach said.

Along with the transfer rule, another change now requires every player to receive at least 33 percent of a scholarship. That move was designed to make finances less of a factor for leaving.

Missouri coach Tim Jamieson, opposed to the changes, isn't buying it.

"I think they're missing something,? Jamieson said. "That is, part of the reason kids transfer is because of scholarships. They think a 33 percent scholarship at an out-of-state institution makes a difference? It doesn't.

"The transfer rule was put in place for a reason. There's other ways to adjust the APR and leave the transfer rule in. Or you increase scholarships and put the transfer rule in.?

For all the praise and the complaints, the changes are here to stay for objectors and acceptors alike. College baseball coaches will have to adjust.

But was it all necessary?

Baylor's Smith, who embraces the transfer rule change, posed a simpler alternative.

"The APR issue could have been handled very easily,? Smith said. "If a team falls below the cut, whatever you decide the cut is, they are ineligible for the NCAA Tournament.

"That totally fixes it ? all by itself.?

[ORUTerry]

What impact will this have on ORU's baseball program? Think of all the ORU players who started out at another D-1 school.

[tmh8286]

That's true, Terry, and we already lost two scholarships due to APR violations.

[Bogus Smith]

Here's a different perspective of this same rule from the USA Today.  It puts it in the light of academics and the APR instead of a student-athlete attempting to get a look from a different set of scouts or a better/different athletic program.

NCAA tightens rules over player transfers

By Steve Wieberg, USA TODAY

Player transfers in college basketball and other sports just got a bit more complicated.

Basketball coaches, in particular, are lauding a quiet NCAA rules change requiring transferring athletes to maintain grades and eligibility at their original schools in order to qualify for scholarships at their new institutions.

The measure, which passed a year ago and became effective in August, is intended to bolster an academic reform movement that already has toughened requirements for incoming scholarship athletes, stepped up their progress-toward-degree requirements and, for the first time, subjected teams with lagging academic credentials to penalties.

Beyond improving the academic progress rates (APRs) computed for each of the more than 6,100 teams in Division I, coaches and other officials are hopeful the new requirement will slow the pace of player transfers. At Syracuse, men's basketball coach Jim Boeheim says a player plotting a move ? he declined to identify him ? was given pause by the new rule, finished the current semester of classes at Syracuse and now is reconsidering.

"It's possible a kid may rethink and say, 'It's not so bad here,' " says Boeheim, current president of the National Association of Basketball Coaches. "To me, it absolutely is a great rule, and not just because of the (impact on the) APR. Because of the overall welfare of the kid, too."

Says NCAA vice president Kevin Lennon, who oversees the APR program, "The idea is to finish what you start."

Under the NCAA's formula for computing APRs, each scholarship player on each team generally can earn two points a semester or term ? one for remaining at the school, one for staying academically eligible. The transfer restriction is expected to reduce the number of "0-for-2" athletes and their drag on their teams' APR scores.

That could prove most consequential in men's basketball. Both its APR and player graduation rates are the lowest among 38 men's and women's sports tracked by the NCAA.

"We're all believing that this is going to have a pretty significant impact," says Jim Haney, executive director of the Kansas City, Mo.-based coaches association. "It's good for the student-athlete who's transferring because it keeps him on target toward meeting those (progress-toward-degree) benchmarks. It's good for the school from which he's transferring because it's not going to get hung up on an 0-for-2. And it's good for the school to which he's transferring, because it's getting a kid who's on track (academically)."

A year ago, according to the NCAA, more than 3,700 Division I athletes left teams as academically ineligible 0-for-2s. That's about one of every 30 scholarship athletes overall. In basketball, it was roughly one in every 14; in football one in 17; and baseball one in 22.

How many went to other Division I schools and would have been affected by the new rule is uncertain, Lennon says. Some dropped out of school, some moved to junior colleges and others might have given up sports.

The rules change affects transfers to Division I schools only. The scholarship-eligibility restriction doesn't extend to athletes moving to Division II programs.