What can the state do to increase baseball scholarship aid?

[bulldogcountry1]

Since Polk came back from UGA, I've been hearing about these other state programs that have a significant advantage in baseball. Seems like one of them is TOPS or something. I've never really heard any details about how this works and why we MS can't/won't participate. Is it tied to a state lottery? Can anyone enlighten me?

Instead of complaining about the 11.7 the NCAA gives us, it seems like this is a more realistic way for us to help ourselves.

[Coach34]

Louisiana has TOPS- Georgia has their own version as well to help fund scholarships that baseball players can take advantage of. We are certainly doing ourselves no favors by not coming up with something to help not only baseball- but students in general. It takes forward thinking and a willingness to work together- something Mississippi has lacked since the 1840's

[bulldogcountry1]

How are these programs funded?

[Coach34]

http://www.nola.com/opinions/index.ssf/2011/01/gov_jindals_proposal_to_protec.html

[BrunswickDawg]

Georgia has the HOPE scholarship program funded by the GA Lottery. Funds about 80% of tuition if you have a 3.2 gpa

[RougeDawg]

Get the Baptists to allow a lottery. Simple as that. They are still fighting the casinos, even though they willingly take every last cent of casino money thrown their way, for their schools and books. They are also fighting allowing lottery sales even though they'd have their hands out for their cut if we ever allowed it.

[RocketCityDawg]

You know that you NEVER take just 1 Baptist fishing with you, right?

[HereComesTheSpiral]

You know that you NEVER take just 1 Baptist fishing with you, right?

I'd be happy if they would wave at me in the liquor store.

[Mulligan]

Georgia has the HOPE scholarship program funded by the GA Lottery. Funds about 80% of tuition if you have a 3.2 gpa

As does Tennessee and most other states in the SEC. We are definitely at a disadvantage.

Rules differ per state - here is TN

Students must meet the following requirements:

Entering freshmen must be a Tennessee resident and have a minimum of a 21 ACT (980 SAT), exclusive of the essay and optional subject area battery tests OR
Overall weighted minimum 3.0 grade point average (GPA) ? This means a grade point average on a 4.0 scale calculated with additional internal quality points awarded for advanced placement, honors, or other similar courses according to the Uniform Grading Policy adopted by the State Board of Education.
Home School graduates ? minimum 21 ACT (980 SAT), exclusive of the essay and optional subject area battery tests
GED Applicants ? minimum 525 and 21 ACT (980 SAT), exclusive of the essay and optional subject area battery tests
If a student ceases to be eligible for HOPE, except for the General Assembly Merit Scholarship (GAMS) and the Tennessee HOPE Access Grant, the student may regain HOPE one-time only.
ACT/SAT exams must be taken prior to the first day of college enrollment.

[bulldogcountry1]

So, we have casinos all down the MS River, in Philly, and on the coast, but a lottery is unacceptable. I choose not to go to casinos because I don't like the environment and my odds, but I would support a lottery if it would help students get an education...and make the baseball team better. Consider it a voluntary tax, not gambling.

[Todd4State]

While I am not going to argue that we aren't at a disadvantage when it comes to scholarship money, it's not our biggest disadvantage. Polk just never figured out that there were ways that we could work around the scholarship disadvantage as well. Most of our baseball players are on some form of academic scholarship, leadership scholarship, athletic scholarship, MTAG, etc.

There is also talk in Louisiana of TOPS being done away with interestingly enough.

If someone wants to help our baseball team out, Mississippi needs to start an elite travel baseball team that competes throughout the country. Most of our current recruits have to go play for Dulin's in Memphis and I think the Jackson Prep kids go to Atlanta (at least some of them). Mississippi needs an East Cobb Astros, Orlando Scorpions, Texas Sun Devils, etc. type team.

As I said the other day, players from Mississippi have a reputation for being extremely raw. I don't think it's the quality of the high school coaching as much as it is most Mississippi kids don't get the AB's and IP that kids from a lot of the other states do. That's most likely the biggest factor as to why we "lack the impact freshmen but everyone else seems to find them" and it probably explains why our guys don't seem to "get it" until their junior year- Stratton, Renfroe, Lindgren.

It's a lot easier for a team like Florida, Texas A&M, and Georgia to find immediate impact types of players because all they have to do is convince them to stay close to home.

[Johnson85]

Get the Baptists to allow a lottery. Simple as that.

It's really not as simple as that. The casino lobby wants a lottery even less than the baptists do.

The other issue is that it's not like the state revenues from a lottery are free. To a large extent, you are just shifting revenue from general sales tax to lottery sales tax. That's why our casinos didn't do amazing things for public school funding. There was all this casino money coming in ear marked for elementary and secondary education, but a lot of those casino revenues came at the expense of general sales tax revenue. So casino money went to education, and then other money that would have gone to education was pulled out to fill the holes created by tax revenues being shifted from sales tax to casino tax.

If we established a lottery and used the proceeds to fund a college scholarship program, we'd see sales tax revenue and casino tax revenue drop, and that drop would have to be dealt with somehow, either by raising taxes elsewhere or cutting spending elsewhere.

[Coach34]

If someone wants to help our baseball team out, Mississippi needs to start an elite travel baseball team that competes throughout the country. Most of our current recruits have to go play for Dulin's in Memphis and I think the Jackson Prep kids go to Atlanta (at least some of them). Mississippi needs an East Cobb Astros, Orlando Scorpions, Texas Sun Devils, etc. type team.

As I said the other day, players from Mississippi have a reputation for being extremely raw. I don't think it's the quality of the high school coaching as much as it is most Mississippi kids don't get the AB's and IP that kids from a lot of the other states do. That's most likely the biggest factor as to why we "lack the impact freshmen but everyone else seems to find them" and it probably explains why our guys don't seem to "get it" until their junior year- Stratton, Renfroe, Lindgren.

It's a lot easier for a team like Florida, Texas A&M, and Georgia to find immediate impact types of players because all they have to do is convince them to stay close to home.

This is where baseball has changed from the 80's and early 90's to now. Legion Baseball was made up of all-star teams and they played dynamite baseball. My 15-16 yr old team was out away in Miami from going to the Mickey Mantle World Series- but we ****ed it up. We had really good teams my 17 and 18 yr old years- making regionals. You had the best kids in Jackson playing together and traveling.

Now? Everybody has school teams to try to make their programs better- no more all-star teams taking the best 3-4 guys from local high schools. So they struggle to fill teams in the summer because after your top guys- the rest just arent dedicated enough to it. And instead of having all-star teams playing each other- it's watered down, everybody is included bullshit baseball.

[dawgman]

As does Tennessee and most other states in the SEC. We are definitely at a disadvantage.

Rules differ per state - here is TN

Students must meet the following requirements:

Entering freshmen must be a Tennessee resident and have a minimum of a 21 ACT (980 SAT), exclusive of the essay and optional subject area battery tests OR
Overall weighted minimum 3.0 grade point average (GPA) ? This means a grade point average on a 4.0 scale calculated with additional internal quality points awarded for advanced placement, honors, or other similar courses according to the Uniform Grading Policy adopted by the State Board of Education.
Home School graduates ? minimum 21 ACT (980 SAT), exclusive of the essay and optional subject area battery tests
GED Applicants ? minimum 525 and 21 ACT (980 SAT), exclusive of the essay and optional subject area battery tests
If a student ceases to be eligible for HOPE, except for the General Assembly Merit Scholarship (GAMS) and the Tennessee HOPE Access Grant, the student may regain HOPE one-time only.
ACT/SAT exams must be taken prior to the first day of college enrollment.

The specs for the TN program will get you almost as much on a straight academic scholarship at State. With a little better, you can equal the TN benefits. I would think most baseball players at MSU get something for academics. The only one I personally know about was at 90% paid for academics. I do not know his specific scores.

[Dawgcentral]

The poor are already buying scratch off tickets in the convenient stores. I've never bought any, but I see them at the counter and see folks buying them.

The Baptists fought the lottery, and still do, yet they have an unlikely ally in their objections these days in the casino lobby.

I'd buy a ticket now and then, probably once or twice a week.

The poor will always be with us.

[RougeDawg]

It's really not as simple as that. The casino lobby wants a lottery even less than the baptists do.

The other issue is that it's not like the state revenues from a lottery are free. To a large extent, you are just shifting revenue from general sales tax to lottery sales tax. That's why our casinos didn't do amazing things for public school funding. There was all this casino money coming in ear marked for elementary and secondary education, but a lot of those casino revenues came at the expense of general sales tax revenue. So casino money went to education, and then other money that would have gone to education was pulled out to fill the holes created by tax revenues being shifted from sales tax to casino tax.

If we established a lottery and used the proceeds to fund a college scholarship program, we'd see sales tax revenue and casino tax revenue drop, and that drop would have to be dealt with somehow, either by raising taxes elsewhere or cutting spending elsewhere.

I don't know where to begin in response. I see you have been bamboozled by the Anti Lottery propaganda. For one, Louisiana has had a lottery for years and is seeing casino And tevenue growth at a nice rate. Secondly MS casino revenue is on a decline compared to other states so a lottery could actually boost revenue. We used to be just behind Vegas in revenue. I have actually been on the State House floor for the lottery vote and the anti lottery representatives reasonings were idiotic and asinine.

I was also pointing out the hypocrisy of the Baptist who are against something but have their hands out for the proceeds obtained by that which they oppose. Kinda reminds me of Bucky and I assume he is Baptist by his "do as say, not as I do" mentality.

[RocketCityDawg]

You know that you NEVER take just 1 Baptist fishing with you, right?

If you take 1, he will drink all of your beer. If you take more than 1, they won't drink any of your beer.

[Coach34]

If you take 1, he will drink all of your beer. If you take more than 1, they won't drink any of your beer.

So true

one of my best friends on the planet and I were at a quick store 10 years ago to get some beer. He informs me that a member of his church is in the store so he can't go in and buy it. Then asks me to not get in the car after buying until the guy had left. After shaking my head in disbelief and calling him a few names- I went in and purchased the beer. Just laughable at how hypocritically Baptists and others act in the name of religion

[Mjoelner34]

So, we have casinos all down the MS River, in Philly, and on the coast, but a lottery is unacceptable. I choose not to go to casinos because I don't like the environment and my odds, but I would support a lottery if it would help students get an education...and make the baseball team better. Consider it a voluntary tax, not gambling.

If I remember correctly, the state had a casino or lottery option and casinos were chosen. I don't remember if it was at the ballot box or if the legislature made the decision but I'm pretty sure it was an either/or and that both was never an option. That being said, I can count on both hands the number of times I've been to a casino but if we had a lottery, I'd most certainly drop $10 a week on it.

[ShotgunDawg]

Having more elite summer programs could definitely help MSU, but the easiest way for MSU to regain prominence in baseball is for the ncaa to separate football from title 9, since it funds all programs, and allow college baseball programs 18 -22 FULL SCHOLARSHIPS.

Vanderbilt isn't good because Tennessee has a great travel ball team, they are good because they have need based scholarships that allow free tuition to any minority or accepted applicant that comes from a family that makes less than $103,000 of family income.

LSU beninfits from Team Marrucci based out of Baton Rouge, but let's not fool ourselves. Bregman is from New Mexico, Lange is from Missouri, Fraley is from Maryland, etc. LSU successfully recruits nationally.

College baseball prospects choose colleges based on scholarship money rather than tradition, attendence, uniforms, etc. MSU simply needs scholarship money to be even and the best way for that to happen is for Title 9 to stop discriminating against men, an allow 18+ full only scholarships for men.