A new NIL deal for MSU is scheduled to drop tomorrow. This is going to be one of my typical long posts so let me sum this up- the current college baseball scholarship structure is ridiculous and unfair and this is going to help fix it.
I don't have all the details or anything but I do know that this is essentially going to pay the way for our baseball players as they should have been for years now. They and other baseball players work as hard as any collegiate athlete and they deserve to have the same perks that other athletes have.
Matt Wyatt's documentary called Uneven goes into great detail about the disadvantages but basically the root of the issue is the small school like the Northeast schools that don't really care much about baseball don't want to or have the funds to pay for more scholarships and those schools prevent the Mississippi State's from getting more than 11.7. Not only do baseball teams have the absurd 11.7 number to deal with the NCAA also tells baseball teams how to spend the money because at least 27 players have to be on some form of athletic aid. On top of that the NCAA allows schools like Vanderbilt to use endowments to pay for players full education and so you have a sport where teams like MSU have 11.7 scholarships and Vanderbilt has 30+ on full scholarship. That would be like Rutgers having 120 football scholarships and Alabama having 30 for their entire team. And with Ole Miss having been on probation so many times over the years we kind of see what that actually would look like.
Now, I don't really want an advantage like Vanderbilt. I want everyone to have the same opportunity to have to offer the same opportunities to players. And that's what this will do. Because make no mistake once we start this LSU and Arkansas will be close behind. Probably Ole Miss too. Tennessee will be right there too especially since they are in the same state as Vanderbilt and their program is having a resurgence. I wouldn't be surprised if Texas A&M, South Carolina, Alabama and Auburn follow suit. And this will go beyond the SEC as USM will probably do it too because they have enough of a fan base and resources in baseball that they will have their own deal to try to keep pace with MSU and Ole Miss too. I don't want an advantage because it's the right thing to do. And it will be better for baseball as a whole. Plus I feel like MSU baseball can stand on it's own merits against anyone else in the country.
This deal will be good for baseball and we will be leading the way. Once college baseball players have the opportunity to make more scholarship money you will see a more diverse student athlete population. That will hopefully lead to more of America's athletes choosing baseball- and I'm not naive enough to say that they will all choose baseball but hopefully more will. As it is if you are in a lower socioeconomic bracket as far as sports go college baseball isn't really an option because of the fact that those players would have to pay their way. So their options are to sign out of high school which has shown to be less likely to make it to MLB in numerous studies or go play another sport like football or basketball where they can receive a full scholarship.
Will this deal help us get draftable recruits to school at a higher rate? I don't think we'll get a guy like a Maddux Bruns to school and offer millions but it might be enough to get a guy like Jordan McCants. I don't know all the ins and outs but there may be a possibility that we could pool enough money to offer recruits to come to MSU. And maybe not. We'll know more tomorrow. I think it will help us keep a guy like a Houston Harding who may actually make more money from NIL than he would signing as a free agent as he did with the Angels this year. And so it may be worth his while financially to return to school even if he is a senior sign. And again obviously guys like Landon Sims and Logan Tanner are going to move on and make millions. Which is great for the program too because we want recruits to know that we can develop players into high draft picks that become MLB players as well.
This will expand to other sports most notably football. I think walk-ons are essentially about to become a thing of the past. They already are at BYU. If it were me I would spend the 25 spots in the recruiting class entirely on high school and JUCO players and then use the portal for "walk-ons" getting NIL money to play for MSU as they are not into the hat parties and recruiting drama unless they're Jarrian Jones. The NIL money will also go to kickers and in certain cases legacies that are good players could get NIL money to save a spot for another player in the class. (Ole Miss has been doing that for awhile now) So hopefully we will be proactive with the NIL money for football when the time comes.
Big day for MSU tomorrow!
