NCAA voting on Weds to allow stacking of financial/need merit aid in baseball

With only the athletic aid counting towards the 11.7 rule.

I think this is fairly significant as far as MSU is concerned. Yes, we are stacking financial aid when possible and applying it towards walk-ons and I believe we are using grant money when possible with in state players and waiving out of state tuition with players from Alabama when applicable. I don't know and I never ask about specific scholarship details with players because I think that's sort of like asking someone how much money they make in a year which is kind of rude and frowned upon.

But what I think this will mean for MSU is we will be able to offer more players and I think we will be able to manage our scholarships situation in a way that favors us and the players.

For example- what Vanderbilt has been able to do is offer players "Vandy advantage scholarships" or whatever their endowment scholarships are called for awhile now to players that were poor and or maybe didn't meet the academic requirements which basically is a complicated way of saying their pool of players is larger. This could level the playing field at least somewhat because now those players may become an option for other schools and it's not a deal where Vandy can just offer more scholarship money.

I'm guessing this may make it easier for MSU to manage their scholarship situation because in the past if you made it to your senior year you had to basically walk-on pretty much. With more financial options for players in my mind that would seem to make it less likely that a senior play would have to do that. And that may mean that some players will stay for their senior year especially if they are drafted after the 12-15th round range. The players drafted higher than that are of course probably going to always go pro and I don't expect that to change at all.

By leveling the playing field and opening up MSU as an option for more players will allow us to use what I think MSU's greatest resource is which is the large fan base. As long as we have good coaches and are putting players in MLB that in and of itself is paramount- and I do wish we had an assistant coach with some MLB scouting connections like Cann had to help us navigate the draft better- we will be very good. But now if MSU and Vandy are recruiting the same player now it becomes "MSU and Vandy are offering the same amount of money. Both are putting guys in MLB and getting guys drafted. MSU has a better atmosphere and I'll be treated like a king at MSU." So if you are a college prospect and that's your situation what are you going to do? And remember these guys are about getting to MLB and most don't graduate. So a Vandy education isn't going to have the same impact it does on some people. And this is why the likeness ruling I think will help MSU out as well. Now we can sell Jake Mangum jerseys and t-shirts and our fans can get them without putting the team on probation and the players benefit as well financially. On top of now maybe a more equitable scholarship situation. It all sounds really good for MSU.

I think it’s Mostly about the scholarship and new Winning Tradition with Vandy, with the academic reputation playing a part. Tim Corbin does a great job of churning #1 draft picks, he does not waste talent.

You look at Vandy player bios, there are not many kids with an actual major. Lots of undecided and General Studies.

Vandy is not the only cheater anymore. Michigan has unlimited scholarships too. The two unlimited schools played for the NC in 2019.

https://www.vanderbilt.edu/financial...d_Brochure.pdf

Have baseball players NOT been allowed to use FAFSA/pell grant money like any other student?

never mind.....you are saying we can now create our own merit based scholarships and distribute to players.

Wouldn't you have to make this available for all students?

Vanderbilt's fan Logic:

https://www.anchorofgold.com/2019/5/...t-an-explainer


"At many of the public schools in the SEC, through the neat tricks of in-state tuition, out-of-state tuition waivers, and HOPE scholarships, they can get pretty close to filling out their roster while having the vast majority of the players paying relatively little to attend. Without Opportunity Vanderbilt, Vanderbilt would barely be able to fill out a starting lineup and a weekend rotation on the 11.7 scholarship limit alone — at least, not without finding a few kids willing to pay $30,000 or more to attend the university."

Translation:

Vandy has a scholarship endowment that is based on NEED, they bring in baseball players on the basis of TALENT, they transform the TALENTED player into a "NON COUNTER" to 11.7 by saying the Baseball Players are NEED students not super TALENTED baseball players and We protect them from actual academic performance via GENERAL STUDIES

But this is OK and fair, because it is so expensive to attend Vanderbilt to major in General Studies or Media Studies (watching ESPN all day).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by coastratdog

Wouldn't you have to make this available for all students?

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For baseball players, the NCAA count everything unless the player is turned into a NON-Counter to the 11.7 limit. Basically saying the said player is really just an Engineering student that plays baseball on the side, as a hobby.

So all of their PG 10, nationally ranked recruiting classes are largely being classified as NON-Counters. It's cheating the system.

Sounds like just a bunch of play on words to make the NCAA feel like they are doing something.

Has does it matter how you label a player? (I'm asking). Because were we not before, putting players on academic scholarship to get by? How is this different? can we make up a scholarship fund with any criteria we feel necessary to get baseball players scholarships?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Maroonthirteen

Sounds like just a bunch of play on words to make the NCAA feel like they are doing something.

Has does it matter how you label a player? (I'm asking). Because were we not before, putting players on academic scholarship to get by? How is this different? can we make up a scholarship fund with any criteria we feel necessary to get baseball players scholarships?

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My impression from the D1 Baseball article is that, previously, if a player was getting, for example, 75% of tuition covered by academic scholarship and 25% covered by athletic scholarship, the total aid package was counted toward calculating the 11.7 limit, so it would be 1 full scholarship even though the player was only getting 25% from the athletic department. After the rule change, only the 25% athletic scholarship that player gets will count, so that only counts as .25 scholarships when calculating the 11.7 total. So, after counting the aid package for this player now there would 11.45 athletic scholarships available for other players instead of 10.7 left for other players if this rule were not in effect.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Maroonthirteen

Sounds like just a bunch of play on words to make the NCAA feel like they are doing something.

Has does it matter how you label a player? (I'm asking). Because were we not before, putting players on academic scholarship to get by? How is this different? can we make up a scholarship fund with any criteria we feel necessary to get baseball players scholarships?

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To my understanding we were targeting players that could get a lot of academic financial aid and having them straight up walk-on or had families that were relatively wealthy- Ethan Small's father is a doctor for example. To my understanding we could use MTAG or whatever they call it now like LSU uses Hope Scholarships and we could waive out of state tuition on some players from Alabama.

What this does for MSU is it gives us another option to offer players and this opens up our pool of players that we can attract better and be on a more level playing field with Vanderbilt. And to be clear- Vanderbilt still will be able to offer their endowment scholarships but what has changed is others now have the option to offer more money to players that they have been typically recruiting the past 15 years which basically means that Vanderbilt will have more competition for players. And not just from MSU- could be Arkansas, LSU, Ole Miss, and etc.

And again where this helps us too is we won't have to rely on the image likeness rule to make up the gap between MSU and Vanderbilt. Which was never a sure thing- at least until we see what the actual numbers turn out to be. If anything what this ruling does is now allow us in the future to have things actually tilted into our favor as people like Vanderbilt and Florida will never have the baseball following that MSU has because we won't have as much of a gap to make up in the coming years.

The timing is also very good for us- we're putting players in MLB and having first round draft picks very consistently now while also going to Omaha and have just opened up the best baseball stadium in the country. So, we have a lot of things in place already. Really it's just a matter of time and making sure that we properly evaluate players.