From a new common start date and elimination of the one-time transfer exception to fall-term certification and redistribution of financial aid, college baseball has hit for the proverbial legislative cycle in recent years.
But the changes may not stop with those designed to improve baseball student-athletes’ academic performance once they enter college. Now the playing and practice season is under scrutiny.
Ironically, it was a proposal to lengthen the season three years ago that prompted the Division I Board of Directors to create a working group to fix baseball’s academic ailments. The presidents not only turned down the effort to extend the season – they threatened to cut games if baseball’s Academic Progress Rates did not improve.
With the working group proposals now in place, a few conferences are back to wondering if the game reduction wasn’t such a bad idea, particularly in light of the new start date that compresses the 56-game season into 13 weeks.
The Pacific-10, Big South and West Coast Conferences are proposing a 52-game season that would ease the compression and reduce missed class time. The Pac-10 also is offering an alternative that the four lost games be allowed in the nonchampionship segment.
Conference USA also wants to change the season, but its proposal would lengthen the season to 14 weeks. The league believes its proposal allows more flexibility in scheduling, reduces missed class time and allows student-athletes to concentrate more on academics.
But Dave Keilitz, executive director of the American Baseball Coaches Association, wants a first-inning stretch. He said most baseball coaches strongly oppose any reduction in the number of games and would prefer instead to see how the package recommended by the working group affects academic performance.
“Let the package play itself out, see what happens in the next two to three years with the whole package in place,” Keilitz said. “Then, if tweaking needs to be done, so be it. Right now, there’s no data stating that reducing games is going to help the APR.”
Keilitz pointed to improving APRs in the sport already – 12 points since data collection began in 2003-04 – as evidence that the number of games is not hurting academic performance. He believes that the baseball APR will continue to rise. If it doesn’t, then that would be the appropriate time to review the number of contests.
“Everybody wants to play. The coaches, the student-athletes, they all want to play games,” he said. “Most of our coaches feel 56 is a good number. There’s no proof that this is a deterrent to academic success.”
Keilitz said that if anything, coaches would favor the Conference USA route of moving the common start date one week earlier. The 2008 season was the first that baseball had a common start date, and many coaches felt that reducing the length of the season for many schools compressed schedules and forced teams to play five games a week at times, cutting into class time and other opportunities for student-athletes.
In 2009, the baseball season will start February 20. Practice begins February 1.
The Conference USA legislation also seeks to change the practice start date from February 1 to the Friday three weeks before the first permissible contest for the championship segment.
An ABCA survey of baseball coaches indicated that 65 percent supported the Conference USA proposal. Keilitz said coaches like having a common start date, creating a “build-up” for the season. But when that common start date should be, Keilitz said, varies depending on regional affiliation. The new rule had the biggest impact on Southern and Western teams, which could start earlier than Northern and Midwestern teams.
No matter which side coaches stand on any of the proposals in the 2008-09 cycle, Keilitz encouraged them to discuss their views with their athletics directors and conference offices to let their voices be heard.