Comments on: NCAA, MLB In Serious Discussions To Fund Additional Scholarships

By: MLB Headlines – SFGate Major League Baseball Sports — San … | Baseball History | Baseball Memorablia | Baseball Time Machine

Wed, 23 May 2012 11:56:50 +0000

[...] Keilitz said the college committee has been meeting with MLB and MLB Players Association officials for more than three years, but talks were slowed by the …www.baseballamerica.com/…/ncaa-mlb-in-serious-discussions-… [...]

By: John Manuel

John Manuel — Tue, 08 May 2012 21:17:13 +0000

I’m surprised you would direct your ire at Dave for that and not the coaches who are doing the committing and cutting. And the NCAA expansion was not a no-brainer; it may seem that way now, but back then it felt like coaches thought it had no chance of passing, and when it did, they were the ones telling me how great a job Dave did. I didn’t know better; I was new on the job. I’ve heard coaches complain about Dave but it’s usually about the transfer rule. Look up your timeline on the ballparks—the ballpark boom came AFTER the expansion to 64 teams, when we went from eight postseason hosts to 16. We did a ballparks survey in 1998, and the top 12-15 were places like Hawaii, Tennessee, Ohio State—which all have been eclipsed by many other programs. You’re wrong on this again. I appreciate your depth of feeling and your information as well as the fact that you took the time to write. No one said you were dumb, but I will say again that to the best of my knowledge your frustrations are misplaced. No one with the ABCA or college baseball was going to keep baseball scholarships from being cut from 13 to 11.7 twenty years ago; that was an across the board cut for all men’s sports. If I didn’t know better I’d think your email was ghost-written by Ron Polk.

By: JJ Rice

JJ Rice — Mon, 07 May 2012 20:16:45 +0000

So one of his biggest accomplishments is preventing the loss of more games? Interesting how "it could be worse" is considered an accomplishment in this day and age. The expansion to 64 teams was only possible because it was a no brainer money-maker – a near automatic response to the explosion in million dollar stadiums being built and attendance records being shattered by programs across the country. So, nothing more than a pat on the back is deserved for picking up on that obvious trend and acting on it. Also, he may not have been executive director but he was a force with the ABCA and NCAA baseball committees when all the cuts were made. I guess 11.7 could be worse? "As Executive Director of the ABCA I stood up to the NCAA and prevented them from lowering' scholarships to 11.3 !! – so vote to renew my 6 figure salary now!" Even "everyday fans" like me know baseball has the worst scholarship to starting player ratio AND worst coach to player ratio of all Division I sports (of the ones people actually pay to watch).
I'm glad you mentioned the APR legislation. This resulted in fewer total players being given scholarships and fewer overall opportunities (baseball became the only significant sport to have limits on walk-on spots). I take it the people that wrote that legislation were never wallk-ons. The legislation did slow the rate of players transferring and, therefore, improved APR scores – as you might expect a rule that made "4 year to 4 year" transfers illegal would accomplish. The residual effects of this legislation has been disastrous for players – even an "everyday fan" knows this! How about the explosion in formerly scholar-shipped juniors and seniors being forced into walk-on status since their only recourse to a scholarship cut is to go play at a lower level – Division II, III or NAIA. In between their freshman and sophomore year they do have leverage as they could go to a JUCO and then re-emerge at another Division I school later. But once their sophomore year is completed they have zero leverage and way too many are being forced to come off the scholarship rolls. Another by-product of this legislation is an increase in "commit-and-cut" a procedure in which schools commit and/or sign a kid and then cut them before they get on campus. Since there are potential APR penalties for cutting too many scholarship players why not cut them before they get on campus when there is zero penalty (if they regress as a player or get injured between when they sign and school starts)? The attempt to legislate morality was a failure in terms of the real world BUT a great accomplishment on paper!
I know I'm a dumb "everyday fan" but this stuff is happening and it's getting worse each year. No one ever covers this and no one likes to talk about it but it's there. Do me a favor and take some time to investigate these trends and you won't believe what you find – its a disgrace.
But at least Division I baseball didn't get it's games cut to 52.

By: Aaron Fitt

Aaron Fitt — Mon, 07 May 2012 19:21:01 +0000

John is 100 percent right. Dave has helped defeat proposals to reduce college baseball’s 56 games just about every single year for the last two decades. He is godsend for college baseball.

By: John Manuel

John Manuel — Mon, 07 May 2012 19:16:18 +0000

You’re incorrect JJ. Dave doesn’t present himself as any kind of all-powerful voice in college baseball. He advocates for coaches. He was not ABCA president when scholarships were eliminated or the schedule was cut. He has fought those things, and successfully fought trimming the schedule back to 50-52 games just a couple of years ago. His biggest accomplishment was pushing the expansion from a 48-team NCAA tournament to 64 games, which is the biggest, best change in college baseball in the last 20 years. That’s a pretty damn strong accomplishment. Some of his other accomplishments are things everyday fans don’t see like streamlining the recruiting calendar, pushing for the transfer rule, trying to prepare coaches and programs for the APR fallout … and he doesn’t take credit for much of anything. Sorry to tell you but you have it all wrong on Dave Keilitz.

By: JJ Rice

JJ Rice — Mon, 07 May 2012 13:13:01 +0000

This Keiltiz guy has everyone bamboozled. Such a sunshine pumper when it comes to proposals that will never come to fruition. Meanwhile, under his reign as Executive Director of the ABCA the NCAA has absolutely steam-rolled over Division I college baseball: fewer scholarships, fewer games in the spring, fall games eliminated and fewer paid coaches. Im sure he wants to take credit for the increased overall interest in college baseball (new stadiums, increased attendance, tv coerage, etc) during his tenure but all of that is due solely to forward-thinking college baseball coaches and athletics departments. Unless someone wants to list off things Keilitz has done that has actually helped college baseball I will continue to believe this.

By: NCAA, MLB In Serious Discussions To Fund … – Baseball America | Baseball History | Baseball Memorablia | Baseball Time Machine

Sat, 05 May 2012 22:53:44 +0000