Division I Baseball has the most stringent roster limits and financial aid minimums of any sport
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Division I Baseball’s Roster and Financial Aid Limits Given an Intentional Walk
Division I Baseball has the most stringent roster limits and financial aid minimums of any sport
Relief was granted from the normal application of these rules as schools anticipate higher numbers of returning student-athletes due to Major League Baseball shrinking its draft from 40 rounds to five
Relief was supported by the Committee on Women’s Athletics, the American Baseball Coaches Association, and the Division I Baseball Committee, among others
Earlier this month, the NCAA Division I Committee for Legislative Relief granted a blanket waiver in baseball for the 2020-21 academic year only, to allow schools to:
Eliminate the varsity squad size limitation (i.e., 35-man roster);
Increase the annual counter limit from 27 to 32; and
Renegotiate athletics aid agreements to provide less than 25%.
Before we delve into an analysis of this legislative relief, let’s examine the current NCAA Division I rules germane to baseball roster limits and the financial aid requirements that are being waived.
Baseball is the only sport in Division I that has this mixture of a legislated roster limit and financial aid restrictions. In terms of the roster limit, a Division I institution shall declare its varsity baseball squad of a maximum of 35 student-athletes by the day prior to its first scheduled contest in the spring championship segment of the playing and practice season. Only those student-athletes who are declared as varsity squad members at that time shall be eligible to participate in countable athletically related activities with the varsity squad during the remainder of the championship segment. Declared varsity squad members shall not participate in countable athletically related activities with an institution's sub-varsity team (e.g., freshman, junior varsity) if an institution happens to have a secondary baseball squad.
Historically speaking, the 35-student-athlete roster max could only be tweaked for one of two reasons. First, an institution may replace a varsity squad member who sustains a season-ending injury prior to the institution’s first scheduled competition in the championship segment, provided medical documentation verifies the student-athlete suffered an incapacitating injury or illness and is unable to participate in team practice and competition for the remainder of the academic year.
Second, an institution may replace a varsity squad member who voluntarily (on his own initiative) withdraws from the team for personal reasons before the institution’s first scheduled competition in the championship segment.
The roster limit is fortified by the Division I financial aid requirements specific to baseball. Baseball’s financial aid rules set the annual team scholarship limit at 11.7 on the value of financial aid equivalency awards. Further, Division I baseball’s maximum 11.7 full scholarships per team must be split amongst no more than 27 baseball “counter” student-athletes. And those 27 counters must be included in the 35 student-athlete varsity squad limit. We begin to see the layers and interplay of the baseball roster and scholarship limits.
Lastly, Division I baseball requires that each institution shall provide each counter student-athlete athletically related and other countable financial aid that is equal to or greater than 25% equivalency of a full grant-in-aid scholarship. Exceptions to the 25% minimum award requirement per counter occur only if the student-athlete is exclusively receiving need-based aid that conforms to federal, state, and institutional written guidelines or if the student-athlete is in his final year of eligibility and has not previously received athletically related financial aid in baseball at any collegiate institution.
For historical context, the reason these rules were put into place was to stem the runaway roster sizes for certain Division I baseball programs, the bite-sized scholarship offerings that induced baseball student-athletes to jump from program to program (including back and forth from two-year colleges), and the corresponding academic performance debris Division I baseball left in its wake. Data showed that Division I baseball programs were often not committing earnest financial aid amounts (and, in turn, long-term academic commitment) to many transfer student-athletes. Small $800 books scholarships could be sprinkled around to bring in five or six relief pitchers from other two and four-year institutions when the Division I baseball program only needed one or two: in essence, a glorified one-semester tryout to round out the roster. This practice induced further transferring when an inbound transfer “didn’t get the job” on the field and opted to move on (again) to greener pastures.
Division I saw the data and finally took significant action when its baseball rules were overhauled in 2007. The average number of baseball student-athletes receiving athletics aid among Division I baseball programs at that time was 27 (which led to the current counter limit number). However, some programs annually exceeded that threshold with as many as 40 baseball student-athletes receiving some portion of aid. Enacting a required minimum award of athletically related and other countable financial aid at 25% of an equivalency ensured an appropriate balance between addressing student-athlete well-being for those reluctant to serve a year of transfer residence and the ability of baseball coaches to effectively and efficiently manage distribution of 11.7 equivalencies.
Requiring the 25% scholarship minimum has helped ensure the Division I baseball program is truly committed to the student-athlete, thereby encouraging more responsible recruiting and making it less likely for coaches to facilitate transfers of student-athletes to whom they are significantly committed financially. Coaches will be less likely to employ a "run-off" strategy of squad size maintenance after having what amounts to a fall term tryout if the number of counters is limited at the outset. Encouraging a student-athlete who is one of 27 counters to transfer during the academic year will not only cost that institution NCAA Division I Academic Progress Rate (APR) points, but the institution will not be able to replace that student-athlete with another counter.
The 2007 legislative cycle was a busy one for curbing the disconcerting enrollment, roster management, and scholarship behaviors coursing through Division I baseball. That was the same year that Division I adopted a rule to prohibit the one-time transfer in baseball. Also in 2007, a proposal was adopted to specify that a baseball student-athlete who is not in good academic standing or who failed to meet any progress-toward-degree requirements at the beginning of the fall term would not be eligible during the remainder of the academic year (e.g., no certification at the beginning of a subsequent academic term). Division I also specified that a 2-4 or 4-2-4 baseball transfer student-athlete who initially enrolls at the certifying institution as a full-time student after the conclusion of the institution's first term of the academic year and satisfies the applicable transfer requirements shall not be eligible for competition until the ensuing academic year.
These changes addressed key findings related to credit-hour completion of Division I baseball student-athletes during the spring (competition) term, summer school enrollment data and research related to fall term eligibility. Baseball student-athletes were using the fall term to "get well" academically and, through the new rule, have had to adjust to this new requirement by either earning enough credit hours during the previous spring term or enrolling in summer school courses. In either case, the baseball student-athlete must stay on track to graduate within an appropriate timeframe and earn an NCAA Division I APR eligibility point for the previous term. Student-athletes not certified as eligible for competition at the start of the fall term will still be eligible to practice and receive athletics aid.
While student-athletes could still transfer from two-year colleges midyear, the new rule would not allow the student-athlete to be eligible for competition immediately on transfer. This measure helped minimize the impact of two-year college student-athletes that transfer to Division I programs midyear, compete during the spring term without a serious academic commitment, and then depart the institution (usually for professional baseball), thereby creating an "0-for-2" in the institution's APR calculation.
[Note: the APR formula focuses on two data points: whether a student-athlete remains academically eligible term to term and whether that same student-athlete returns to their school the following term. That is, academic eligibility + retention = graduation.]
Back in 2006, 112 Division I sport programs had subpar APR scores. Of those, 25% were baseball teams. There was universal recognition that the revolving door of transfers, minuscule scholarships, and hollow academic commitments needed comprehensive overhaul even if Division I baseball coaches cried foul.
Those rule changes from 2007 have netted positive results as the following graph shows Division I baseball’s overall APR average ascending from the 930s in 2004 to the low 970s through 2018 with a noteworthy one-year spike after the rules were adopted.
Coming full circle to 2020, Division I recognized this spring that something had to be done with baseball roster and financial aid regulations. The pandemic led to the cancellation of the spring college baseball season and prompted Major League Baseball (MLB) to contract its annual amateur draft from 40 rounds down to five.
MLB’s decision to shrink its 2020 draft forced the hand of current Division I baseball junior and senior student-athletes as well as elite high school baseball players who didn’t have the MLB draft rounds normally available to them. A significant number of elite high school and college baseball players found that, ultimately, Division I baseball would be the primary (if not only) option over MLB baseball in 2020-21. Normally, the usual attrition of elite college juniors and seniors being selected in the MLB draft along with certain elite high school seniors enabled Division I baseball programs to turn over their rosters and scholarship commitments in a way that enabled compliance with the legislated roster and scholarship boundaries.
Alas, Division I baseball’s 35-person roster limit; 27 counter limit; and 25% scholarship minimum rules were waived for 2020-21 because the number of student-athletes opting for Division I college baseball was busting at the seams. In granting this relief, the Division I Committee for Legislative Relief noted:
The extenuating and extraordinary circumstances surrounding and impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic;
The significant reduction in the number of student-athletes and incoming signees selected in the Major League Baseball first-year player draft;
The combination of unforeseen and uncontrollable circumstances resulting in a significant number of student-athletes returning to Division I baseball, a sport which carries a rigid roster and financial aid limits; and
The American Baseball Coaches Association, NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics, NCAA Division I Baseball Committee, NCAA Division I Competition Oversight Committee, NCAA Division I Student-Athlete Experience Committee and NCAA Gender Equity Task Force supported the blanket waiver for the 2020-21 academic year.
Additionally, the Committee for Legislative Relief noted:
The blanket waiver only applies to the 2020-21 academic year.
For student-athletes with multiyear financial aid agreements:
Schools may provide less than a 25 percent equivalency during the 2020-21 academic year; however, the school must ensure that the total amount of aid provided over the period of the new amended agreement is equal to or greater than the total provided in the student-athlete's original aid agreement.
For student-athlete with one-year financial aid agreements:
Schools may provide less than a 25 percent equivalency during the 2020-21 academic year; however, the school must renew the student-athlete's agreement for the 2021-22 academic year and provide at least a 25 percent equivalency or the average of the aid received during 2020-21 and the amount that would have been received by the student-athlete under the original aid agreement.
This one-year reprieve from the package of roster and scholarship requirements allows Division I baseball programs to accommodate more baseball student-athletes in 2020-21 than they normally would. All eyes from the college baseball world will be looking to see if MLB exercises its option to shorten the 2021 MLB Draft as well -- possibly down to 20 rounds per the recent agreement reached by MLB and the MLB Players Association regarding the amateur draft.
MLB’s inclination to tighten its draft opportunities on a longer-term basis could compel Division I to revisit the baseball roster and scholarship rules altogether -- a different sort of double play.
Athletics Veritas is presented for information purposes only and should not be considered advice or counsel on NCAA compliance matters. For guidance on NCAA rules and processes, always consult your university’s athletics compliance office, conference office, and/or the NCAA.
