Stretching Scholarship Dollars Key To College Baseball Success

[Donald Boyles]

This is an excellent article on how some schools use their 11.7 scholarships for College Baseball.

This article explains How some states allocate funds for those students living in those states(Florida, Georgia, & Lousiana).

That such an amount of scholarships is legislated does not mean schools have to fund them. A considerable portion of Division I baseball programs have fewer than 11.7 scholarships; with the actual amount depending on how each university prioritizes baseball.

Such a difference, combined with the financial gulf between “Power Five†conferences and mid-majors and that between northern and southern schools in relation to the season’s February start date, puts an almost incomprehensible gap between schools on the same footing in terms of classification.

Once they do that, students receive an amount of money per credit hour that varies by school: Georgia Tech and Georgia, the state’s two heaviest hitters on the college baseball scene, are at the top of the scale, with $226 awarded per credit hour for the fiscal year of 2015. That adds up to $3,390 for a 15-hour semester—in-state tuition at Georgia is estimated to be $10,386, so a full HOPE scholarship could cover more than half of a student-athlete’s tuition and fees for one year.

TOPS has four levels, with three—Opportunity, Performance and Honors—primarily applying to students at four-year universities. Those three levels are differentiated by ACT scores of 20, 23 and 27, respectively. They all do, however, cover full tuition, plus a stipend at the top two levels. The Louisiana Office of Student Financial Assistance places the value of an Opportunity award for the past year at LSU at $6,464, while the university estimated total in-state tuition and fees for that year to be $8,758.

Former Baylor head coach Steve Smith, who was dismissed after 21 years following a 23-32 season in 2015, saw this financial crunch when the university looked to expand its footprint while raising tuition to compensate for increased spending.

“Ten years ago, if I awarded you 75 percent (of a scholarship) you owed about $4,000,†Smith said. “Today, if I give you 75 percent, you owe about $15,000. So my situation, scholarship-wise, has been blown apart by Baylor’s increase in cost.â€

Smith’s main gripe was not with the school, but rather with the equivalency model baseball is held to. Baylor does have the aid of academic scholarships from the school, but the ceiling of those don’t make a huge dent in the in the school’s estimated overall cost of almost $50,000 per year. Furthermore, students must achieve either a 105 ACT sum score, a 1,200 SAT score, a 3.5 GPA, or place in the top 10 percent of their graduating class to be able to stack any type of academic aid on top of what they receive as a scholarship. That forces coaches like Smith to discriminate by academic performance as well as playing ability in their recruiting efforts.

That coaches adjust to the rules doesn’t mean they’re any less dissatisfied with them. The 25 percent and 27-man rules often combine in ways that prevents the latter from ever being reached. The math simply doesn’t work out, and a coach can be left with 15 percent of a scholarship with nowhere to put it.

“At the end of the day, I’d be shocked to see how many people are really playing with 27 scholarship players,†Louisville head coach Dan McDonnell said.

“If the family or kid didn’t like it, the book scholarship that they were getting, then go somewhere else!†Virginia head coach Brian O’Connor said. “It’s not like we had this magic potion that we were sprinkling over kids and making them come for book scholarships. The kid and the family make that choice. If it wasn’t enough for them, then they wouldn’t have come.â€

http://www.baseballamerica.com/college/stretching-scholarship-dollars-key-college-success/

 

[Randolph Duke]

Don't let Patterson catch wind of this. He has already relegated the baseball program to second class status by gutting the travel budget. If he finds he can take more money by cutting scholarships, consider it done.

 

[joeywa]

Good stuff Donald.  Thank you for posting this. 

 

[Matt Cotcher]

The average college sports fan doesn't understand that the vast majority NCAA baseball programs lose money. I think most assume that all NCAA sports work on scholarships like a football program does.

 

[Donald Boyles]

That, plus there are some D1 schools who don't fully fund their baseball program..

One of the better articles on educationg the masses on Baseball scholarships.

 

[Johnstark23]

I know the reason is Title IX but the biggest travesty in all of college athletics is 11.7. It is my contention that athletic scholarships aren't real money anyway as the classes are going on anyway. The only tangible cost is food.