JUCO no longer counts towards NCAA eligibility. What does this mean for College Baseball?
December 20, 2024
JUCO no longer counts towards NCAA eligibility. What does this mean for College Baseball?
14 comments
I have a number of friends who went the JUCO route hoping to make the majors. What does this new found eligibility mean for baseball? I’m wondering if D1 schools will effectively have farm schools that they interact with more.
“Junior College” for anyone else who had no idea.
Hell yeah, just got back two years of eligibility, time to see who wants a 40 year old submarine lefty
Sounds to me like San Jacinto and Chipola just became more attractive destinations
What is the difference between between Juco and community college?
Headline is super misleading. They ruled for a single player, not every JUCO player. It might happen eventually but it’s not the case yet.
I think what this really means is high school kids just got fucked. Baseball has limited scholarships to begin with. Now they must compete with a farm system of JuCo kids that have full eligibility AND have to contend with the transfer portal.
Why give a scholarship to an 18 year old in need of development when there is a 21 year old freak with 4 years left coming from JuCo. Obviously exceptions could be made for very good high school players… but at that point they’d probably get drafted
The bar across all levels of collegiate baseball gets that much higher. There’s that many people from top to bottom who already look to transfer, adding this only enables this. Where a guy might have been DII trying to transfer up after a year, if they haven’t met that bar they now are likely to go JUCO and try again in a few years rather than just stick with that original school for those last two years.
Also makes it harder for DIII schools to recruit any higher end guys, where they would ordinarily use tactics like guaranteeing playing time to use a few years as a sort of showcase if the player does have aspirations of playing in a higher division. Can’t do that with this because now the JUCOs have all the leverage. That’s not to say the power level at DIII goes down at all though, because there’s already a good plenty of guys who transfer into those schools from JUCO.
As far as the sport as a whole is concerned, I think it’s a good thing only if you’re a guy who’s on the fringe and could use an extra two years to show some flash. For anyone else, it takes away from your opportunities, from roster spots to playing time to simply the level of competition. However I don’t think this affects the minors a whole lot since those fringe guys are most likely not going to get very far within them.
I wonder at what point do club baseball teams at universities start to become more attractive to high school players. College sports is starting to professionalize for the most part and I don’t think most players are ready for the ramifications of that
This is significant. With NILs, you could see some of the larger conferences trying to make a product that doesn’t rival MLB, but fills a niche currently unmet by MiLB, this increases the talent pool they can draw from
On a side note, I use to live really close by to a MAAC team.
The MAAC has 7 teams that are in MLB markets. The conference needs to try to leverage NILs to make a publicly popular product. Same with Big East baseball
It means the traditional powerhouses will get weaker.
Everyone that is talented and their mother commit to LSU only for half of them to be cut. Huge waste of time.
Now they can develop through JuCo
It’s becoming clear that the NCAA wants to maximize their profits when it comes to college sports.
They are allowing CHL players in for hockey. That means you will find more future NHL players and better youth players come through the NCAA on their way to the pros. Programs will have bigger names and a larger talent pool.
And now they are extending eligibility as MLB is talking about cutting Farm systems?
Pretty soon the NCAA won’t just be the farm system for football. It will be the primary place for pre-draft and post draft players for all the major sports.
The NCAA is announcing itself as a sports business.
So Harper has to re-enter the draft next June?
This will bode well for a true freshman/sophomores. D1 schools will recruit kids and may not have a place for them on their roster, but will tell them to go to this certain juco school for the reps. Certain jucos act as feeder schools to D1 programs.
14 comments
I have a number of friends who went the JUCO route hoping to make the majors. What does this new found eligibility mean for baseball? I’m wondering if D1 schools will effectively have farm schools that they interact with more.
“Junior College” for anyone else who had no idea.
Hell yeah, just got back two years of eligibility, time to see who wants a 40 year old submarine lefty
Sounds to me like San Jacinto and Chipola just became more attractive destinations
What is the difference between between Juco and community college?
Headline is super misleading. They ruled for a single player, not every JUCO player. It might happen eventually but it’s not the case yet.
I think what this really means is high school kids just got fucked. Baseball has limited scholarships to begin with. Now they must compete with a farm system of JuCo kids that have full eligibility AND have to contend with the transfer portal.
Why give a scholarship to an 18 year old in need of development when there is a 21 year old freak with 4 years left coming from JuCo. Obviously exceptions could be made for very good high school players… but at that point they’d probably get drafted
The bar across all levels of collegiate baseball gets that much higher. There’s that many people from top to bottom who already look to transfer, adding this only enables this. Where a guy might have been DII trying to transfer up after a year, if they haven’t met that bar they now are likely to go JUCO and try again in a few years rather than just stick with that original school for those last two years.
Also makes it harder for DIII schools to recruit any higher end guys, where they would ordinarily use tactics like guaranteeing playing time to use a few years as a sort of showcase if the player does have aspirations of playing in a higher division. Can’t do that with this because now the JUCOs have all the leverage. That’s not to say the power level at DIII goes down at all though, because there’s already a good plenty of guys who transfer into those schools from JUCO.
As far as the sport as a whole is concerned, I think it’s a good thing only if you’re a guy who’s on the fringe and could use an extra two years to show some flash. For anyone else, it takes away from your opportunities, from roster spots to playing time to simply the level of competition. However I don’t think this affects the minors a whole lot since those fringe guys are most likely not going to get very far within them.
I wonder at what point do club baseball teams at universities start to become more attractive to high school players. College sports is starting to professionalize for the most part and I don’t think most players are ready for the ramifications of that
This is significant. With NILs, you could see some of the larger conferences trying to make a product that doesn’t rival MLB, but fills a niche currently unmet by MiLB, this increases the talent pool they can draw from
On a side note, I use to live really close by to a MAAC team.
The MAAC has 7 teams that are in MLB markets. The conference needs to try to leverage NILs to make a publicly popular product. Same with Big East baseball
It means the traditional powerhouses will get weaker.
Everyone that is talented and their mother commit to LSU only for half of them to be cut. Huge waste of time.
Now they can develop through JuCo
It’s becoming clear that the NCAA wants to maximize their profits when it comes to college sports.
They are allowing CHL players in for hockey. That means you will find more future NHL players and better youth players come through the NCAA on their way to the pros. Programs will have bigger names and a larger talent pool.
And now they are extending eligibility as MLB is talking about cutting Farm systems?
Pretty soon the NCAA won’t just be the farm system for football. It will be the primary place for pre-draft and post draft players for all the major sports.
The NCAA is announcing itself as a sports business.
So Harper has to re-enter the draft next June?
This will bode well for a true freshman/sophomores. D1 schools will recruit kids and may not have a place for them on their roster, but will tell them to go to this certain juco school for the reps. Certain jucos act as feeder schools to D1 programs.