Here are the coaches:<\/p>\n
J.D. Arteaga, Miami
\nMike Bianco, Ole Miss
\nJordan Bischel, Cincinnati
\nDan Fitzgerald, Kansas
\nScott Forbes, North Carolina
\nPat Hallmark, UTSA
\nWes Johnson, Georgia
\nSkylar Meade, Troy
\nEddie Smith, Washington
\nHow has the first year of revenue sharing gone?<\/p>\n
JD Arteaga (Miami): It\u2019s gone good. No complaints here. This is my third season as a head coach here. In my first year, we had $0 (for NIL). Obviously, football success helps everybody. It\u2019s gone well. I don\u2019t think our budget is what it is at some of the SEC schools, but we\u2019re in a good place. It\u2019s a private school, and it\u2019s very expensive, and it allows us to offset the cost of tuition. It\u2019s just really helped us out recruiting-wise.<\/p>\n
Mike Bianco (Ole Miss): Good. One of the things that \u2014 and this is not really answering the question but it is \u2014 I think our hope, and I don\u2019t want to speak for everybody, but I think I can, is that we\u2019re we\u2019re getting to some type of finish line where, what\u2019s college athletics and more specifically college baseball going to look like five years from now? The most difficult thing is that the rules change every year. And it\u2019s changed dramatically every year.<\/p>\n
And I\u2019m very structured. I\u2019m very systematic, which I would think most coaches are. And so you have a recruiting system. You have a plan for how you bring kids in and visits and how you put the roster together. And again, those things can change over time with the way the game has changed, the way the rules have changed. But that has changed so much over the last four or five years, it\u2019s just been unbelievable, the way you put the roster together. And so to me, that\u2019s the most difficult thing. It\u2019s not so much the portal or guys leaving or guys coming. It\u2019s trying to figure out what\u2019s the best way to put Ole Miss or whoever you\u2019re coaching in the best spot to succeed. That\u2019s been the most difficult thing.<\/p>\n
So you asked how has it worked? I think we\u2019ve done a good job, and our university has done a great job handling it from both an NIL standpoint and a revenue-share standpoint. And we\u2019re hoping that we\u2019re kind of getting towards the end. We\u2019re not there yet because there\u2019s going to be some more portal window changes and some different things. But we\u2019re hoping that we\u2019re getting closer to that finish line to where you can get more systematic about this is what we do versus shooting from the hip.<\/p>\n
Jordan Bischel (Cincinnati): Oh, man, I think it has so many potential positives. Our sport, our kids have been underfunded for quite a while. Our best players deserve a little bigger piece of the pie, and this has opened the door. I think it has brought it in-house, which makes it a little more above the table instead of under the table. I think that\u2019s positive, but ultimately the devil\u2019s going to be in the details, or the execution of it\u2019s going to be.<\/p>\n
Do all the deals get reported? What\u2019s the vetting of it? If it runs as intended, I think it\u2019s a really, really positive thing. I think it allows our student-athletes to reap a lot of the benefits, but it doesn\u2019t let the inmates run the asylum. But we don\u2019t know yet how well it\u2019s going to be enforced, and in a sense, that\u2019s going to be what defines it.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m optimistic. This is all brand new after a lot of years of doing it one way, and so I think it\u2019s going to get there, but obviously, there\u2019s some red flags coming out from the sports that have a lot more money coming through, and you just hope that it can be reined in. But you\u2019re going to see it be different. The SEC is going to invest differently than the Big 12, and the MAC is going to invest differently than the Big 12, but at least it kind of puts everything on the table and helps people understand what their competition is doing. To me, it really has a positive framework, and now it\u2019s going to be the execution of it.<\/p>\n
Dan Fitzgerald (Kansas): I think we\u2019ve learned a lot. I think that there are pieces of it that are great because it\u2019s clarified and maybe puts more tangible parameters on, at least in our situation of, okay, we have this much money that we can give out, versus the NIL world, which was a little bit more theoretical of, hey, this guy is able to get this, but you couldn\u2019t really \u2014 those were done through a third party, so you weren\u2019t technically supposed to be offering that. So I think the good part of the revenue sharing is that it\u2019s something that you can tangibly use as a part of your scholarship package and whatnot.<\/p>\n
I think the challenging part of it is there\u2019s a lot of disparity in college baseball. There are teams that have a ton and teams that have very little. So, there\u2019s part of me that loved the 11.7 (scholarships), and it was just kind of across the board. That\u2019s what you had, and you\u2019re able to factor in academic money and find challenging ways to get it done with players.<\/p>\n
But I do think that revenue sharing certainly is a great thing for student-athletes, but I think the kinks still need to be worked out. But as a coach, I like the fact that it\u2019s something that we can use as a part of a package, and it\u2019s more controllable theoretically than NIL.<\/p>\n
Scott Forbes (North Carolina): Interesting, to say the least. It depends on how your school is using and distributing those funds. It\u2019s gone pretty well. Our administration is committed to baseball. Like any coach, you want to see more commitment because you know what you\u2019re up against. But in this new landscape, I think you\u2019re really going to tell more since some of the rules have changed even more. Last year, they had the deadline (before the House settlement passed). You could frontload players (with NIL funds), all that stuff. Well, this year, it\u2019s a little bit different.<\/p>\n
The teams that have the biggest rev share, especially in baseball, they\u2019re going to have more of an advantage. And then how do you still compete against those teams? So I think that\u2019s a question that if you ask in a couple years, you\u2019re going to get a lot of different answers for sure.<\/p>\n
Pat Hallmark (UTSA): It\u2019s been a learning experience. And I don\u2019t mean that in a negative way. It\u2019s been a learning experience in a positive way. We\u2019re learning a lot. And not just on the whole landscape of revenue sharing, but how can we put ourselves in the best position to make the most of this? And you can piss and moan all you want, and that\u2019s not going to help. And I truly mean it\u2019s been a learning experience in a positive way.<\/p>\n
Wes Johnson (Georgia): Well, obviously, our football team is really good.<\/p>\n
Skylar Meade (Troy): Well, our AD, who did move on, Brent Jones (now at Georgia Tech), has done a tremendous job, and without going into the specifics of it, we\u2019ve invested heavily here at Troy.<\/p>\n
I think the rev share makes it kind of easy because it\u2019s, yes, it\u2019s taxed, but it\u2019s money that they understand over this 10-month contract. They get allotted whatever their dollars are, whereas I think the NIL world, it being purely an NIL world, got a little bit screwy, a little haywire, and I know NIL still exists. But I think the rev share makes it really, really simple.<\/p>\n
But I think we\u2019re in a good spot. I think it\u2019s good that (the players) get paid. Obviously, we have invested probably more than some others, but the reality is, I\u2019m just appreciative that we have a place that is willing to do that.<\/p>\n
Eddie Smith (Washington): Well, we don\u2019t have any rev share here, so trying to compete with people who have $50,000 to $1.5 million or more, it\u2019s been pretty challenging.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
\n J.D. Arteaga led Miami to the Super Regionals in his second year as the head coach at his alma mater. (Matthew Lewis \/ ImageReflex)<\/p>\n
How do you go about evaluating a potential transfer you want to sign?<\/p>\n
JD Arteaga (Miami): A lot of things come into play. The league they\u2019re playing in, the competition, their playing history. Why are they leaving to me is huge. That\u2019s one of the first questions I ask. Why are you in the portal? If you started 50 games at the school that you\u2019re at and it\u2019s a good school, why are you leaving? Some guys want to play at Power 4 and see how good they are. That\u2019s a good answer, always. But if it\u2019s a financial decision, then that\u2019s not a good answer.<\/p>\n
Mike Bianco (Ole Miss): I think it\u2019s twofold. I think one is just from a skill standpoint. We have to be careful because of our league \u2014 we feel it\u2019s the number one conference in college baseball, and so there are people that can be really good in other leagues, but won\u2019t be as good in our league. And so I think that\u2019s tough. It\u2019s a big leap sometimes for players.<\/p>\n
But the other thing for us, which is super important in this era of transfers and NIL and rev share is, who is he, and how is he going to affect our locker room? It\u2019s super important to us because you can get some really good players and not win. And it happens every year. And so that\u2019s critical to us. And I don\u2019t want to say that we\u2019ve hit 100 percent with that, but we\u2019re usually pretty good with it. And that is a big factor to us, as big as the other factor.<\/p>\n
Jordan Bischel (Cincinnati): The huge difference, for me, between a high school kid and a transfer, for a high school kid, we are not going to lean into the statistical side all that heavily. We are going to lean into tools and what people tell you about him and projectability and those things because certainly there is such a wide range of competition at the high school level. But at the college level, for us, production matters a fair amount. I\u2019m not saying that\u2019s right or wrong, but for us, if they\u2019re not having success at the college level, it\u2019s tough to project that\u2019s going to flip because we have some sort of magic pixie dust that can help them.<\/p>\n
I think we saw that with Indiana football this year. I think Curt Cignetti is big into that \u2014 have they produced before? That\u2019s not always the case. Sometimes there\u2019s a reason. Usually, with our transfers, you\u2019ve seen that they put up pretty good stat lines.<\/p>\n
Dan Fitzgerald (Kansas): I think it\u2019s tricky. I think that the good part of it is you\u2019re able to oftentimes have a large sample size of stats that you can really kind of put the puzzle together on what kind of player they are.<\/p>\n
I think the hard part is that it moves so fast in the portal, and there are times when the guy goes in and it\u2019s a little bit harder to figure out the makeup side because calling that coach where a guy\u2019s just left, some of those conversations can be kind of challenging because obviously most of the time \u2026 I shouldn\u2019t say that. A lot of times, guys leave, and they leave on great terms, and it\u2019s mutually beneficial. But I think it moves really fast, so making sure that the makeup piece is a fit for your culture is probably the most challenging part because you don\u2019t have as much time to really vet that.<\/p>\n
Scott Forbes (North Carolina): You can look a little more at numbers there because they played in college. And you look at the league that they played in, you look at the competition that they played in. And they should have pretty good numbers. Obviously, if it\u2019s an ACC, SEC, that type of transfer, the competition is really good. But for us, again, it goes back to the premium things that we\u2019re looking for. Number one, is it the right fit in our locker room? After we\u2019ve said, okay, if it\u2019s a pitcher, he\u2019s got to command, he\u2019s got good numbers, he can strike you out, does he profile more as a starter or a reliever? If he\u2019s been a starter at another school, can he come into UNC and potentially fill a void as a reliever? Same thing with junior college kids.<\/p>\n
And the hitting, the same thing. There are going to be some guys you\u2019re going to have interest in that may strike out and walk about equally, but they have a high OPS because they\u2019re driving the ball in the gap and over the wall, which you need on a team. But you also need those guys, that their high OPS is not just because they hit doubles and home runs, it\u2019s because they get on base and combine that with some extra base hits.<\/p>\n
Pat Hallmark (UTSA): We look for production. Production is first. And we have definitive things we\u2019re looking for, whether it\u2019s a transfer from the portal or from junior college. But we\u2019ve got to have production.<\/p>\n
Wes Johnson (Georgia): We\u2019re going to look at the competition level, look at how they\u2019ve done against velo on both sides. If they\u2019re a good pitcher, how their velo plays, and then how that hitter did against velo.<\/p>\n
Skylar Meade (Troy): There needs to be a fit because you don\u2019t want to get overloaded in the wrong areas and not be a dynamic team or have dynamic skill sets. But we want guys that are hungry. I think that comes in a lot of ways. We\u2019ve brought in some kids that are crazy talented from a school that has struggled. That hunger of wanting to be a part of winning \u2026 becomes a huge motivator to them. When they come in, it\u2019s like their drug, \u201cOh my gosh, winning, this is a different feeling.\u201d And that becomes a new motivator for them.<\/p>\n
And so, we really do try to find some guys that maybe get pushed by the wayside, because maybe they have come from not the greatest program, perhaps, but we think they can be a great fit for us. And that will be part of their motivating factor to make them the best version of themselves.<\/p>\n
Eddie Smith (Washington): Well, if it\u2019s a player at a four-year school, I think stats speak big volumes. You can\u2019t fake stats over a 50-plus-game schedule. And so that\u2019s a big tool for a player at a four-year school. We\u2019ll be able to pair that with some video. And maybe if we\u2019re fortunate enough, it lines up that we can watch him live in a summer league.<\/p>\n
For a junior college player, stats, again, are really important. Now you\u2019ve got to be pretty dominant in stats at the junior college level. And there\u2019s a reality that some players at the junior college level can dominate the junior college level statistically, but still aren\u2019t physically ready for the Division I level. So I think it takes a little bit more in-person, eye test scouting when you\u2019re talking about a junior college player.<\/p>\n
Do you like the current postseason format?<\/p>\n
JD Arteaga (Miami): I do. It\u2019s tough to extend it much more. It\u2019s already tough, especially the further along you go in the postseason, dealing with the portal. I remember sitting in my hotel room during the Super Regional last year and talking to recruits when I should have been getting ready for Louisville. But I guess it\u2019s a great price to pay. That means you\u2019re still playing while other people are just recruiting. But if somehow they can kind of work with a (portal) window a little bit where you\u2019re not in the postseason and you\u2019re not recruiting in the portal, that would help. But yeah, I like the format of it.<\/p>\n
Mike Bianco (Ole Miss): Yes. I\u2019m OK with it. I don\u2019t know if I\u2019ve found another one that makes me think, \u201cWow, that would change the game and make it so much better.\u201d I\u2019ve seen different ones. Not that I\u2019m totally against some of the other ones that have floated out there. But I like this.<\/p>\n
Jordan Bischel (Cincinnati): I do. I would love us to try to get to 72 or 76 or 80 teams. I know there\u2019s always going to be, whether you have 12 teams or 200 teams, there\u2019s always going to be the next one that feels like they\u2019re deserving. But the sport has really seen a proliferation of the power conferences chewing up the vast, vast majority of the at-large bids. I think those teams are deserving. I think they\u2019re really good. We were towards the bottom of the list last year \u2026 a lot of Big 12 teams were in that last group. We weren\u2019t in that last four, but Oklahoma State was. There were three Big 12 teams in that. I think they\u2019re all very good teams that could do damage at a Regional.<\/p>\n
So I don\u2019t think the answer is put more mid-majors in and cut those teams out. But I look back at Central Michigan, those years where we won 40 games, 42 games, and without (winning the) conference tournament, your season was over. And I would love to see a path where a couple more of those can get in the tournament without costing another team a bid.<\/p>\n
Dan Fitzgerald (Kansas): I think there\u2019s a better format \u2014 Mike Rooney\u2019s presentation a couple years ago on the 32 host sites. I think the challenging part of our sport is that it\u2019s based around the series, and winning a series is kind of the staple of college baseball. You\u2019re always trying to win a series, and in the selection show, it\u2019s always interesting how many times that comes up, like, \u201cThey won this many series. They won X amount of series in the Big 12 or in the SEC or the ACC,\u201d and then we get to the postseason and for the first weekend, you play a completely different format, and then you get to a Super (Regional) and you play a series. And so there\u2019s part of it that it just makes a lot of sense to continue on with the idea of you\u2019re just continuing to play series after series.<\/p>\n
Playing in the NCAA Tournament is awesome, but you think about if you were playing on the road at someone else\u2019s place, it\u2019s electric. If you\u2019re playing at home in front of your crowd, it\u2019s electric, so I think it\u2019s the best thing for our sport. It\u2019s also the best thing for fan engagement. I think about last year. We were not a top 16, but we were certainly a top 32, and to be able to host a two-out-of-three series against someone in Lawrence, Kansas, I mean, this place would explode, and I think everyone in college baseball would say the same thing. So that\u2019s the format I wish we had, and I think that\u2019s the one that makes the most sense.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s where I think a little bit of expansion could really benefit. It\u2019s those teams. You look at Austin Peay last year, and there are others, but they go and just dominate, and there\u2019s just not enough room in the field. I think that would be really good.<\/p>\n
Scott Forbes (North Carolina): Yeah, I think it\u2019s great. College baseball, in my opinion, is at an all-time high \u2014 the interest level, the crowds. You get that feeling at 64 (teams), anything can happen. And that has happened to us, good and bad. There are so many good college baseball teams. Even with this new landscape and NIL and all that stuff, you\u2019ll get your tail beat if you\u2019re not prepared and you don\u2019t play well.<\/p>\n
Pat Hallmark (UTSA): The format of it, I like. How it\u2019s picked is strongly biased toward Power 4 teams.<\/p>\n
Wes Johnson (Georgia): I like the format. We have changed now because now they\u2019re going to allegedly seed teams 1 through 32. I think there was a lot of posturing prior to this year. And you look at certain teams getting a draw that they shouldn\u2019t get just because it was easy travel for a team. So you had some teams get very easy draws and some teams that were really good and they got really hard draws, just because of the simple fact of what region their school was in. I think that\u2019s always been the case.<\/p>\n
But love the format. I love Regionals, Super Regionals and Omaha. And I think our sport took a big step in the right direction, seeding 1 through 32.<\/p>\n
Skylar Meade (Troy): I like it. I don\u2019t like some of the ways and rationale you get to (selecting the teams). Obviously, if you\u2019re asking me those questions, I\u2019m not going to give the greatest of answers, (with) some of the things that happened to us over the last two years. I\u2019ve used respect (to share) my beliefs on it. I think it\u2019s some of it\u2019s garbage and not handled right.<\/p>\n
Do I think there\u2019s some things that can maybe take us to another level? I think there\u2019s a potential to do kind of like a college basketball play-in, and I\u2019m not advocating to raise this thing to 96 teams. I do think there\u2019s a way you can do 68, but then you move it to like 32 (host) sites. \u2026 I think 32 sites would then emphasize the incredible financial potential that baseball has. So if Troy hypothetically is the 25th-ranked team in the country, well, we wouldn\u2019t be hosting (in the current format), right? But if there\u2019s 32 sites, we now become a host. Well, we get 5,000 people here outside my window at Riddle-Pace (Field), and people go bonkers and crazy. This is a way to get more programs a taste. We don\u2019t need the SEC teams to get a taste. They love it. They\u2019re in there, but can we get other teams?<\/p>\n
Eddie Smith (Washington): I like it. I would be excited if they were to divide the Regional round into two separate rounds. There\u2019s been all this talk about 32 hosts and all these three-game series, best-of-three series, Round 1, and then Round 2, obviously, would pair down to 16 sites and 32 teams playing for 16 spots in the Super Regionals. I\u2019m a fan of that because I don\u2019t think there\u2019s anything like postseason baseball. And if we start getting 32 schools every year exposed to that and reminded of that, I think that just grows the game that much faster because now you\u2019ve got double the fan base, administrators, media members in the local area covering what the best part of our sport, which is postseason college baseball.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 college baseball season begins Friday. And that means it\u2019s time for The Athletic\u2019s annual coaches forum.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":568162,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2288],"tags":[5,13359,1703,5082,7184,2328,2304,5074,4,2305,2303,3739,5083,5087,13416,9522],"class_list":{"0":"post-568161","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb-postseason","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-cincinnati-bearcats","10":"tag-college-sports","11":"tag-georgia-bulldogs","12":"tag-kansas-jayhawks","13":"tag-major-league-baseball-playoffs","14":"tag-major-league-baseball-postseason","15":"tag-miami-hurricanes","16":"tag-mlb","17":"tag-mlb-playoffs","18":"tag-mlb-postseason","19":"tag-north-carolina-tar-heels","20":"tag-ole-miss-rebels","21":"tag-troy-trojans","22":"tag-utsa-roadrunners","23":"tag-washington-huskies"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116057860343019535","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}