College Baseball News Letter New NCAA Rules

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- A Hall of Fame Resume - Some of Coach Polk's accomplishments:

* 1373 Career Victories

* Broke the SEC mark for victories 10 years before he retired.

* 40 years in college coaching, 35 as a head coach, and 29 years at Mississippi State.

* Named to the Team USA coaching staff 7 times, twice as a head coach.

* Led his teams to the College World Series 8 times.

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Transfers and Eligibility Rules

Agree with them or not, you'll want to be aware of these new NCAA D-I rules:

Baseball players wishing to transfer from one NCAA D-I school to another must now sit out a complete year before becoming eligible. This includes players on partial scholarship and even walk-ons!

Baseball players must be academically eligible a semester prior to their semester of competition. In other words, a baseball player must now be eligible at the beginning of the fall semester or he will not be eligible to participate in the spring, regardless of his academic performance in the fall.

Read Coach Polk's List of 7 Rules the NCAA Has Put on Baseball, but No Other Sport...

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An Interview with Coaching Legend Ron Polk

by Anthony Smith for College Baseball News Letter (CBN)

"If this would have happened in college football or basketball, war would have been declared."

Photo Credit - Mark Almond, The Birmingham News

Welcome back to Part II of our look into the new NCAA rules pertaining to Division I baseball. There is no more vocal opponent of these rules and the NCAA's treatment of baseball in general than Hall of Fame coach Ron Polk. Just how deeply important these issues are to him was demonstrated by the fact that he felt it necessary he bring his amazing career to an end and retire as head coach at Mississippi State University at the end of this past season. He stated that the new NCAA legislation would force him to be "either cruel to his kids or cruel to his program", and that he would not finish out his career in that way.

Being the unofficial leader of the protests against this new legislation, Coach Polk obviously knows these rules inside out and has spoken about their effects many times. So I knew there was no one better to call to get some answers to questions that are of particular interest to College Baseball Newsletter (CBN) readers, especially to prospective college baseball players and their families.

How will this affect high school players headed to college?

I asked Coach Polk to put a different slant on the subject and specifically address what high school players need to know about these rules. He told me that the new roster cap of 35 players means, "some high school players that have signed a National Letter of Intent will be told at the end of the summer that the team is over the allowed number of players and they need to find another place to go." This is sobering news for the player and his family that had always looked forward to signing a letter of intent with a D-I school. They may be looking for a place to play with only a few weeks before school starts.

Coach Polk gave further warnings to high school players when describing some additional problems the new roster cap presents, "A player that gets hurt during the year or doesn't perform up to the level of competition is going to get bounced because they (the schools) just can't afford to have a kid on scholarship that is not playing very well."

It appears that not only does a player that signs with a D-I school have to hope he's not told later "we changed our mind", he also has to avoid injury and play well once he gets in the program or risk losing his scholarship. It's easy to understand why Coach Polk felt he was being forced to either be cruel to his players or cruel to his program.

So what's a high school player to do?

More than ever, open and up-front communication between you and the coach you hope to play for in Division I is absolutely necessary. Most college baseball will not mind honestly discussing with you how they plan to handle the new rules within their program. Ask him politely but frankly what kind of guarantees he can and can't make regarding a signed letter of intent, injury, and performance and your roster spot on the team. You may or may not like the answer, but at the very least you'll know where you stand so you can make an educated decision. And if a coach is not very receptive to this conversation or avoids it, he may have already told you all you need to know.

Frustrated coaches

Many college coaches (maybe most or all of them?) are frustrated not only with the rule changes, but also by the NCAA's refusal to provide any avenue for appeal and the almost total lack of attention by the public and media regarding the situation. Coach Polk points out that with the growth in popularity of post-season play, especially the College World Series, baseball is now second only to basketball in producing post-season revenue for the NCAA. (Football bowl game revenues being distributed within the conferences of each bowl team and not to the NCAA itself.)

One would think legislation like this that's almost unanimously scorned by college coaches as hurtful to student-athletes would at least get another look. Still, the national media and the NCAA don't seem to notice or care about the devastating consequences the new rules will have on college baseball players. No wonder Coach Polk says, "If this would have happened in college football or basketball, war would have been declared." More of the interview...

"Hope you enjoyed this free edition of CBN, may God bless your new year!"

The Member Edition of this newsletter contains the expanded Ron Polk interview and more of his honest opinions:

"We estimate 500-750 kids have been dumped in the last couple weeks..."

"The NCAA is like the Gestapo..."

"Why the NCAA hates baseball..."

"Those programs are just running kids in and out of there..."

"I've called the NCAA every name in the book..."