Oversigning in NCAA Baseball

The BuckeyeNine interviewed Indiana's Tracy Smith in build up to their series this weekend. The last question had to do with the oversigning problem that Rich Maloney also laments about constantly, and the response is definitely worth a link.

Now, I do believe the Big Ten recognized this as a huge disadvantage for our league and instituted a rule change this year that allows schools to over sign up to one scholarship spread over two players. It does help, but when other schools are over signing by 6-8 scholarships, the playing field is not even close to being even. The part that drives me nuts is nobody talks about this issue. Everyone wants to talk about weather, and huge stadiums, etc., as being the things the hold our conference back, but it’s not. The issue of over-signing is the real problem. My friends who coach at southern schools laugh when I tell them that we can’t over-sign kids until our underclassmen physically sign a contact. They are like, “how in the heck do you guys recruit?” I have my response down to a science now, I put my hands behind my back and say, “like this.”

Big Ten coaches in baseball haven't been able to sign players until their players who leave early for the draft actually sign their pro contracts in June-August. That leaves them potentially 2 months before school starts to find talent to replace their draft picks. So pretty much, they're left with no options as nearly everyone signs either in the fall or spring. What kid with talent is going to wait until after their summer season is over to decide to go to a school? Yeah, no one. Couple other good questions, including Smith recruiting his own son to graduate early and play an immediate role in the IU baseball team. Pretty interesting if you can put up with reading white and red text on a black background. I just typed this whole post while still blind.