NCAA provides relief on Division I baseball roster limits in wake of shorter MLB draft
The NCAA Division I Committee for Legislative Relief has loosened roster restrictions for baseball programs for the upcoming season, USA TODAY Sports has confirmed.
For the upcoming 2021 season, the 35-man roster limit has been lifted, the annual scholarship counter was raised from 27 to 32 and the 25 percent scholarship minimum was temporarily lifted. However, the NCAA did not pass an additional proposal that would increase the number of total scholarships from 11.7 to 13.7.
The news was originally reported by Kendall Rogers of DI Baseball.
Previously, the NCAA had allowed seniors whose season was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic to return for a fifth year without counting against the roster limit. These additional measures were granted because the MLB draft was cut from 40 rounds to five, which could lead to more undrafted players coming back to school.
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“I think it’s a good thing because what you hate to see is players just getting released from your program simply because you have to make a roster limit of 35,” LSU coach Paul Mainieri told USA TODAY Sports. “This year there’s kind of a surplus on each team because of the limited Major League draft and also the granting of an extra year of eligibility.”
Mainieri wishes the relief would have been announced earlier because he already had conversations with players that he didn’t believe he would have room for next year, only to find out that there would be space after all. LSU has had six players transfer this offseason, many because of expected roster restrictions.
Now, Division I baseball programs must figure out how to divide up their scholarships. The combination of the roster limit being lifted and the scholarship limit remaining the same now means there’s less money available for a larger roster.
“The most immediate concern is simply that you may be over your 11.7 scholarship because you have an additional incoming class plus the four classes already in your program and the amount of money you can divvy up between all these players puts a lot of stress on each team,” Mainieri said.
That’s where the elimination of the scholarship minimum comes in. Schools are now allowed to reduce players’ scholarships below the 25 percent minimum in order to make scholarship money available to more players. Additionally, teams are allowed to have five more players on scholarship than they were previously allowed.
While waiting until June to announce the news has caused problems for some teams, the new roster rules will allow baseball programs to bring back more players next season and to make more room for freshmen, walk-ons and undrafted returners.
“I wish they would’ve let us know this a month ago because it would’ve probably changed a little bit of our strategy for players that we talked to,” Mainieri said. “But that’s the way it is and if it helps some teams as far as letting kids stay involved in their program I think that’s a good thing.”
