I'm certainly not defending the practice you describe, but my point is that as crummy as that is, getting a free college degree is like hitting the lottery. If a kid has a major league future, he's likely going to get playing time. Otherwise, college ball will be the end of his baseball career regardless of playing time, and he's going to make money doing something else for the rest of his life, so riding the bench is a small price to pay for getting a free college degree that costs well above $100,000 these days. A lot of kids would do anything to have that opportunity.

And those 11.7 are split up among 27 players with minimum of 25%. This increases to 32 athletes on scholarship and roster limit of 40 spots next season. So I'm just assuming that most baseball players are not on full rides and getting a free eduction.

I have two kids (son graduated, daughter is a R-JR) who were college scholarship athletes in swimming (and son also played water polo). I think swimming is something like 8.5 or so equivalents on a men's squad that usually ends up being about 20 athletes, and women is a few more. Men's water polo is something absurd like 4.5 for a squad of about 20 (this is to prevent Stanford, Cal, UCLA, and USC from hoarding all the talent). The best situation for a non-football/basketball player is to stack the athletic aid with academic merit aid, which is what my son in particular did (he also got a "geographic diversity" grant for coming from far away). What VT does a very poor job of is the availability of a lot of academic aid to supplement the athletic scholarships. I can tell with absolute certainty that this is a huge disadvantage in swimming recruiting in particular.

Peter Honse and Ryan Allard were both RHP that signed LOI's in November but de-committed in the past month and both appear to be VT-initiated de-commitments. All throughout the Szefc era and I would assume is pretty typical at other programs is we average between 3 to 6 recruits each class that end up enrolling and going through fall practice but then don't make the roster in the spring and either transfer or give up baseball. What I do think was unique with the 2024 class in the two situations noted above is I am not aware of recruits at VT that signed their LOI but ended up not even enrolling. My guess is with our team's worse than expected performance this year and the continued availability of players in the transfer portal, that Szefc and the coaching staff have decided to focus on going with more experienced players to help save their jobs in the short-term. As others have pointed out, the other factor is that not all players are on scholarship so we don't know exactly what each recruit's situation is coming in and what they were told by the coaching staff. Essentially, a number of the recruits are walk-ons and I would assume the coaching staff has had directional conversations that they would be given a chance to compete but no guarantees on scholarships or even making the roster. I also think the calendar and current recruiting landscape with baseball further exasperates the issues. First, with the sport being in the spring, incoming recruits are signing LOI's months before they play their senior year in the sport and before the college's season so a lot more can change in that time than say football which happens in the fall and LOI's are primarily signed in the fall. The other issue is the ridiculous timeline with baseball recruiting. Things will hopefully change with recent contact rules being put into place, but since our 2020 class, the average recruit is committing a full 2 years prior to graduation. That creates an unhealthy situation for both the recruit and the school if/when recruits don't develop as expected or when something changes in the direction of the program in the couple of years since they verbally committed.

and in some ways a reflection of the individual's integrity that they are willing to conduct business like this. There are so many things wrong in collegiate athletics these days that we would be here a long time if we discussed them all. However, the bright side is that collegiate athletics is a crash course in the realities of life and the need to learn early on life is not necessarily fair and you must be thorough and discerning in assessing any situation you are considering to get involved in. Eyes wide open!!

Coaches are getting them committed by sophomore year, generally assuming their skill trajectory is going to continue to head up. Meanwhile the kid plateaus or someone else reclassifies, etc. How many of those freshman in HS that committed to VT last year do you think will actually end up there? But the coaches are going to wait until they are sure they have someone lined up they are more confident in the skill level of before dropping the existing commitment.

at the D2 and especially D3 levels. At the lower levels, it is called filling the dorms and they take as many as they can to get to money for tuition plus room and board. I know a kicker from a local HS that went to a D3 school a few years ago in Virginia. First day of practice he finds out he is one of 7 PK’s on the roster and there were over 150 players on the practice field. A D2 baseball program recently brought in over 70 players and held tryouts in August to see who would be on the roster for fall practices after Labor Day. The tryout candidates already paid their money for school, but did not find out about the tryouts until they had arrived on campus. There is a lot of attrition when schools do this at the D2/D3 and I think it is highly unethical. Look at the link below of VT’s baseball recruiting class in 2022. Several of them have never appeared on the spring roster or played in a game for the Hokies. Also, I’m not talking about the guys who were drafted. Some of them didn’t make the spring roster and were cut loose from the program by the coaching staff after the fall semester.

Did not get the call until 20 days before his High School graduation, after 21 months of commitment. WOW! Yes, he can still go to the school and possibly make a bench seat or possibly not. What a mess!! Luckily, he has found his future home and said it feels more like home. This was a hard life lesson for sure! My advice to future commitments. Absolutely do not put all your eggs in one basket to quickly! ** Edited by tjbbsallard at 7/9/2024, 7:11:01 PM

land in terms of new school? Also, is your son planning to pitch in college or is he being slotted as a position player? It looks like he wasn't the only recruit in the VT class that encountered the same situation as Peter Honse also had what appeared to be not a player-initiated de-commitment. In any case, good luck to your son and I wish him success in college and beyond.

for everyone in life. Nice he is young and had the support to navigate through this.

Also, had he signed a Letter of Intent? I thought a LOI was binding to the player and the school, but I am starting to see that it is a phony contract.

Pitcher, Ryan Allard. He signed the NLI and he had to initate being released from VT thru NCAA. In a nutshell, they overstaffed pitching and need to get more experienced kids from the portal. Sure he can still go, possibly make the team, that is not what he wanted to do. So he has moved on.

the way the game has now evolved. Even the ones that actually make it to classes aren't assured of making it through the fall. Tons of kids in the portal. Coaches have to win now. It's in a nasty state.

So it's not like they can commit to a different school and avoid the game. It's also how travel ball works, so they grew up in a similar system from age of about 9. All you can do is attach yourself to a good, honest coach who will be honest with you about what's going to happen. But it is a free for all. The prevailing wisdom is - unless you are a can't miss sure thing freshman starter - go to a lower division school, and if you excel you can transfer up to a starting role at a higher division/conference school. Also I've been told almost all scholarship offers are given with expectation of accept/decline on the spot. So if you get a scholarship offer, even if it's a lower division than you should be prepared to accept it. Even if it costs you something better down the line.