The recent ruling by the NCAA giving its spring sports athletes the opportunity to gain another year of college eligibility due to the COVID-19 pandemic is having a trickle down effect.
High school athletes who play spring sports and have signed national letters of intent with college programs could suddenly find themselves in very different situations. Colleges across the country are deciding whether to grant the eligibility extension to graduating seniors – the NCAA ruling leaves that call in the hands of member institutions, and the Big Ten’s Wisconsin and some Ivy League schools have announced decisions against it – and waiting to learn which athletes will return.
Meanwhile, high school seniors, some of whom spent years choosing a college program for very specific reasons, are stuck with their decisions.
College rosters could change dramatically for the 2020-21 school year, most notably in baseball. Seniors who elect to return could suddenly be blocking a player already on the team from getting a shot to start. Current juniors, sophomores and freshmen who choose another year will put incoming freshmen even further behind in some cases.
“The competition level just went up for everybody,” said Baylor School baseball coach Greg Elie, who has two seniors who have signed with Power Five conference programs: Colin Ahearn (Tennessee) and Gehrig Ebel (Virginia Tech).
“When you’re adding in transfers and possible redshirts in every class, the talent level goes up dramatically,” Elie added. “Our two guys have been in conversation with their colleges and they are OK with it, but it does change things. There’s no doubt they are going to show up with more guys competing for spots.”
Staff file photo by Tim Barber / Baylor senior Gehrig Ebel, right, has signed with Virginia Tech. Whether he will have at least a partial final season of high school baseball remains to be seen, with the TSSAA yet to cancel spring sports for 2020, instead leaving them on hold as long as schools are not in session on campuses.The situation is also murky from a financial standpoint. A high school senior who signs a letter of intent and meets the school’s admission requirements is, in some instances, only guaranteed financial aid for one school year. Scholarship renewal after one year is not guaranteed, and neither is a roster spot or playing time.
However, Division I schools may, and most often do, offer multiyear scholarships, which may not be reduced for four years.
With some collegiate baseball and softball programs facing the possibility of going into next season with unusually large rosters and reduced financial flexibility, many current high school seniors will head to college with nothing beyond one year a certainty.
“We spend every summer playing with a lot of the guys who are currently high school seniors, and nobody really knows what to expect,” said Chris Edge, a teacher and coach at McCallie whose son Carter is headed to Middle Tennessee State next school year to play baseball.
“You are recruited to go somewhere, and all this happens and you don’t know how it will impact you. It definitely bumps everything back a year, and it’s really tough on incoming freshmen who didn’t have their high school senior seasons and may not play this summer. One of Carter’s best friends, John Rhodes, who is a freshman at Kentucky, was talking the other day about how he could reclassify as a freshman again and after next season would have 60 or 70 games of experience, while a freshman who comes in this year and has to sit could have none and be in the same class.”
Staff photo by C.B. Schmelter / McCallie’s Carter Edge fields a grounder during a home game against Baylor on April 12, 2018.Much of the focus on the pandemic’s effects on sports has been on those at the end of their athletic careers, or at least a phase of it. The GHSA canceled the remainder of its spring sports seasons last week after Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp shut down on-campus classes for 2020-21, but the TSSAA is holding out hope, however slim, as long as the possibility of students returning to school remains.
Prep senior athletes aren’t the only ones missing out on a large portion of a season, though, and when it comes to their college athletic futures, the trickle down effect could be even more substantial for the high school class of 2021.
“We’ve got a huge junior class, and most are going to play (in college) somewhere,” Elie said. “We’ve got five juniors committed to Power Five schools right now. That’s where it’s going to get interesting because that’s where the money is going to be moved around.”
Coach Edge was recalling a conversation with Chad Broome, whose son, Ringgold senior Brayden Broome, is headed to Samford on a baseball scholarship and is part of a huge signing class for the Bulldogs.
“Chad was saying Samford has a ton of seniors and is bringing in like 14 freshmen to help replace those guys,” Edge said. “The next year, from what I understand, the financial numbers would have to be back to normal. If so, it will really affect the 2021 guys.
“Those college coaches are making some really tough decisions. I don’t envy those guys at all.”
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6296. Follow him on Twitter @youngsports22.