2020, anyone?

[Dakota]

Originally Posted by tcannizzo

yes it is. And what i wrote includes 100's of "colleges" in all divisions.

Large time commitment, sure, but "employees"? "paid to play"? BS.

[RKBUmp]

I can see both sides of the issue. My daughter played for some pretty crazy club ball coaches, but none of them come even close to the workouts she does in college. At most, club ball practiced 3 times a week, college is usually 6 days a week plus weight lifting, conditioning etc. And when they arent practicing, they are out fund raising.

Are they paid? Not in cash, but they are exchanging playing softball for an education any other student would have to pay some amount of money for. Some colleges are $30k+ per year.

ASA does not allow players to drop skill levels once they have played in qualifiers. An 18 gold player can not drop to 18's, and a 16 player that has played up in 18's can not drop back to 16's. I would tend to argue that a lot of college programs are a level above gold. Are they all? Not even close, but where do you draw the line?

[wadeintothem]

Personnally, I find this a coaches issue, which is why I find it ironic that for what is allegedly such an all important issue all of a sudden, it has never made it out of their own JO committee.. I could careless if college players play or not, if they dont want em, get rid of em.


At any rate, we are WAY over stating these college players. The ones playing gold are freshman, usually with little playing time, and most are on a 25% +/- ride. Only a very few elite pitchers and VERY VERY few others are 100% free ride.

Lets not over state reality.

[IRISHMAFIA]

Originally Posted by RKBUmp

ASA does not allow players to drop skill levels once they have played in qualifiers. An 18 gold player can not drop to 18's, and a 16 player that has played up in 18's can not drop back to 16's. I would tend to argue that a lot of college programs are a level above gold. Are they all? Not even close, but where do you draw the line?

Not true. Teams are classified, not players (in JO). A 16yo can always play in that age bracket regardless of the level played the previous season.

IOW, a JO player whose team participated in this years 18U Gold can play on a 16U team next year if still age eligible. Likely? Depends on the player, parents and maybe even available resources, but completely legal.

Apparently this really SIMPLE system is beyond the grasp of many people. The player's ability to join the roster of any particular team is based solely on the player's birth date.