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Article for what Nebraska and the baseball team has to deal with being a part of the B1G

This article takes a great look into what we have to deal with in the B1G. It's old, but nothing has changed from then to now. I found a few points interesting tho, as the weather isn't as big of a factor for coaches as some think. It's truly the scholarship restrictions. Now, players are going to want to go to the south sometimes, and there's nothing we can do. But until the B1G lifts these restrictions, we are going to constantly have local kids going elsewhere because flat out can't give the money to a Cole Stobbe or Max Anderson and risk them leaving.

http://chrswbb.blogspot.com/2011/11/its-time-to-look-at-oversigning-in.html?_sm_au_=iHVHZfs20M1HSZj3

Article Highlights:
-Arizona state had a signing class of 22 members. They had 21 freshman or sophomores, unless all 12 juniors leave, eight signed players needed drafted to avoid a roster with more than 35 allowable players. And that's just to have the proper number of players on the roster, if the wrong guys leave/stay, you can be over the 11.7 scholarship restriction.

-Ohio State knows first-hand what it is like to go after MLB baseball talent. When Haase, Wisler, and Cohoes all signed with the Buckeyes, few saw all 3 of them as potentially drafted players. The coaches saw the players as a trio that they could build their program around. When all 3 left for the majors, it left Ohio State without the luxury that Arizona State and others enjoy to oversign and backfill these players. As one by one the gems of the 2011 class left, it is safe to imagine between the three, at least 2 scholarships were committed to them, and Coach Beals had to sit and wait. Wisler and Haase did not have contracts approved by MLB until mid-August while Cohoes reneged on his in late July to sign with Chipola JUCO. Not only could Ohio State not offer their money until they were released from their NLI by signing with MLB, who was Ohio State to recruit that late in the process who could step in the rotation as expected of Wisler? Not only were you not going to get a quality 2011 graduate, many of the 2012 players had already committed. They were 2 years behind going after draft eligible talent.

-Late in the summer I spoke to a coach not in the Big Ten and is in a location where they can play home February games. he said if the had a choice between weather and the oversigning limitation he'd take cold weather with the freedom to extend scholarships. "It is necessary for the vitality of the program."

-Former Indiana coach Tracy Smith (who everyone points at as "if Indiana can do it why can't we" but forget their coach left due to the handcuffs the B1G imposes). "What gets little discussion and is probably the biggest reason the conference struggles to compete on a national level consistently is the fact other conferences can oversign. If you recruit good talent, you have to sit back and wait and see if you lose your class. Look what happned to Michigan last year, they win the Big Ten the year before and fail to qualify for the tournament the next year. Is it because Coach Maloney was a great coach one year and bad the next? No, he lost a ton of underclassmen and was not able to use their money unitl the players actually SIGNED a contract in the summer. Who are you going to find that late to replace major league talent? You aren't."

-Smith goes on "Now, I do think the B1G recognized this as a huge disadvantage for our league and instituted a rule change that allows schools to oversign by up to one scholarship spread over two players. It helps, but when other schools are over-signing by 6-8 scholarships every year, the playing field is not even close to being even. It drives me nuts no one talks about it. They think weather and huge stadiums hold our conference back, but that's not it. It's the lack of being able to over-sign as the real issue. My friends who coach at southern schools laugh when I tell them that we can't over-sign kids untl our underclassmen physically sign a contract. They are like, 'how in the heck do you recruit?' I have my response down to a science now, I put my hands behind my back and say like this."

-"The athletic directors and fans can sit there and say they want to be nationally competitive all they want, but if they're tying their baseball coaches hands and not letting them over-offer scholarships with the draft in the mix for not only underclassmen but high school recruits, they'll never be nationally prominent.

My summation, and feel free to openly talk about this with me:
I think Darin Erstad getting runner-up or conference champion 4 of the last 6 years is phenomenal in a league that handcuffs you like this. The quote is right there from a coach that we reference as somewhere Nebraska can get to, with scholarship restrictions you are going to have years like we did in 2018 and 2015. But if you are 1st or 2nd place in 2013, 2014, 2016, and 2017, are we really supposed to be that mad and want to move on?
 

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