The state of college baseball was discussed today, live from Omaha, Nebraska on the eve of the #MCWS

Ellie Williamson

June 13, 2024

Sitting on the panel to discuss a host of issues facing the sport in 2024 were Anthony Holman,NCAA vice president of championships, Matt Hogue, vice president for intercollegiate athletics and university recreation and chair of the NCAA Division I Baseball Committee and Craig Keilitz, executive director of American Baseball Coaches Association Jack Diesing, Jr., chairman and president of College World Series of Omaha, Inc. 

The Players Lounge joined in during discussion  and asked, What the panel saw as the biggest obstacle to the growth of college baseball?  A couple of answers were given from the group of leaders. 

CRAIG KEILITZ, executive director of the American baseball coach association had this to say in response:

“Instability right now and understanding where we're going. So, for example, talking with coaches right now, for '25-'26 they don't know how many scholarships they'll probably have, what their roster size is going to be. Do we have the 25 percent minimum scholarship allotment? Do we have a maximum 27 student-athletes on aid? And they're trying to sign, really, two to three classes out. You put that in with the Major League draft, the transfer portal. So there's just a lot of instability.”

MATT HOGUE had a different approach to answering that question. 

“I don't know if it's a significant obstacle, but I think certainly there's a desire to make the game more known in regions maybe that are not as well represented. You've certainly got some coaches and some programs out there that they try to get past that trend. But everything that happens with this tournament tries to take the entire country into play, even the selection of the umpires. We take a look at every conference, every region, that sort of thing. But the encouragement, and I think Craig would agree with this, but the encouragement that some of those programs continue to investment in the game, support the game, grow it in those regions, particularly now that we're seeing virtually no geographic bounds for how conference realignment goes.”