With the new NCAA vs House settlement that passed, it sends ripples through the college baseball world. That begs the question, how will it affect Virginia Tech?
The major change in the rules of college baseball is that every NCAA governed school is now restricted to 34 scholarships and roster spots. I don't think Virginia Tech will use all 34 scholarships. I'm thinking they'll be in the ballpark of 30, give or take a few. Gauging what the proper number of scholarships is to remain competitive during year one to remain competitive will be a challenge for a lot of teams, including Tech.
Every big school cuts a couple of incoming freshman every year, but this year, there will by significantly more players cut due to the lower roster limit.
With returning players, incoming transfers, and incoming freshmen, Virginia Tech is at 45 players for 34 spots. Some guys will have to get cut.
Virginia Tech still has a couple of positions to fill on the team, so I expect them to take anywhere from 3-5 more transfers, putting them around 49 total players with about 13 to cut.
Virginia Tech has 16 incoming freshmen. I would assume no more than ten make the final roster. That would still leave the Hokies with around seven to cut.
The draft will likely take a few players. Luke Craytor, Henry Cooke, Jared Davis, Clay Grady, Matheiu Curtis, and Josh Berzonski are all players that I think *could* get drafted. I don't think more than 2-3 of them will, but you never know with the MLB draft. The Hokies also have two incoming freshmen that are listed in the BaseballAmerica top 400 draft prospects (Ethan Ball, Ethan Grim). I do think that they both still make it to campus, though.
I think that the Hokies will still see a couple more reserve players entering the transfer portal, so that will likely help round out the rest of the 'cuts' that need to be made.
The other two rule changes aren't really significant. First, any NIL deal of $600 has to be approved by a clearinghouse. As much as I'd love to say that I know what exactly that means, I can't. We will probably learn more details around that in the coming months. All that I can say confidently is that it will be better than whatever the NCAA was doing prior to this settlement.
Lastly, all teams have to declare their final 34 man roster by December 1 prior to the start of each season. That doesn't really change anything significant.
