Academic Common Market 'Huge Factor' for Monte Lee, Clemson Baseball

Clemson is back in the Academic Common Market and Tigers head baseball coach Monte Lee is optimistic about the impact it will have on his program going forward.

Recruiting can be a tricky thing when it comes to college baseball.

Unlike football and basketball, baseball players aren't given full scholarships to cover the cost of tuition. College baseball teams get 11.7 scholarships to spread throughout each 27-man roster, with a minimum of 25-percent going to each player on scholarship. 

While some schools have endowments to help with costs, Clemson does not. However, the school has recently gotten back into the Academic Common Market and head baseball coach Monte Lee is hoping it can help with the cost of tuition for some of the out-of-state players.

"Once we got it back, our biggest focus right now is trying to target, maybe a handful of guys that the academic common market would apply to for the '22 class," Lee said. "But more importantly the '23 class, because that's our big focus right now is the '23 classes. We're out evaluating guys in that class quite a good bit and the academic common market certainly will come into play with kids that are from those states where it can apply."

Strictly adhering to the 11.7 scholarship limit has limited what the school can offer to out-of-state players when it comes to financial help.

"It certainly helps when you can offer opportunities to young men, where you can reduce their costs of school," Lee said. "Because ultimately, with 11.7 scholarships, oftentimes, it comes down to cost for families. Because out of state costs, you know at Clemson, even in-state cost at Clemson, the cost of school has grown exponentially in the last decade."

Coming off of a losing season for the first time in more than six decades, officials inside the athletic department are looking for ways to help in any way they can. Lee said anything that helps cut down on costs will pay huge dividends in the future and that's exactly what the Common Market does.

"Anything that we can do to try to cut that cost down," Lee said. "So that when a family is looking at Clemson as an option, and they're comparing it to the Georgia's and the Georgia Tech's, and the Tennessee's and the Alabama's and South Carolina, and all the schools that we're recruiting against, we have to be able to stretch our dollars to the best of our ability, so that we can compete for kids in states where the Academic Common Market applies. It's a huge factor for us."