NCAA Transformation Committee Releases Potential Proposals That Could Impact Mississippi State if Implemented
On Wednesday, the NCAA Transformation Committee revealed plans for future changes that will impact college sports as a whole if they are approved.
The announcement comes as NCAA President Mark Emmert prepares to resign next June. The change in leadership has given the committee the chance to introduce new concepts and set new precedents. The committee has introduced five new proposals-- although they have not been approved yet, they prove that change is certainly coming.
If the concepts are approved and the specific changes do happen, how will this impact Mississippi State?
The first-- and perhaps biggest-- concept that the Transformation Committee has proposed is the elimination of scholarship caps. Programs that offer only partial scholarships will now be able to award financial aid to more student-athletes and bring in more recruits as a whole. Mississippi State's baseball program is one team that will benefit greatly from this potential change. The team is currently allowed to give out only 11.7 scholarships to players, and the concept could potentially push that to 35.
The committee also looks to abolish the limitation on the number of paid coaches per team. The NCAA currently limits how many coaches can work with an individual team. In football, a head coach can have 10 assistants of his choosing to work in whichever capacity he deems fit. That number is much lower in baseball: a head coach can have a pitching coach and a hitting coach, but that's all. There might be other people who work around a specific team, but they are not allowed to coach or receive any sort of coaching payment. The potential change could do wonders for athletic programs at Mississippi State that need to bring on a few more people to work in specific areas of coaching.
Athletic programs are allowed to provide thousands of dollars worth of education benefits to student-athletes. There are no clear criteria regarding how a player can receive the benefits, and some schools can pay more players for less-significant contributions to the team. The Transformation Committee is looking to regulate that. If approved, the proposal could restrict the ways that schools pay players and lead to a more even playing field.
Those three proposals would be decided on by individual conferences if approved. The final two proposals that the Transformation Committee announced would apply to the entire NCAA. These have to do with recruiting and transferring.
Currently, athletes can use the transfer portal whenever they would like and face no penalties unless they transfer more than once. The committee has proposed an idea that would close the portal for certain periods of time, giving athletes specific windows in which they would be allowed to transfer.
The committee's final major proposal would allow more coaches to recruit on the road. It would also simplify the complicated recruitment process by designating two specific periods in which coaches could and could not recruit
Some of the Transformation Committee's proposals might be changed slightly or not even come to fruition. New ideas will likely be added down the road. No matter what happens, it looks like Mississippi State could see some major changes within its athletic programs that allow each of them to be more competitive in the SEC.