Dave Van Horn, Tony Vitello react to vote on 3rd assistant for college baseball failing to pass
A proposal to allow NCAA baseball and softball programs to add a third paid assistant coach was voted down this week. The SEC led the proposal and had support from the ACC, Conference USA and others, but faced opposition from the Big Ten and the Big 12. The current arrangement allows for two paid full-time assistants and a volunteer coach.
Coaches around the country were asked for their reaction to the news. Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn expressed disappointment and explained how the players are being hurt as coaches are stretched too thin with the time required for both recruiting and teaching.
Tennessee’s Tony Vitello made many of the same points as Van Horn. In a clip shared to Twitter by Marshall Hughes of WATE, Vitello goes into detail why multiple changes need to be made in college baseball when it comes to scholarships and number of assistant coaches. The UT coach argues that baseball requires the most on-the-field time of any of the NCAA sports.
Tennessee Baseball coach Tony Vitello did not hold back last week when he was asked about the proposal to allow college baseball and softball programs the option to pay a third assistant coach. The NCAA voted against it today. pic.twitter.com/awJwdhFc3p
— Marshall Hughes (@marshallhughes) April 20, 2019
D1Baseball has more on the conference politics behind the voting.
That’s just weak on the part of those voting against this. The salary for that coach wouldn’t be much, and it would be a big asset to those schools that actually care about college baseball.
What this vote is really about is how many NCAA Divisions we will have in baseball and how many programs will be in each division, and more importantly how many conferences can keep all their members in the same division. All conference plans for staffing need to consider what is realistic for all their members to sell and pay for.
The real cost of adding a coach can be anything between having a someone in graduate school up to seven figures (not including retirement and other requirements and/or benefits, if any, like insurance, cost of travel, etc.) Programs that don’t pay for themselves hurt all the other programs (including academic programs) on campus.
On the other end of the scale, College men are actually capable of selling and playing on club teams where they raise or work for all the money, the upperclassmen coach the underclassmen, facilities are donated or rented, etc.. Entire sports are run this way. One example that comes to mind is a college rugby club. One example: medical insurance for participants is challenging but it’s also challenging for those who are not participating in activities.
A lot of college programs are over-staffed and over-expensed and just plain fat and wasteful and this has a real impact on the quality of education students get. The same way that over-paying under-performing faculty (tenure ie) has a serious impact on the quality of the degree-product.