Baseball Rules for College Coaches

For college baseball coaches, the basic rules of the game remain the same. It is still three strikes and you're out and four balls and you walk. The game lasts nine innings, each team gets three outs each inning. The challenge for college coaches is not so much managing the rules on the field, but rather off the field. Staying on top of these NCAA rules can make coaching the actual games the easy part of the job. Recruiting and practicing are the main areas that NCAA rules govern.

  1. Scholarship Limits

    • The NCAA has mandated the coaches only award the value equivalent to 11.7 full scholarships to baseball players per season. With college baseball teams carrying anywhere from 30 to 35 players, the money going to each player is slim. For comparison's sake, football teams are allowed 85 full scholarships, and men's and women's basketball teams are each allowed 13. Coaches must determine how to divide the scholarship money among their players without exceeding the allowed amounts. Exceeding this amount can result in the NCAA taking away scholarships.

    Game Limits

    • Another regulation set forth by the NCAA for college baseball teams is that a maximum of 56 regular season games may be played. Depending on the conference each team is a part of, a certain percentage of those games are required to be played against other teams in the conference. Coaches must decide whom to play in the remaining games while taking into account the strength of each opponent as well as the impact on recruiting. Scheduling more than the allowed number of games can result in the forfeiture of wins as well as being banned from competing for the national title.

    Limits on Number of Coaches

    • The NCAA regulates not only the actions of coaches, but lso athe number of coaches. Each team may have no more than five assistant coaches on the payroll. Baseball is the only collegiate sport with NCAA regulations that limit both the number of players and number of coaches allowed per team. For head coaches, this makes picking assistants even more difficult, and it limits the amount of one-on-one coaching that players can receive. NCAA penalties for violating this rule usually include the loss of scholarships.