NCAA Baseball Eligibility Requirements

The National Collegiate Athletic Association, or NCAA, has stringent guidelines concerning athletes and eligibility in their respective sports. NCAA baseball players must meet requirements to maintain their collegiate status or risk losing eligibility. Players wishing to attain eligibility must meet academic standards before being eligible for a scholarship, and must be accepted by the NCAA before entry into their college or university. Athletes have to meet more standards to keep playing at the collegiate level.

  1. NCAA Eligibility Center

    • College baseball players must be approved by the NCAA before they can begin practicing with the college of their choice. All prospective players must register through the NCAA Eligibility Center, which dictates whether acceptance is granted based on a player's academic history throughout high school. Once the athlete is cleared to play, he has five years to complete four seasons of baseball at the collegiate level.

    Institutional Request List

    • Until recently, gaining acceptance by the NCAA was as easy as forwarding high school transcripts and a registration fee. The process to register with the NCAA remains unchanged, but players must now request to be added to the Institutional Request List (IRL). Athletes must contact a coach and ask to be put on an IRL, where the coach will request that the NCAA grant eligibility for the athlete. Once one coach lists a player on an IRL and the NCAA grants the request, the athlete is eligible to play at any university.

    Academic Standards

    • College athletes are required to meet their university's academic standards.

      The NCAA demands that the student-athlete maintain good academic standing throughout his years at the university. Coaches are required to make sure players are up to par with their studies or risk having the NCAA cut scholarships for the program. Players must maintain the grade point average required by their field of study.

    Redshirting

    • Coaches can decide to "redshirt" a player, which means the player is ineligible to compete for an entire academic year but will not lose the season of eligibility. While redshirting, the player may practice with the squad, but he may not compete against other schools. If the player plays a single inning during the season, he will be charged with a season of competition. Coaches can opt to redshirt a player if there are upperclassmen at the athlete's position who have more experience. The redshirted athlete has a chance for more playing time the following year after the upperclassmen are gone. Other reasons to redshirt include giving the athlete an opportunity to gain good academic standing, helping the athlete overcome a nagging or serious injury, or buying time to gain valuable experience before playing against elite competition. Players only get one redshirt year.