Measures aimed at improving academics in college baseball that the NCAA enacted last month are facing firm opposition.

The NCAA Board of Directors on April 26 approved several proposals based on recommendations from a baseball academic enhancement committee, the USA Today reported.

The proposals included forcing players to sit out a year if they transfer to another school, limiting the total number of scholarship players on a baseball team to 27 and mandating that each player who receives a scholarship must receive at least 33 percent of a scholarship. Teams are allowed to give 11.7 scholarships.

Also included in the approved proposals is a measure governing the Academic Progress Rate of teams. The NCAA uses the APR to judge classroom achievement. A team’s APR is based on how long an athlete stays at the school and also the athlete’s progress toward a degree. An APR score of 925 translates to a graduation rate of approximately 60 percent.

The APR recommendations said players will have to maintain their eligibility in the fall to be eligible to play in the spring. Also, teams whose APR scores fall below 900 will have their schedules reduced by 10 percent.

Another USA Today article reported that baseball coaches around the country raised serious concerns about the scholarship limits that would be in place under the proposals. The same story said an override vote can be demanded if 30 Division I schools submit written requests for the vote by June 30

Junior infielder Joe Florio said coaches have a right to be upset about the potential scholarship limitations.

“It’s so hard for baseball anyway,” Florio said. “We get 11.7 scholarships, and we’ve got 35 guys on the team. It should be the judgment of the coach to determine how the scholarships are distributed. Maybe not everyone should be 33 percent. It should be up to the coach. That takes a lot of power out of the coach’s hands.”

Coach Elliott Avent said the limitations would add to an already difficult situation surrounding recruiting. While Avent criticized the scholarship rule changes, he said the changes regarding the transfer regulations are going to be beneficial to the sport.

“The transfer rule is a good idea,” Avent said. “The sit-out thing must happen. When you can just transfer without sitting out, then people are just hopping around to the first thing that comes along. The old saying goes, ‘The grass is always greener…;’ well it’s true. And we’ve made it too easy for guys to just hop on over to the other side.”

Florio, who has transferred twice in his college career (from Virginia to Indian River Community College, and from Indian River to N.C. State), said the rule will make athletes think twice when considering the option to transfer.

“It’s going to be tough,” he said. “The older you are, the less valuable you are to the scouts sometimes. If I have to sit out a year after transferring, that option will not look as good to me.”

Redshirt junior pitcher Eryk McConnell said the transfer rule will “definitely have an effect” on players.

“You always want to be playing – nobody wants to sit out a year,” he said. “Guys may stick around more often if they have to sit out a year.”

Florio, Avent and McConnell all said they were in favor of the academic changes that would take place if the proposals remain in place.

“We’re student-athletes – students being first,” Florio said. “You should do well in the classroom. Even if you’re a first-rounder, what happens if you get hurt and you can’t play anymore? What do you fall back on? School is very important to everyone.”

Avent said the APR scoring is a good idea, but the NCAA “brought the cart before the horse” when defining the guidelines.

“Ten years from now, I think everyone will say APR is a good thing,” he said. “But the APR was invented before the measures were put in place to help you achieve a good APR.”

By allowing players to transfer and play immediately, Avent said schools were essentially penalized because a player might have found a better opportunity to play elsewhere. With no requirement to sit out a year, players were able to transfer with ease.

“The rule changes will improve [the APR] system – no question,” Avent said. “These rules have a lot of validity to them.”

If the rule changes are not overridden, they will go into effect in 2008.