Diamond Talk: Ramifications of giving an extra year of eligibility

Key notes from Scott Clendenin interview

• The big issue with the MLB Draft is if it is going to be ten rounds or possibly just five. I don’t think it will go passed ten rounds, and I have no clue how this affects the talent pool. The top 250 players won't be affected, but there's going to be a massive recruiting effort among players that are now going to go undrafted now. 
   
• I think you're going to see some very unhappy people among the NCAA as some teams are unable to take another million dollars in scholarship numbers. It could very well cause a mass exodus on college campuses among players who are going to need to find new places to play with the talent that's going to be on campus.
   
• I don't think by next Monday the NCAA is going to give much relief because other sports in the NCAA - namely football - are still unknown. Football is the NCAA’s great unknown. It's going to lead to a lot of people not getting that extra year back with another class of athletes coming in and a class not going out.
   
• I want to see the best players come back, so come December, coaches are going to be making decisions about having to start freshmen players that they didn't expect to get into the program with seniors returning. It could make for a fun talent-filled roster and season, but it creates problems with the players. As a fan, though, that could be very exciting.
   
• I think, as a result, the NCAA will have a three or four-year revival in a lot of the spring sports. Being able to create a luxury of roster talent with returning players and another incoming class will be huge for the sports. It's going to make for a fantastic time as fans, getting to watch these sports play if all the logistics can be figured out.
   
• If you want to talk about chaos, if the NCAA moves forward and changes the transfer waiver rules and doesn't have a transfer restriction or loss of year in the middle of all of this, then players will hop and jump around like we've never seen. It’ll create a much bigger emphasis on recruiting. No one is talking about that because it could be a result that we see far down the line when all this has passed.
   
• Asa Lacy showed in his few games why he was so highly considered for things like SEC Pitcher of the Year. He was masterful in his starts and put himself very high on MLB draft boards. I think Zach DeLoach was carrying himself as a different guy this season, and I would've loved to have seen him over the full season. My huge thing for next year is how some of these guys can come back from injury and come off a shortened season. That will be a big thing for this team moving forward regarding how guys like Jonathan Childress, Trevor Werner and a few others can work now to get back to the level they were playing at before the season was lost.