by COHAZE on Mon Oct 15, 2012 9:24 am
As I said in my initial post, you can quibble about preferred walkons vs. competitive walkons. But the fact remains that AT LEAST 17 out of 35 players are non-scholarship. Based on what I have heard, I suspect the number is higher than 17.
Frankly, I think distinguishing between preferred and non-preferred walkons at a school like Wofford is a waste of time. The talent level of the preferreds at Wofford is GENERALLY going to be lower than the preferreds at places like C of C, Coastal, CU and USC. One reason for this is no one grows up wanting to play baseball at Wofford. They want to play at the bigger "name" programs. The cost of tuition and academics also narrow the pool of potential preferred walkons.
It's really pretty simple. To get better players Wofford needs more athletic scholarships. Even then it's still going to be an uphill battle because of the cost of tuition and academics. Wofford will always have to target the smarter kids, the legacy kids, and the diamonds in the rough. But more scholarships would certainly help.
How much of a disadvantage is it to only have 4.5 total scholarships? As I indicated earlier, Wofford can give AT MOST 18 25% minimum scholarships. That is NINE (9) less than a fully funded program. That's an entire infield, an entire outfield, and one pitcher. Or 5 starters and 4 relievers. How much better would the team be with 9 more scholarship players?
You could actually fund 9 more 25% scholarships with only 2.25 more total scholarships. But, imagine what you could do with 7 more full scholarships. You could still only add 9 kids, but you could give 4 of those kids full rides, and divide the remaining 3 scholarships among the other 5. You should be able to get some really good pitchers (or hitters) with those full rides.