College baseball -- Professional amateurs

Division II baseball has adopted the rarely discussed legislation of amateur deregulation.

In layman's terms, this means that a high school player can sign a letter of intent to play for a Division II school and then decide to turn pro. If that player does not believe that his career is going well, he can then return to the Division II school if he has never signed with an agent.

So what is the big argument you ask?

Division I schools believe that this could just be smoke and mirrors in order to get better recruits.

That argument does hold merit.

With this rule in place, many high school players could be approached by a Major League scout and told to turn pro, and if they don't feel comfortable with the decision later, then they can go back to school.

This would certainly limit the amount of players in the college recruiting pool and since the Division I schools have not adopted this policy and more than likely will not adopt it in the future, their programs would suffer immensely.

The NCAA argument to the Division I schools is that "the welfare of the prospective student-athlete and competitive equity between schools should guide the definition of amateurism, not money".

If this rule were allowed to continue, I believe that the competitive equity alluded to in the NCAA argument would not exist. The Division II schools would clearly have the advantage, as players would eagerly take this option before any other. An option that may be harder on the players than they might think.

Right now in the NCAA, many players are accused of, and charged with, fraternization with professional agents. Not signing with an agent, but being found guilty by alleged association.

These young players could get caught up in more red-tape politics than they ever bargained for if this rule is allowed, simply because it would take one person to completely destroy the system.

Another argument against the rule is that it does not include the basketball programs of Division II schools, which would more than likely benefit from the rule more.

Many high school basketball players are starting to turn pro and not succeed. The option to return to school would be a very good thing.

Unfortunately, the NCAA is allowing the Division II schools to follow this practice without making it a uniformed rule to reach the entire umbrella of athletic departments or schools.

I obviously do not agree with this at all. Amateurs are amateurs and professionals are professionals. There is not much gray area here.

The NCAA should leave well enough alone and Division II baseball should trust young players to make a conscience decision on what college to play for instead of offering them a so-called easy way to make it big.

In fact, I sincerely hope that many high school players read this article and realize that the NCAA is starting to care more about the money and prestige than they are the students.