Baseball is one of only a few college sports where recruiting athletes can start as early as middle school…until now.
The NCAA recently halted early recruiting for players. Now, players and college coaches can’t have any contact before August 1st of an athlete’s junior year.
Nixa outfielder Wyatt Vincent learned about the recruiting process much earlier than most, “It started towards the end of my 8th-grade year,” said the Nixa incoming Junior.
And Wyatt received a lot of attention, “Missouri State, Georgia Tech, West Virginia,” he said.
Vincent chose Missouri State in August of 2022, back when colleges could recruit young players.
“Recruiting got super young in college baseball, so it was pretty much led by a lot of power five schools that would start recruiting 8th graders and 9th graders,” said Missouri State Assistant Coach Joey Hawkins.
Players used to be able to reach out to college coaches at tournaments and games, but not anymore.
“Once the rule change came it’s nothing,” Vincent said.
“But now moving into the new rule I’m interested to see how things play out with the overall age that everyone starts recruiting,” Hawkins said.
Hawkins spearheads recruiting for Missouri State and believes the change could be for the better.
“It pushes everything back and makes it a little bit older, a little bit more mature as they make their decision. Which I think is good for the game,” Hawkins said. “I just don’t think 8th and 9th graders need to be making a decision on college when they’ve barely taken any high school classes. Plus, with the transfer portal, rosters are forever moving.”
“When you’re thinking about where you want to go you are thinking about what city it’s in, who’s going to be there, what the environment is like,” Vincent added. “I got there and I was like ‘Oh this is more than just playing baseball you have to figure out your life.'”
But there’s a group of players now left in silence, like Vincent and Catholic incoming sophomore Jack Smith who also committed before the rule change.
“At the camp, we talked a bit and then I gave coach Bieser a call just saying I was committed,” said Smith.
Smith committed to Missouri and Coach Steve Bieser, who’s no longer at Mizzou.
“It doesn’t really affect me that much. I mean I have confidence in myself that this new staff will have complete confidence in my abilities,” Smith said.
It puts players like Smith in a unique position and can create more uncertainty in a life-changing process.
