By Willie Nicklaus and Brian Foley

With the Academic Progress Rate as the basis for sweeping changes recently enacted by the NCAA under the guidance of a committee called the Academic Enhancement Group, that included coaches and administrators, college baseball at the Division 1 level may see the advantages southern schools have enjoyed in the past slowly diminish. Let me qualify the term “slowly” meaning a snails pace.

Four major ingredients come into play and serve several purposes above and beyond the APR. The first one is the Uniform Start Date, which in 2008 is February 22. Up to this season, many southern and west coast programs typically started their season in early February. Read the rest of this entry »

Scout.com checks in with an article about the new draft rules which go into effect this season. The rules now state that all players beside college seniors must be signed before August 15th. The article has some quotes from some people who write for the Scout.com network and the comments can be read here.