Now, with the 2011 season fast approaching, the NCAA has mandated this fall that teams are required to use bats that meet the standards of the Bat-Ball Coefficient of Restitution (BBCOR). In other words, the NCAA is making sure teams use bats that operate similar to wood, hoping it will increase the integrity, popularity and safety of the game.
Some coaches love the change. Others loathe it.
The change does beg the question: Just how close to a wood bat is the new NCAA mandated aluminum bat?
“Wood and non-wood bats with the same BBCOR produce essentially the same batted-ball speeds, so it’s easy to relate a non-wood bat’s performance to that of a similarly-sized wood bat,” said NCAA spokesman Cameron Schuh. “The BBCOR standard will not be a burden on manufacturers as all bats must meet the 0.50 limit regardless of length.”
Though the NCAA is taking a step forward in the eyes of casual baseball fans by developing a metal bat that mimics a wooden bat, many purists insist college baseball eventually should migrate to the wood bat used by professionals and even some college programs in other divisions.
A-10 umps have some vague understanding of the rules of the game. Now they are going to monitor if some aluminum bat is legal or not? Good luck with that.
Pretty easy have the manufacturers place a label on the bat that says NCAA approved or something like that. Most of the players will be using similar bats so it will be fairly easy to determine which bats are legal and which are not. Once a list of usable bats is out there players and coaches will know what bats are legal and will police it better than the umpires.
They already do this. The new NCAA required bats have been ‘deadened’ from the bats used in previous years. So much so that some teams are saying that they would rather use wooden bats.
This. And most umps check the bats prior to the game. It shouldn’t be a problem.
This is a good thing. The reason it has not happened until this point is that the coaches resisted it because the big-time coaches get salary bonuses from the aluminum bat companies, and the smaller schools usally got free bats for using a specific brand. The use of composite bats will still allow for those stipulations to be in place, and this will also allow players to use wood bats if they wish to prepare for pro ball since there will now be no disadvantage in using a wooden bat.
Injury risk to pitchers was a big concern 5-6 years ago, as several pitchers got nailed in the face/head with line drives because they did not have time to react. I think a lot of the extra bat speed was due to steroid use along with the high-test aluminum bats. Steroid use has seemingly declined at all levels since testing began at the Major League level. Nonetheless, the move back to wooden bats/composite bats will be good for the college game and the players in the long run.