How the NCAA’s ruling to add eligibility is impacting CCU, and what seniors might return
Thirty-five senior or graduate student-athletes receiving at least partial scholarships at Coastal Carolina have decisions to make. Their choices, in turn, will leave university leaders with some decisions of their own.
The NCAA has awarded all spring sport athletes an extra year of eligibility because their seasons were canceled by the coronavirus.
Now it’s up to each individual school to decide how to handle the retention of the seniors who want to return, and CCU has 35 on scholarship over 10 spring sports.
Coastal director of athletics Matt Hogue expects to know by the end of April which athletes will attempt to return, aside from special circumstances, including a few baseball players awaiting a decision by Major League Baseball on the draft and amateur signings. Scholarship grants are usually determined in June, Hogue said.
The school is allowed to grant returning seniors the same amount of scholarship they were receiving, or less, and that scholarship won’t be counted against each program’s allowed total. Any increase in scholarship amount to a returning senior will count against the allotted total.
It seems like a win-win for the athletes and teams, but the school will have to account for the cost of each scholarship above the normal limit. So CCU has some financial decisions to make. It isn’t required to provide scholarships to the returning seniors who had them this season.
“No. 1, economically how feasible is it?” Hogue said. “We’re at a time where you’re adding more dollars into the system from a scholarship standpoint, but you also have dollars being taken out of the system in terms of NCAA distributions and so forth we won’t receive this year, and then there’s the potential you could still see a hit next year as well. So that’s really the challenge right now, what’s feasible for us?”
The university will also likely gain tuition funds from returning senior athletes who are on partial or no scholarship, and that could offset some of the extra scholarship costs. The athletic department may look to the Chanticleer Athletic Foundation, which supports CCU athletics, to assist financially.
“Everyone could come back if they would like, but we may be forced to make some tough decisions in terms of how much aid we can bring,” Hogue said. “We’ve got to take a look at every option from a cost standpoint. Do we try to look at foundation funds? Do we look at providing each sport a certain amount and then they work through that with the ones that are coming back? I think you have to look at every option.”
The NCAA’s ruling will seemingly give some teams a competitive advantage next season if they have a large returning class of seniors.
“There are going to be some competitive inequities across the board in all spring sports,” CCU softball coach Kelley Green said. “If our three athletes decide not to return but Louisiana’s athletes choose to return, they could potentially be playing with 16 scholarships and we’re playing with 12 or whatever we have. That’s a huge competitive imbalance, but that’s the reality of the situation. There’s not really a lot we can do about it.”
Hogue and a few CCU coaches contacted by The Sun News were in favor of the NCAA’s ruling.
“Giving back spring sports athletes’ eligibility was the right thing,” Green said. “… I’m really pleased, I think our athletes are all really pleased, now the big thing we have to figure out is just the financial piece.
“It affects the other classes, too. This is going to be something that we deal with for the next few years because of everybody getting their eligibility back, and how we handle roster management and the financial implications with that with scholarships.”
The ruling impacts the CCU sports of baseball, softball, men’s and women’s golf, men’s and women’s track and field, men’s and women’s tennis, women’s lacrosse and beach volleyball.
Baseball
Baseball annually has 11.7 scholarships to distribute and a roster limit of 35 that will be extended by the number of seniors that return. It’s the only spring sport that has a roster limitation.
The team has five seniors in shortstop Scott McKeon of Raleigh, N.C., outfielder Morgan Hyde of Evans, Ga., and pitchers Scott Kobos of Charlotte, N.C., Jay Causey of Conway, and Chase Antle of Grove City, Ohio, a graduate transfer from Bowling Green.
“There’s no reason at this point in time to worry about my seniors and pressing them for an answer,” CCU baseball coach Gary Gilmore said. “In the next week, I’ll reach out to those guys to get a feel.”
McKeon was drafted in the 21st round last year by the Detroit Tigers but chose to return to the Chants, and both Kobos and Antle are fifth-year seniors. So Gilmore expects those players to accept any opportunity they receive from Major League Baseball organizations.
“If that opportunity is there … it’s their opportunity and their time,” Gilmore said. “We get it. We’re prepared for them not to return. If they do return, obviously it’s a huge positive shot in the arm.”
Gilmore foresees a potential scenario in which college teams will play more games than pro teams by the end of the 2020-21 college season because of the uncertainty of the MLB and minor league seasons this summer.
“We may play as much or more than the pro guys,” Gilmore said. “There are still just so many unknowns. If Scotty McKeon signs and his next playing opportunity is in spring training, heck he’d be just as well off to come back to school, get a post-graduate degree and still play and sign next June.
“I just think this thing has to kind of still play itself out, and the kids and their agents kind of really study it and try to figure out the best avenue to maximize each of these kids’ opportunities.”
Hyde is expected to earn a degree next month, and both Causey and Antle have theirs already. Antle was hitting 99 mph on the radar gun in his early-season appearances as a closer, so he’ll likely get a chance at pro ball.
“He made such a huge advancement forward and was just beginning to showcase himself,” Gilmore said. “I think he’s done enough that someone is going to take him and give him an opportunity to continue to play. … The whole thing was just snatched away from him right when he had just started to turn the corner to really becoming an incredibly attractive professional guy.”
The baseball team could lose some draft-eligible juniors as well, as outfielder Parker Chavers and pitcher Zach McCambley have both been ranked in the top 60 of D1Baseball’s 2020 Top 100 College Prospect Rankings.
“They’re very deserving of any and all attention and honors they get in regards to how they have played and grown up here into the men they are,” Gilmore said.
The MLB draft is scheduled for June 10-12, but it may be moved into July or later and could be shortened from 40 rounds to between five and 10 based on options being considered. So what pro opportunities players leaving college will have remains to be seen.
Softball
Softball’s three seniors are pitcher Ally Marcano of New York, catcher and first baseman Kassidy Smith of Illinois, and utility player Michaela McAuley of Charleston, who was often a pinch runner. Marcano and Smith were starters.
Green said she’s not yet sure if all three want to return.
“They’re all three very important so we’d love to have all of them back,” Green said. “We want to give our seniors time to make that decision. They’ve had their lives planned, and it’s been shaken up a little bit. So we wanted to give them time, and us time too because there will be decisions on our end financially for sure.
“So we’ll be having those conversations in the next couple weeks.”
Men’s golf
The golfer with the best career scoring average in CCU men’s golf history has an opportunity to return to the program if he chooses.
Zack Taylor of Pittsburgh, who won the General Hackler Championship at The Dunes Golf and Beach Club on March 10, has a 71.15 scoring average in 19 events in less than two seasons. He joined the team in his fourth year at the university from the PGA Golf Management Program.
PGA Tour star Dustin Johnson has the second-best career scoring average in program history at 72.26 over four years.
Taylor, one of two seniors on the team along with States Fort of Evans, Ga., was planning to turn pro after the season before having the opportunity to return for a third season of college golf. He has been relying heavily on CCU head coach Jim Garren for his career decisions.
“[He’s] not going to be making any decisions anytime soon,” Garren said. “… There is no pro golf as of now and he’d have nowhere to play so we have to see how all that unfolds.”
Fort has six top-20 finishes in 33 career events, and his 72.79 scoring average this season is his best by more than a stroke in his four years. Garren believes Fort will return for another season.
“He’s come a long way in three years with us and this ruling was huge for guys and girls in his position,” Garren said.
Women’s golf
Neither of the women’s golf team’s two seniors are returning, coach Katie Quinney said. Alexandra Naumovski of Canada played sparingly in her career and has accepted a graduate assistant position at a college in Colorado, and Stephanie Henning of Sweden will not return after playing in 28 career events with five top-20 finishes and a scoring average of 76.7.
This story was originally published April 10, 2020 at 11:49 AM.
