Ben McDonald made a comment in Thursday's A&M@LSU ESPN telecast that intrigued me.

He said that the recently constrained MLB draft-slot salaries have many more high school players choosing to attend/play in college rather than take a relatively paltry low-round bonus and go pro.

What do the local/Texas recruiting mavens on the Parliament make of this? Is this a real and significant trend? And might it be positive or negative for Rice in the long run?

I'm imagining that if it is real, this may not bode well for Rice, as I'd think players in this situation (low-round draftees for whom money & going pro are more important than college) would likely not be potential candidates for Rice in the first place. So in effect, some of our less-academic competitors will be seeing a bump up in the quality of their recruits, while we would see little, if any, improvement.

Of course, it only takes one or two stellar recruits a year to made a significant difference. But overall, can this situation that McDonald described work in Rice's favor? (I hope!)

(04-25-2015 11:50 AM)Almadenmike Wrote:  Ben McDonald made a comment in Thursday's A&M@LSU ESPN telecast that intrigued me.

He said that the recently constrained MLB draft-slot salaries have many more high school players choosing to attend/play in college rather than take a relatively paltry low-round bonus and go pro.

What do the local/Texas recruiting mavens on the Parliament make of this? Is this a real and significant trend? And might it be positive or negative for Rice in the long run?

I'm imagining that if it is real, this may not bode well for Rice, as I'd think players in this situation (low-round draftees for whom money & going pro are more important than college) would likely not be potential candidates for Rice in the first place. So in effect, some of our less-academic competitors will be seeing a bump up in the quality of their recruits, while we would see little, if any, improvement.

Of course, it only takes one or two stellar recruits a year to made a significant difference. But overall, can this situation that McDonald described work in Rice's favor? (I hope!)

I don't think the actual evidence over the past three years (since the change in slot money was instituted) supports McDonald's claim. What it has done, however, I have more college players returning for their Senior year and 4th year of eligibility.