The special sauce to NCAA glorified “select baseball” tournament: Moms and dads

Every time the NCAA plays a baseball tournament game, it should also be celebrated as Mother’s Day and Father’s Day combined.

Call it an unintended consequence of Title IX, and the presence of a fully-funded football team, but moms and dads are the silent partners that make NCAA college baseball possible.

The largest governing body in college athletics has been slowly emasculated over the years, but the NCAA baseball tournament remains one of the last great heists in all of sports.

On Friday, the largest crowd in the history of Lupton Stadium was on hand to watch TCU play Indiana State in Game 1 of their best-of-three NCAA super regional series; the winner goes to Omaha for the College World Series.

TCU defeated Indiana State 4-1. Game 2 of the series starts at 5 p.m. on Saturday.

Despite temperatures that hit 95 degrees for the 4 p.m. first pitch on Friday, about 8,000 showed up for our first “Why do we live here again?” day of early summer; ESPN cameras were there to televise what has slowly developed into an attractive tournament on the June calendar.

The college baseball tournament and ensuing College World Series offer a load of compelling games, suspense, and a load of talented players; other than the media presence and the crowds, this is also not that much different than your standard select baseball tournament.

The College World Series is not Select Baseball, but it’s close to the celebrating a trophy that the parents purchased.

The NCAA permits a Division I baseball team to provide a maximum of 11.7 scholarships for its entire roster.

Both TCU and Indiana State list 36 players on their respective rosters.

According to TCU’s admissions department, the average cost to attend the school in 2023-’23 was approximately $72,820.

You do the math.

A lot of moms and dads are out there covering a significant portion of the difference so their son can play Division I college baseball.

The same mom and dad who paid thousands for their son to play select baseball, with the dream of landing a college scholarship only to learn they’re still on the hook.

TCU, as well as every other Division I baseball team, spread out those 11.7 scholarships to fill out their roster. It’s not called a salary cap, but 11.7 functions the same way.

If the player has MLB potential, the head coach may just offer that player a full scholarship. The big power hitter may receive a full scholarship, or 90 percent.

That’s the best way to ensure the player will attend college rather than actually turn pro out of high school.

If that player suffers a season-ending injury, or they don’t produce at their projected level, the coach has zero recourse.

This reality is something that former TCU baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle discussed for years in his long tenure in Fort Worth. It’s a (small) reason he left TCU for Texas A&M in 2021.

Building a baseball roster at a public university is a much easier task than a private school, where the margin for error is not a thick as a Post It note.

You may notice that these realities have not prevented private schools from succeeding in the 11.7 point world of college baseball.

Rice and Vanderbilt, both private schools located in major metropolitan areas, have won the NCAA baseball title this century. TCU is currently attempting to reach the College World Series for the sixth time since 2010.

Of the 16 teams remaining in the college baseball tournament, five are private schools: Wake Forest, Stanford, Duke, Oral Roberts and TCU.

The costs associated with those other private schools is just a tad higher than a Blinn College. Or Indiana State, where the sticker price for an out-of-state student is in the area of $36,000.

To make this all work, a school like TCU, or any other private university, must be creative in finding other ways to cover the remaining costs outside of the athletic scholarship.

The player may qualify for an academic, or other, scholarship assistance to inch closer to a full 100 percent, but more often than not the difference is covered by mom and dad.

This reality does not exist in college football, basketball, or any other major sport, where the player is on a full ride.

The creation of NIL opportunities should make life easier on current TCU coach Kirk Saarloos, Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin and the rest so the NCAA World Series no longer functions like a glorified select tournament.