ABCA Panel Looks For Ways To Speed Up Game

ANAHEIM—As the 2017 American Baseball Coaches Association Convention began Thursday, the Division I coaches held their annual meeting to discuss the pressing issues in the game. In addition to some upcoming legislative reform, the ABCA has formed a committee to study pace of play and ways to possibly speed up the game.

Pace of play has become a growing concern at all levels of baseball, and is especially notable at the College World Series, where the length of an average nine-inning game has increased by more than 25 minutes since 2012. Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin, who is leading the committee, said the ABCA wants to be proactive in seeking solutions for the pace of play so that any changes can be made with the input of the coaches instead of being handed down to them by administrators.

“It’s been brought up in committee meetings,” Corbin said. “You start looking at the length of your game, not that we work off of Major League Baseball, but you can see the focal point for Major League Baseball, too. That’s a concern of theirs and they’re already playing a game that’s 15 minutes shorter than ours generally. I think, for us, to keep people engaged, if we can keep the game moving, we have more of a chance to draw the consumer closer to us.”

The committee is still early in its process, but has already discussed several possible solutions, Corbin said. They range from basic solutions such as setting a time limit for pitching changes to more creative ideas such as setting a limit for the number of defensive timeouts a team is allowed per game and putting a headset in catchers’ helmets to allow coaches to relay play calls more quickly.

A 20-second pitch clock, which is already used in the Southeastern Conference, was also among the suggestions. A proposal to add a pitch clock on an experimental basis for the 2016 season was withdrawn by the NCAA’s Division I Baseball Rules Committee in October 2015 after it found little support for the rule from conferences.
Pace of play will also be a point of emphasis for umpires this season, but they can only enforce existing rules such as time limits between innings.

Corbin said players and coaches often get caught up in the game and don’t think about pace of play when they’re on the field. But he said it is obvious when a game is dragging, which is ultimately what any rule changes would be seeking to eliminate.

“I really couldn’t tell you how long our games last when you’re in the middle of them,” Corbin said. “But you know when you’ve seen a long one and you know when you’ve been involved in a game that has a lot of speed bumps. I think that’s what we want to do, is take out the speed bumps more than anything else and just try to keep the harmony of everything moving.”

While any rule changes regarding the pace of play are still in the development stage, the ABCA is also pushing for a few specific pieces of legislative reform this year. Two rule changes are already slated to be voted on at the NCAA’s Board of Governors in April and the ABCA hopes to be able two more to the next legislative cycle.

Up for vote this year will be proposals to eliminate the rule limiting schools to 27 scholarship players and to eliminate the rule that scholarship players receive at least 25 percent financial aid. ABCA surveys show that a majority of coaches are in favor of both rule changes, but both remain controversial. ABCA executive director Craig Keilitz said 65.4 percent of coaches favor eliminating the 25 percent scholarship minimum and 59 percent want to eliminate the rule capping the number of scholarship players at 27.

With such slim margins of support from the coaches, it may be difficult to convince the administrators who vote on NCAA rule changes to pass the proposals. The current rules have been in effect since 2009 and have always been contentious among the coaches.

The ABCA is also beginning the process of crafting legislative proposals that would enable schools to play four games during the fall which would not count toward the 56-game maximum and to allow for an additional paid assistant coach. Both those proposals are more broadly supported by ABCA membership, but may also be uphill battles to get passed at the NCAA level, particularly the addition of a third paid assistant coaching position.

Keilitz said the ABCA is seeking to make the addition of fall games more palatable to administrators by stipulating that players not miss any class time and that teams not travel out of state to play.

Those proposals must be officially submitted to the NCAA by conference or school by September to be added to next year’s voting docket.

Separate from the legislative process, the NCAA will also likely expand its bat testing program during the postseason. Currently, bats are tested at the CWS, but Ron Prettyman, NCAA managing director for championships and alliances, said bat testing could begin in regionals and super regionals this spring.