Recruitment News Letter

Canes Southwest Family,

I hope the arrival of fall and, thank goodness, some cooler temperatures are treating you well. The fall baseball season is winding down, which means a much-deserved break for everyone and a great opportunity for players to focus entirely on improving things like their strength, speed and mechanics during the next few months before the high school season arrives. If you don't use the offseason to get stronger, faster and better, thinking about a future playing college baseball is wasted time. That's the honest truth.

It’s also a great time to catch up with the latest in recruiting.  In the last newsletter, I wrote about the upcoming changes to the recruiting world for high school players. Recently, some news in the courts has led to a notable shift to how D1 programs are recruiting and building rosters for the future. A couple weeks ago, Judge Claudia Wilken granted preliminary approval to the terms of the NCAA antitrust settlement case. You can read more about that decision and what it could mean for college athletics as a whole HERE. The final hearing to approve the deal is scheduled for April 7, 2025. So, this isn’t set in stone, but a preliminary approval is a big step forward, and it became clear that college athletic departments treated the news as a very real step forward towards major changes in things like schools being able to directly pay players, the future of NIL, etc.

For college baseball, this news triggered some immediate action by college programs with their recruiting classes. Specifically, we saw in Texas instant moves by programs to inform some of their 2025 commitments they no longer had a roster spot, which led to a lot of players suddenly publishing on social media they either “decommitted” or were told because of the upcoming changes to the roster limit, they no longer had a spot. The timing wasn’t a coincidence. And this news was coming from some of the state’s best 2025 players who were committed to programs who hardly ever take this kind of action with their commitments. Sure, there were some of the usual suspect programs, like Oklahoma. The Sooners are among the most well-known programs when it comes to committing WAY too many players and needing to cut a bunch of their commitments. But those days are over. More on that in a moment. Because what we saw mostly the last couple of weeks was programs, including well-respected mid-major D1 programs, delivering the news to some really, really good players.

This is the new reality.

Almost every D1 program is now moving forward to plan for the 34-player roster limit going into effect at some point in 2025. The sad part is the college athletics departments still don’t know for certain when the roster changes will officially be put into place and also don’t know how many full scholarships they’ll have to work with once those available scholarships for D1 baseball moves from 11.7 to a possible 34. Some of the colleges I’ve spoken with believe the roster limit will go into place the fall of 2025 once students arrive for school while others think it won’t become official until the spring of 2026 ahead of the official season. Regardless, almost every program I’ve spoken to is planning for the 2026 season to be played with just 34 players allowed on the roster. And if a program isn’t, it’s either burying its head in the sand or being recklessly risky because heading into the fall of 2025 with something like 48 players on a fall roster could lead to some MAJOR headaches. Is it possible the NCAA changes course, receives feedback and moves off the projected 34-player limit? Sure. But almost every program I’ve spoken with doesn’t believe that will be the case and is actively planning for the huge change; these coaches wouldn’t be calling really good players they like and telling them they no longer have a spot if they didn’t believe these changes are fast approaching.

The new reality can almost be entirely summarized with math. The days of D1 programs taking 12+ high school commitments in recruiting are over because doing so each season would possibly lead to too many players on its own and doesn’t account for JUCO recruiting and the NCAA Transfer Portal. Think about it. Let’s say a program loses on average two guys a year to the MLB Draft, has a typical number of seniors move on and three players decide to enter the portal and leave for a different program. If that program signs 10 high school players, recruits three incoming JUCO transfers and adds four players from the portal, that program will probably still have issues cutting its roster to 34 players. D1 coaches want to keep their jobs and want to win games. They believe, generally speaking, the best way to do that is to have older teams and acquire at least a couple of potential impact players from the portal each offseason.

So, what we’re going to see is D1 programs likely signing 6-8 high school players each recruiting class to afford enough space for JUCO and portal recruiting. If you see a D1 program with something like 15 high school commitments, just know that program is going to cut at least a few of those players or must be planning for an unusually high number of departures from its current roster. To put this into perspective, there are 14 D1 programs in Texas and I’d classify 10 of them as ones that actively and effectively recruit high school players each cycle. If they all signed eight high school players a cycle, that’s only 80 players from the state of Texas going to D1 programs in Texas. If those programs signed high school players from another state, that’s even fewer players. Of course, we need to keep in mind that some players from Texas will leave the Lone Star State and play D1 baseball beyond the border. Even still, this is a state that routinely produces 100+ players who are talented enough to profile at a D1 program and now the available spots have, basically, been cut in half.

High school players need to plan for a future that includes fewer D1 opportunities and pay more attention to JUCO and D2/D3 opportunities. If you’re reading this, chances are your player is more likely going to fit in the JUCO D2/D3 range. That’s the reality. No group is impacted more by the upcoming roster changes than the high school player. Fortunately for players in Texas, JUCO baseball in the state and in nearby states is as good as it gets in the country, and starting at one program doesn’t mean you have to finish there. If you go to a JUCO program, get stronger and thrive as a player with excellent performance, I guarantee you plenty of D1 programs will take notice. And remember: JUCO, D2/D3 programs typically don’t actively recruit players until the summer before their senior years.

The two most important pieces of advice I can give families and players right now: be proactive and take control of your own recruiting process and target potential programs that will afford you the best opportunity to play.

Remember: that phone players spend a ton of time on can be a valuable resource to help their baseball journey, too. Pitchers can have a friend film their bullpen. Hitters can have a friend film their rounds or batting practice. Fielders can have a friend film some grounders or fly balls. No one is stopping you from filming yourself and publishing your own content. Don’t think just because you’re a good player schools will automatically find you. There are A LOT of good players. If you get to the end of the summer ahead of your senior year and you haven’t reached out to a single program, haven’t planned to attend a single college camp, etc., you’re putting yourself in a very, very tough situation to continue playing in college. Speaking of that, November is a good time for college camps, especially for 2025 players who are still uncommitted. Some of the ones I’ve found:

LeTourneau – November 2nd
East Texas Baptist – November 2nd
Nelson – November 9th
St. Thomas – November 10th
Texas State – November 10th
Incarnate Word – November 16th
El Paso College (will also include Luna College, Ottawa University, New Mexico Highlands) – November 16-17

Remember: JUCO programs operate with different recruiting rules. Even if they don’t have a camp, they could invite you to tour the campus and work out.

For 2026 players: you should be contacting programs you have interest in and programs that fit your talent level. By now, you should already have a clean, organized Twitter/X page that includes all the relevant information in your bio: high school, summer team, a way to contact you, what positions you play, height/weight and if you want to include an accomplishment (all-district) or metric (6.8 60, 100 MPH exit velocity, 88 MPH fastball, etc.) as well.

For 2027 players: you should begin trying to build relationships with possible programs that fit your talent level. Obviously, the JUCO, D2/D3 programs are years away from recruiting this class, but the D1s will begin evaluating the top players from this group, if they haven’t already, during the spring and definitely during the 2025 summer. If you don’t have a clean, organized Twitter/X page that can serve to promote who you are as a player, you need one.

For 2028/2029 players: go kick butt during the high school season.

As always, if you have any questions, please email me: dustin@canessouthwest.com

Thanks,
Dustin McComas