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College  | Story  | 12/23/2020

Year in Review: College

Vincent Cervino     
Photo: Spencer Torkelson (Arizona State Athletics)
Year in Review: PG Events | High School

Season Canceled Right Before Conference Play



We got about four weeks into the NCAA season before the pandemic led to the eventual cancellation of the season with a majority of conferences being shutout from playing conference games entirely. There were a number of teams and players we didn’t get the chance to truly appreciate and the entire situation was just unfortunate on an overall basis.

There were a lot of impressive early season matchups including Florida-Miami, Florida State-Texas Tech, and Mississippi State-Oregon State to name a few and we got to see some really exciting baseball. The loss of the season will undoubtedly have far-reaching effects to the sport at-large over the next few years but all eyes seem set on getting the 2021 season underway in some capacity come next spring.

College Leads the way for MLB Draft

College players and prospects continue to dominate the early round selections as 24 out of 37 picks in the first and first competitive balance round came from the college ranks. This draft started by the long-projected 1:1 pick in Arizona State’s Spencer Torkelson and then went seven in a row as the first seven picks were college players followed by Robert Hassell III at the eighth pick.

The draft seems likely to favor college selections early in 2021 once more as a large amount of players near the top come from universities. Thanks to the shortened draft and free agent cap in 2020, there may not be a more talented time for college baseball than the next few seasons. With the talent ramped up and teams showing they can develop top-tier draft talent, it’s an exciting time to be a college baseball fan.

Gators Favorites for 2021?

The Florida Gators had finished off a three-game sweep of Miami in a top-10 matchup prior to the shutdown and they return almost their entire roster with the surprising returns of Friday and Saturday starters Tommy Mace and Jack Leftwich. They had ascended to No. 1 in the country and remained there at season’s cancelation and now they appear to be primed as favorites heading into the new calendar year.

There’s a combination of star power and depth that should excite Gator fans as they return the entire weekend rotation of the aforementioned Mace and Leftwich along with star sophomore Hunter Barco. Jud Fabian is a prospective top-10 pick next July and he’ll have the Gators, who return starters at every position but one, in a prime position.

Shortened Draft Leads to Depth

There’s been one word that comes up on a consistent basis when chatting with coaches and contacts throughout the college baseball world: depth. There were only five rounds in the 2020 MLB Draft along with a free agent signing cap of only $20k. This leads to not only a number of players who would normally not return in a normal year to suit up once more in 2021, but this also leaves swaths of high school players who would normally sign in the later rounds heading to campus.

The combination of returnees and new faces, including both transfers and freshmen, along with the currently nullified roster limits have created for some pretty big fall rosters. With missing most summers, this has allowed teams to scrimmage often and have a good amount of healthy competition throughout fall camp. The fall has been fruitful for most of the country with the expectation being that almost every team in the country is going to have their most talented team of the last handful of years for the 2021 season.

New Challenges Face Next Spring

“What will the college baseball schedule look like next year?” seems to be the million dollar question these days. There have been reports of different structured schedules depending on both the conference and the individual states, a process that requires seemingly multiple governing bodies to sign off on proposed legislation. This leaves a sense of uncertainty with regards to the logistics of a schedule for next spring.

Different conferences are going to have different schedules and require different barometers in order to play, as we’ve seen so far with basketball and football. Also as we’ve seen with other sports, there is the reality that teams may have to deal with competitive play challenges due to number of players or positional groups being out for potential games. This is obviously a fairly minute point under the banner of keeping teams and players safe, but presents a challenge that coaching staffs are going to have to deal with on a day-to-day basis next spring.

The sport remains hopeful that 2021 will be able to go off relatively smoothly with little-to-no turbulence along the way. There are a number of challenges to be faced and a number of obstacles to overcome but what seems to be clear is that after losing the 2020 season the players and coaches don’t want to lose another one.
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