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Monday, July 20, 2009

NCAA Issues Composite Bat Moratorium

From the NCAA:

This correspondence is being sent on behalf of the Baseball Rules Committee, alerting the college baseball bat manufacturing community to an important action being taken in regard to certain bats that have been used in NCAA competition. After significant dialog and review of research collected during the Division I Baseball Championship, the committee is proposing an immediate and indefinite moratorium on the use of composite barreled bats. The committee believes this action is needed in order to protect the integrity of the game and to enhance the safety of the student-athletes.

Baseball America's take:

Posted Jul. 20, 2009 5:24 pm by Aaron Fitt

The NCAA has devised a solution—at least temporarily—to its bat rolling dilemma. Multiple sources have confirmed that the NCAA has issued a moratorium on bats that use composite barrels, which tend to overperform near the end of their life cycles and are susceptible to a form of tampering known as "bat rolling."

This is a positive step to address a major issue that has exploded in college baseball over the last two seasons. We’ll have plenty more on the composite bat debate in this week’s On Campus.




For those unaware, bat rolling and bat shaving became an issue that in the season with rumblings from Vandy coach Tim Corbin. Since then the NCAA has looked into different makes, different bat manufactures, and different bats and their performances to see if any program or supplier are not conforming with NCAA guidelines. As many Buckeye fans know with the recent change to Nike, different bats have different results good and bad. In an attempt to level the playing field and not allow different programs to have an on the field advantage based solely on which bat they are provided with, the NCAA looks very closely and serious into any tampering or illegalities of bats.

There is more to this story and more will come out in the upcoming weeks.

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