The Two or Three Sport Athlete Dilemma

Rob Naddelman: Through a Parent’s Eyes

As a part of our Player Development events at Baseball Factory we usually try to include a parent/player seminar on the college recruiting process. During the seminar we cover key topics to be mindful of as the recruiting process begins to unfold, and we open up the forum for parents and players to ask questions. A lot of good questions are raised by the parents in attendance, but one that came up in particular sparked a lot of discussion. The question was how I felt about players competing in multiple sports, and what the general consensus was from college baseball coaches on the topic.

This topic is a highly debated one in our field. I could easily defend both sides of the argument on whether it is more beneficial for an aspiring college baseball player to strictly focus on baseball or to play other high school sports. To be completely honest with you, there is no right answer to this question, and there is not an overwhelming consensus on it from college coaches. However, I can give you some good guidelines to consider as it relates to your son and what he should think about before making a decision.

1. Does he really love playing the other sports? It seems like a simple question, but not all families look at it from this point of view. If your son really doesn’t enjoy the other sports that much and is just playing them because “that is what he has always done since he has been little,” then I think it could be time to give them up and focus on baseball.

2. Who is he satisfying by playing the other sports? If as a parent you played football/basketball/soccer, etc. and your influences are getting in the way of this decision, take a step back and let your son speak on the matter and what he wants to do. Also, is he playing football because the football coach is “pressuring” him to do so? Or does he feel like he doesn’t want to let the team down if he doesn’t come back for his senior year? In my opinion, these are not good reasons to continue playing a sport if his dream is to play college baseball.

3. Is he a contributing member of the other sports teams to the same degree he contributes to the baseball team? If your son excels in baseball, but is just a secondary player in the other sports, it may not be in his best interest to keep up with the other sports.

4. Are you overwhelmingly concerned about injuries? This is a really good one to consider, especially for pitchers. Are you willing to take the risk of playing football, even if it means hurting your pitching arm? Pitchers in particular really have to think hard about playing football where their shoulder can be exposed to serious injury.

My personal opinion is that baseball players do learn a lot from playing other sports as it relates to the mental side of the game and developing key athletic skill sets as well. Football players learn a “never say die attitude” and they usually are mentally tough baseball players. Basketball players are well conditioned athletes and that usually bodes well on the baseball field. Soccer players usually show good lateral mobility and agility which also is a big part of baseball. So the benefits can be quite substantial, not to mention that it also helps to prevent burnout from focusing only on baseball.

As a high school athlete, I played baseball, basketball, and ran cross country so I saw first-hand some of the benefits from playing more than one sport. There are a good percentage of college coaches that like to recruit multiple sport baseball players because they think it creates well-rounded athletes with a variety of skill sets and competitive instincts. Try using the four questions above as a guideline and attempt to make the best decision for the player when considering these options. If you decide to stick with more than one sport, just don’t abandon baseball completely during the fall or winter seasons so you are not starting from square one once the baseball season kicks off again in the spring.


Rob Naddelman is the President of Baseball Factory. Naddelman is a former two-time All Ivy League Third Baseman at the University of Pennsylvania, where he competed in a College World Series Regional. He has served as the President of Baseball Factory for the past 13 years, and also is the Executive Director of Baseball Factory's charitable arm The B.A.S.E. - H.I.T. Foundation. Naddelman and Steve Sclafani (CEO) have been featured in Business Week and CNN for their work in building Baseball Factory into the nation's leader in player development and college placement.

One Way to Keep NCAA DI Athletes from Leaving School Early to Turn Pro

Rob Naddelman: Through a Parent’s Eyes

This blog is a little off topic from my usual posts, but this is an idea I have had for long time. I wanted to get it out and see what people think.

A big dilemma in college sports (especially in NCAA Division I football and basketball) is how to keep more underclass players in college and have them resist the temptation to turn professional. When underclass players leave school early it causes recruiting turmoil for the college programs because the coach needs to shift gears and replace a highly talented player before they were slated to graduate. It makes the overall recruiting strategy much more difficult to manage because every year the coach needs to project who might have a big year and may elect to turn pro instead of finishing school.

The college programs have a lot of potential revenue to lose when these types of athletes leave school early. Bowl games in football and NCAA Final Four games generate millions of dollars for the college program. If they lose their best players to the draft before they graduate, it could cause the program to regress, and miss out on these national events with high revenue streams.

For the player, the decision to leave early is a juggling act of risk versus reward. One side of the argument is that you never know when injury will strike (especially in football) and if you have the chance to leave and turn pro, you should because it may not be there down the road. The flip side of the argument is that if you leave early without a college degree, and your pro career doesn’t pan out as planned, you may be unprepared to navigate the greater world at large.

So what could the NCAA do to try and keep more kids in school and make it easier on all three constituents (players, coaches, and school programs)? Here is my idea. It may sound off the wall at first, but if you really think about it, I think you might agree that it makes sense. The idea is to put the players on a vesting schedule that pays them a share of the individual sports program’s revenue from TV, licensing, ticket sales, etc AFTER they have graduated from the program.

So here is how it would work: if you are making satisfactory progress towards graduation after one year in school, you are fully vested for a ¼ share. By the end of 4 years you would have a maximum of 1 full share (ie: ¼ share x 4 years). The NCAA would calculate the revenue generated from the program over that 4 year period and pay the graduate out pro-rata for their 1 share. How much this equals would vary year to year depending upon the success of the program, but the number could be pretty significant when you consider how much money the head coaches of these top level programs are paid. I would also suggest that they enter into a licensing agreement as part of the indivdual’s vesting schedule so as to allow college athlete names to be sold on the backs of basketball and football jerseys. Again, this money would only be paid to the athlete in a pro rata fashion if they were vested, and if they graduated. How much more money could the college programs generate with this type of licensing deal? Think about what fans would have paid to have a Reggie Bush named jersey from USC or a Vince Young named jersey from Texas?

To me, this provides the type of incentive that is needed to keep athletes in school and give them a chance to earn money at least in the neighborhood of what they might earn if they turned professional. It also wouldn’t jeopardize their amateur status because they would not earn the money unless they graduated and were vested.

This is just one person’s opinion and you may not agree, but I have yet to hear a better suggestion. In the end, there would be more college graduates and the players would have additional incentive to play their hearts out for a chance to be compensated down the road.


Rob Naddelman is the President of Baseball Factory. Naddelman is a former two-time All Ivy League Third Baseman at the University of Pennsylvania, where he competed in a College World Series Regional. He has served as the President of Baseball Factory for the past 13 years, and also is the Executive Director of Baseball Factory's charitable arm The B.A.S.E. - H.I.T. Foundation. Naddelman and Steve Sclafani (CEO) have been featured in Business Week and CNN for their work in building Baseball Factory into the nation's leader in player development and college placement.