>>Changes are coming for junior golfers
Many of you reading this newsletter have young kids just getting started with their golfing journey. Others of you have children far enough along where they may be thinking about a potential golf scholarship in the near
future.
College golf scholarships has become an interesting topic of late, with so many changes taking place with the NCAA rules. Whether your child is Class of 2026 or 2036, it's worth understanding what these changes mean.
We turned to an expert with this exact subject matter
to get a simple breakdown of what these changes mean for the junior golf landscape.
Michael Burcin, owner of Under Par Consulting, who's both a friend and
sponsor of JuniorGolfPlaybook, summarized the changes to share with our readers:
There was breaking news in college golf in July as more NCAA legislation was put into place for D1 men's and women's golf, as part of a larger change affecting all sports the NCAA sponsors. As of right now this will cause change only at the D1 level, but this does not stop the endless social media speculation and the blood pressure of
junior golf parents rising as I write this update!
To level up where we were until this July, a fully funded women's D1 program was allowed to have 6 full scholarships to deal how they saw fit, while men's programs had 4.5. These numbers did not mean schools had to give this funding to their respective teams. Once outside of the "Power 4"
conferences, many programs were not "fully funded" by their institutions. Most athletic departments, outside of those teams we watch play football on Saturdays, do not create revenue enough to keep them in the black and they are at the mercy of how their institution supports them.
At the larger departments, there are budgets north of 125 million and funding scholarships on their
own, until now, was rarely a concern. Today is a new day and things are about to change! The new legislation says women's and men's programs could go to 9 full rides...But there is another issue.
Joining the scholarship news was roster size announcements that are still to be sorted out. Likely caps on rosters will be at 9, moving golf into the same category as many women's sports before this
news where you were either on a full ride or you were on nothing.
As a former coach of 17 years, you will not find a men's coach especially, that will be disappointed about only carrying 8-9 players, but getting to that point could be very messy. Players being cut, a flood coming to the transfer portal, very large departments not funding golf to the highest levels, staff and
sports cuts, and less HS players being recruited to play D1 golf are all likely in some form! As I have taken endless calls from parents the last few days asking the all important question....What does this mean for our son or daughter?
I implore all my families to be open minded to parts of the country, weather, size of school, level of program, and social setting and that could never be more
important than now. There will be an influx of talent at the D2 and D3 levels and yes the portal will feel the shock waves of these new guidelines at least until we get through one cycle.
Anyone that tells you they are sure at how this will fall out does not know what they are talking about, because coaches do not know yet. Change is hard and something we have seen a lot of
over the last ten years in the golf recruiting space, but there will still be plenty of opportunity, for all levels, as long as you stay open minded.
Michael Burcin
Owner - Under Par Consulting
17 Year D1 Collegiate Coach
We
encourage our readers to keep an eye on these changes Michael has highlighted, or reach out to him directly. As a parent of a child going through the recruiting process right now, this is one of the biggest topics of conversation for coaches and players.
