Allocating 11.7 Scholarships for Entire Team Difficult Task for Nick Mingione

Vicky Graff Photo

One of the hardest things Kentucky baseball coach Nick Mingione has to do is juggle how to allocate only 11.7 scholarships on a 40-player roster.

The NCAA limits college baseball teams to only 11.7 scholarships per year.

“We are allowed to have 32 players on scholarship but that has to be split among the 11.7 scholarships,” said Mingione. “This year we have 46 on our roster. The amount of players using their own money just to be part of our program probably would surprise most people.

“There is not one guy on the team I can give a full scholarship because we have to break up 11.7 (scholarships) among all the players. It’s one of the hardest things to do. Every family values their son and it’s hard to explain that they are only going to get a 25 percent scholarship and they have to pay the rest.

“That is a difficult thing to do when you are recruiting some of the best players in the country. But this is not a Kentucky thing. It’s a NCAA thing and is a big challenge.”

Mingione admits NIL has helped and says NIL is “alive and well in our sport” but is not the answer to everything in recruiting/roster management.

“The best players we have got and the best players in the program are ones who want to win,” the UK coach said. “It’s not about NIL. Does NIL help? Absolutely. Could it push it over the edge (to get a player to come to UK)? Yes.

“NIL opportunities here do definitely help but we want people who want to win and be part of our culture, We have a bunch of guys who love Kentucky and we have got to continue that on our roster.”