Vanderbilt Lands Top Recruiting Class For Second Straight Year

By Kelvin Read

Division one college baseball recruiting is a very cyclical process.  Unlike football or basketball, which receive 85 and 13 full scholarships per year, which is almost enough to fill entire rosters with full scholarship athletes, college baseball only receives 11.7 scholarships a year.

With such limited scholarships, baseball programs go through cycles of high and low ranked recruiting classes. Teams cannot effectively function by giving full scholarships out to players, so they are forced to split their scholarships up between several players. If a large class comes in one year, it is likely that the school will bring in a smaller class, so as to not strain their scholarships thin.

AP Photo/ Karl B. DeBlaker

With that said, Vanderbilt University has become an anomaly these past two years, as they pulled in the top-ranked recruiting class for back-to-back years. Vanderbilt made no NCAA tournaments from 1981 to 2003, but broke into the big time of college baseball in 2005, with a class highlighted by current Pittsburgh Pirates third baseman, Pedro Alvarez.  The SEC is the deepest baseball conference in Division One, which makes it hard to compete year in and year out, but Vanderbilt has made the NCAA tournament every year since 2006.

Another factor affecting recruiting is that the MLB draft draws many of the top recruits away with lucrative pro contracts. Many times, players will commit to schools, only to be lured away by the minor leagues, the way that many baseball-lifers believe is a faster track to stardom. This year, Vanderbilt lost two signees to pro-contracts, but still managed to bring in the top recruiting class, showing the depth of their talent.

Four teams from California made the top 25 classes, along with three schools from Texas.

TOP 25 RECRUITING CLASSES

1. Vanderbilt

2. UCLA

3. Georgia

4. Alabama

5. North Carolina

6. Stanford

7. Texas

8. Arizona State

9. Auburn

10. Miami

11. Texas Christian

12. UC Santa Barbara

13. Clemson

14. Louisiana State

15. Texas A&M

16. South Carolina

17. Fresno State

18. Kentucky

19. Southern California

20. Tennessee

21. Arkansas

22. Florida

23. Cal State Fullerton

24. Missouri

25. Arizona

Rankings according to Baseball America