The NCAA News - News and Features

The NCAA News -- August 16, 1999

NCAA puts bat decision on hold

Difficulties in testing delay data collection

The NCAA Executive Committee has voted to suspend implementation of specifications for nonwood baseball bats pending the collection of additional test data.

The committee expects to make a decision about bats for use in the 2000 season in mid-September.

The implementation date was to be August 1999.

At its August 6 meeting in Indianapolis, the committee received a report from the NCAA Baseball Research Panel, a group of engineers and baseball experts appointed in March to review issues related to specifications for nonwood bats and baseballs and to make recommendations.

The panel recommended that all nonwood bats perform like wood bats to meet acceptable safety and performance levels. The panel also endorsed specifications recommended a year ago by the NCAA Baseball Rules Com-mittee that reduce the diameter from 2 3Ž4 inches to 2 5Ž8 inches and that reduce the difference between the length of a bat and its weight from five units to three units (for example, a 34-inch bat could weigh no less than 31 ounces, not including the grip).

In addition, the panel endorsed use of a batted-ball exit speed and recommended that testing on Major League Baseball-quality wood bats be conducted to establish an acceptable standard for the speed of a batted ball.

The panel initially recommended input speeds of 80 mph for the ball and 80 mph for the bat swing be used for the testing. But a report from the independent laboratory hired by the NCAA to establish the batted-ball exit velocity and to certify nonwood bats for competition indicated that preliminary testing at the input speeds recommended by the research panel resulted in wood bats breaking too frequently to establish a standard (the hitting machine kept breaking the bats because the mechanical grip does not absorb energy the same way an actual batter would). The report also indicated that additional testing is being conducted to determine acceptable input speeds.

"This has been a frustrating experience for the Executive Committee and the membership," said Charles Wethington, president at the University of Kentucky and chair of the committee. "But we have a good testing machine in place now, we have good recommendations from an independent group of scientists, and we very soon will have a protocol in place.

"We haven't brought closure to this issue in the manner the membership wants. But we are too close now to rush a decision about an implementation date. This delay until mid-September will give us adequate time to conduct additional testing to set the right input speeds and establish the right standard," he said.