The Division I Baseball Committee met with college coaches and Major League Baseball representatives July 24-27 in Boston to address the lack of African-American players at the intercollegiate and professional levels.

In the 2006 Men’s College World Series, for example, African-Americans made up only 2 percent of the rosters of the eight teams. African-Americans compose only about 8 percent of MLB rosters this season. The latter contrasts with a 25 percent representation in 1975.

The MLB representatives included Dave Winfield, who was a basketball and baseball student-athlete at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, before embarking on a hall of fame baseball career. MLB Executive Vice President of Operations Jimmie Lee Solomon and Darrell Miller, the director of the Urban Youth Academy in Compton, California, also attended. The academy is a grass-roots project MLB initiated to generate African-American interest in baseball.

The Division I Baseball Committee and MLB pledged to collaborate on initiatives that might increase African-American participation.

"I would say it was a very positive meeting," said Larry Templeton, committee chair and athletics director at Mississippi State University. "The discussions were open and included direct give-and-take feedback."

MLB representatives expressed concern about the grant-in-aid situation in Division I baseball. Currently, coaches are allowed to allocate only 11.7 equivalencies among squad sizes that often exceed 30 student-athletes.

Some people believe the equivalency limit in baseball encourages prospective student-athletes to pursue head-count sports such as basketball and football instead.

Templeton acknowledged the NCAA’s establishment of a Baseball Academic Enhancement Working Group that will review the scholarship situation in baseball, among other concerns. "But no one has a solution just yet," he said.

The MLB representatives also proposed conducting a formal scouting combine for draft prospects in the future.

From the committee perspective, members wondered if MLB would consider moving its draft from the first week of June to a later date. Since that is when Division I baseball student-athletes are competing in the NCAA tournament, draft results can be distracting.

While the meeting did not produce solutions, it did encourage more dialogue.

In other action, the baseball committee recommended hiring four regional umpire coordinators. Currently, Dave Yeast, the NCAA Division I coordinator of umpires, is the only person evaluating and selecting all 96 umpires who officiate the Division I tournament. Since the pool of umpires is so large, it would be beneficial for everyone to have more umpire evaluators.

The committee also reviewed the 2006 Men’s College World Series and noted that the event drew a record 310,609 fans to surpass the previous mark of 263,475 set in 2005.