Now that the NCAA Baseball Rules Committee has heard the membership’s concern about “bat rolling” and has tested bats at the College World Series, the panel will discuss how to curb the practice.

After being alerted during the regular season to the suspected use of altered bats, the committee tested bats from all eight teams at the CWS. Tests revealed that about 25 of the more than 500 bats the committee tested were illegal (and not allowed in competition), though only five were pulled because of suspected “rolling.” Those five bats were sent for additional testing to provide data to the committee.

“Rolling” is a technique that heightens the performance of composite bats.

Secretary-Rules Editor Jim Paronto, who was in Omaha for the championship and present for the testing, said the more thorough tests will help the committee develop a baseline standard for determining whether a bat is altered.

“We don’t want to have a knee-jerk reaction, but we want to approach it in a manner that we just don’t go off on tangents,” Paronto said. “Let’s approach it in a calm manner and one that we can develop the proper guidelines that need to be established with respect to an altered bat.”

All bats used in championship competition were tested against various standards − including compression, weight, length, moment of inertia and balance point − and marked for easy designation by the umpires. Bats without the mark were not allowed in play.

The NCAA, now in its 10th season of restricting the performance level of non-wood bats, has specific standards delineated in the baseball rules book, including weight-to-length ratio, length, diameter and other specifics. All bats also had to pass the “ring test,” in which a ring is slid down the barrel of the bat to ensure it has not been dented or flattened. If the ring stops, the bat has become “out of round” and is not legal. Most of the bats removed did not meet the ring test.

A compression test, which checks how much “give” a bat has using a vise-like device with sensors, was added this year. The give of a composite bat increases as it is hit multiple times, creating a spring-like effect. The compression test can detect the effect created by “rolling” a bat, a process that replicates the effect of a well-used bat.

The bats were compared with new bats that had not been used. Paronto said those that were pulled had not necessarily been rolled, but the performance was very different from the performance of the new bats. Distinguishing a “rolled” bat from one that has simply deteriorated over time can be difficult, Paronto said.

“We’re not accusing anybody of altering the bats,” he said. “We just want to get more information. This is a way to develop a process and to send a message that the NCAA is aware of it, and if it happens in the future there will be some consequences.”

The bats that were pulled from competition because of a low compression reading will undergo additional tests to help quantify how the performance changes and improves. Those data will be provided to the committee to help it determine what action to take.

In addition to creating an unfair competitive advantage, Paronto said rolled or shaved bats also present a safety concern since the faster a ball comes off a bat, the harder it will hit anything in its way.

The Baseball Rules Committee informed athletics directors, compliance directors and baseball coaches in early May of its intention to test bats during the championship to ensure fair and safe competition. 

In 2008, the committee approved a new protocol for measuring metal bat performance that takes effect in 2011. The “ball-bat coefficient of restitution” (BBCOR) will replace the “ball exit-speed ratio” protocol, a change recommended by the NCAA Baseball Research Panel because it eliminates discrepancies with different length bats and is a more direct measure of bat performance. 

The research panel found that a bat’s BBCOR will predict the speed with which the ball will leave the bat. Because wood and non-wood bats with the same BBCOR produce nearly identical batted-ball speeds, the comparison between the performance of a non-wood bat to that of a similarly sized wood bat is relatively simple.

The Baseball Rules Committee will discuss bat performance and alteration at its July 13-14 meeting in Indianapolis.