Reforms related to improving the Academic Progress Rate in college baseball will have a "massive effect" on the sport, Hawai'i baseball coach Mike Trapasso said.

Among the reforms that would directly affect UH are the elimination of the one-time transfer rule, fall certification for eligibility and the minimum scholarship offer of 33 percent. The others that won't make such an impact are the maximum roster size of 35 players and the maximum number of players receiving scholarships to 27 players. Most of the reforms, approved by the NCAA Division I Board of Directors last week, will go into effect Aug. 1, 2008, or for the 2009 baseball season.

"It's huge," Trapasso said. "It's a massive effect, not just on us, but on college baseball as a whole. Some of these things might impact certain programs more than others. Just the uniqueness we have because of our location, is really going to impact us in ways we might not even know yet."

TRANSFERS

Unlike football and basketball, baseball allowed players a one-time transfer from one Division I school to another without having to sit out a season. The rationale was that since most players were on partial scholarships, there is an obligation to appease them unlike football and basketball players, who receive full scholarships.

Trapasso said that while most players transfer because of issues with playing time, there are cases where players from the Mainland want to transfer to a school closer to home. That was the case with former Rainbow Erik Ammon, who transferred to Oregon State before the 2006 season.

The transfer rule was implemented to alleviate the high number of transfers, in part fueled by alleged recruiting of players by schools during summer leagues.

FALL CERTIFICATION

To avoid players reducing their course loads during the season, only to make them up in the fall, they now must be academically certified by the fall semester to be eligible to play the following season. That means if a player is short on credits after spring finals, he must attend summer school to get certified by the fall.

Of course, if they attend summer school, that means they aren't playing summer ball to improve themselves or get exposure to pro scouts. Although the rule does not go into effect until Aug. 1, 2008, Trapasso said he's alerted the school's academic advisor.

"It looks like we'll be fine, but if we have a few guys who don't do well on their finals, they put themselves in a position where they stay here and go to summer school rather than go out to go play summer ball," he said.

SCHOLARSHIPS

This rule should be of interest not just to UH players, but also to players from Hawai'i attending Mainland schools because there are those receiving less than 33 percent scholarships. Trapasso said there is a two-year implementation process to get the scholarship players up to the 33 percent level. But he is concerned about freshmen he signed in November who will enroll this fall for the 2008 season. Some of their signed agreements were less than 33 percent and that should carry them through their freshmen and sophomore seasons.

"Does that mean these guys we've signed in November for under 33 percent, they'll play for two years at that level and then their junior year we have to either boost them to 33 percent or cut them completely and put them at zero?" Trapasso said. "Is that what we're going to be doing to these kids now? There's still some unanswered questions, but that's a huge, huge thing. That's going to impact a lot of people in college baseball."

Of UH's 16 November signees, 11 are high school seniors.

OTHER REFORMS

The Rainbows aren't affected by the 35-player roster limit because they have been at or below that number in recent years. As for the 27 scholarships, Trapasso said it would be hard to exceed that number given the increase in aid to 33 percent.

Yesterday, UH announced that baseball improved its APR of 846 during the 2004-2005 school year to 929 for 2005-2006. Hawai'i and Nevada were the only two of the seven Western Athletic Conference baseball programs not sanctioned by the APR report. Fresno State received the harshest penalty, losing 1.17 scholarships.

Among the new reforms are additional penalties to the reprimands and loss of scholarships. Programs with a four-year average APR under 900 will have its schedule reduced from 56 games to 50. That goes into effect Aug. 1, 2009, or for the 2010 season.

Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at skaneshiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.