I understand exactly what you mean. Anyone who played understands it. A player contacts the coaching staff and says I would love a chance to walk on. Staff says you’re welcome to tryout and be part of the team in the fall and you can earn a jersey in the spring. Player then tweets out and tells perfect game he is going to Tennessee. PG has it in there system as a player coming and it’s in that number. This happens and no promises were ever made by the coaching staff. It then looks like more players are coming in then really are. A recruited walk on is just like a scholarship guy imo. Tons of really good players are walk-ons. CTV loves walk ons hell he was a walk on at Missouri .
Come on man don’t give me that “anyone that played” bs
It’s really simple regarding players at the D1 level. There are 4 types
1) scholarship players that can’t be cut from the 35 man roster in a year they receive money
2) a walk on player that is guaranteed a spot on the 35 man roster. My guess is none of the Vols are offered this and if there are it’s only 1 or 2. This is considered a preferred walk on spot
3) a walk on player that is offered a spot on the fall roster, offered a spot to work out with the team and attend all team functions. My guess is every single one of the commitments listed we see on PG are in this group or the scholarship group. They know they are fighting for 7 walk on spots
4) and then the player that sees a flyer on the student union wall and bets his frat boys he can make the team and attends the school wide tryout without participating in any of the team activities beforehand. In fact most tryouts aren’t even with the regular team. I’d venture a guess that the Vols haven’t kept such a player on their 35 man roster in a long time.
So let’s make this clear. If a player is in either of the first 3 types of players they damn sure count and they damn sure have a positive impact on college baseball. Every single successful program needs players from 2) and 3) to become stars and believe it or not there are some players in the big leagues right now that were in group 3 and we have some foolish ass posters suggesting those kids shouldn’t count. That’s ridiculous