Texas A&M baseball could have had Evan Aschenbeck for 2025 if NCAA had made JUCO ruling sooner
The 2024 run for Texas A&M baseball will go down in the history books for multiple reasons. The Aggies' jaunt through a crucible of a conference slate was impressive, and their postseason was a thing of beauty.
Of course, it's what happened directly after the season that most remember, as well as all the drama that followed. After Jim Schlossnagle jumped ship for the Longhorns, and things looked grim, the hire of Mike Earley completely turned things around.
Fans believed that most of the talent was headed out the door after everything that happened, but after Earley was hired, announcement after announcement was made of players coming back. Jace LaViolette, Gavin Grahovac, and every other key player who had entered the portal announced that they would return.
The portal was also hopping for the Aggies, as Earley and his crew picked up pledges from so many of the nation's top transfer prospects. All of these names formed the core of the Aggie team that we will see take the diamond this spring.
However, there was one notable name who was tragically unable to return. Evan Aschenbeck, the star closer for this Aggie team, had applied for extra eligibility from the NCAA due to his having played in JUCO during COVID. His waiver was denied, and he signed a pro contract, forgoing any possible future eligibility.
Fast forward to today, and the NCAA has announced that blanket eligibility will be granted to athletes who played in junior college— those years no longer count against regular eligibility. If this ruling had come down only months prior, then Aschenbeck would have been able to return for the Aggies.
It's not even that, though: if the NCAA had only granted Ashenbeck's specific waiver, then he would have been able to return. That this came as a result of a lawsuit filed by Diego Pavia wasn't even a necessary condition; the NCAA could have simply granted what Aschenbeck was asking for.
Instead, they didn't, and the Aggies are down one of the best closers we've seen in recent history. I'm still confident in this year's roster, but this is an infuriating result in retrospect.
The plain fact of the matter is that the NCAA chose to twiddle their thumbs instead of doing the right thing when they should have. It was plain laziness that prevented them from doing so, and it was only the threat of Pavia's lawsuit that compelled them to do that which they should have been doing all along.