Five-for-Five: NCAA rule change discussed and more college recruiting insights | Ep. 105

What You'll Learn in This Episode

Host Ross Hawley is joined by Aaron Cunningham, high school director at the Hunter Pence Baseball Academy in the Houston area, for an episode devoted entirely to college recruiting. The two work through three subjects: the NCAA's proposed five-for-five eligibility model, why a credible advocate has become a competitive advantage, and how to use X so a college coach can actually evaluate a player.

The episode was recorded a couple of weeks before the NCAA's scheduled vote, so much of the five-for-five conversation is about what coaches expect rather than what is settled. The through line is that rules keep changing and relationships do not, and that a family's job is to collect good information and stay open to more than one path.

The highlights:

• Why more of the academy's alumni now reach Division I through junior college than straight out of high school
• What the proposed five-for-five model would replace, and when it could take effect
• How eliminating the redshirt could free up reps for true freshmen
• The junior college math: two years at the JUCO level, then three at a four-year school
• Why the hardest part of recruiting is earning a fair introduction and a fair evaluation
• How coaches actually find players on a $5,000 to $10,000 summer budget
• Why honest projection beats flattery, for the player and for whoever is vouching for him
• Building an X profile that answers a coach's questions in one screen

Two Stops Are the New Normal

The academy tracks its players through their careers, and the morning of this conversation Cunningham noticed a first in 15 years: more of their alumni are playing Division I baseball after starting in junior college than after going straight there from high school. One of their players committed to UT Arlington out of a junior college the night before.

"It's hard for high school kids to go straight to D1, but it's also maybe creating even more Division I players out of the junior college world."

Hawley's read is that a successful career now almost always includes multiple stops, and that two is close to the floor. Cunningham agrees, and points out that staying at one school for a full career has become an accomplishment rather than the default. The same churn shows up across college sports: even programs that recruit at the very top of football, like Texas, Georgia, and Alabama, carry rosters full of players who started somewhere else, which tells you what is happening at every level downstream. Roster sizes and rules also move year to year, so neither host is telling a family which path to take — only that closing off junior college, or any level, is a decision made on bad information.

What Five-for-Five Would Change

Hawley reads the proposal out loud for anyone hearing about it for the first time: an age-based eligibility model for Division I athletes that replaces the traditional four seasons in five years by giving athletes exactly five years of competition within a five-year window, beginning the academic year after they graduate high school or turn 19, whichever comes first. The first round of voting was set for June 23, passage was widely expected, and Cunningham's understanding was that implementation would be immediate rather than phased in over future seasons.

His first observation is that the redshirt effectively disappears at the Division I level. Under the old rules, with 34 roster spots, coaches were reluctant to burn a year of eligibility on a handful of at-bats, so a redshirt was valuable but also close to a dead roster spot. If every enrolled year is a year of competition, a coach can put a true freshman into a midweek game or a blowout and get him real reps without costing him anything.

The Junior College Math, and the Unknowns

The route Cunningham thinks gains the most value is junior college. Two years at the JUCO level would leave three years at a four-year school, at any division, where the same player used to arrive with two. Junior college also sits under the NJCAA rather than the NCAA and keeps its own rules, so a developmental player can still redshirt there and reach a four-year program with two years left.

Nobody he talks to expects every program to respond the same way. Some coaches he has spoken with plan to load up on players with two years of eligibility remaining and carry an older roster; others are happy to bring in freshmen now that a Tuesday night appearance costs nothing. He is also watching for gray areas and loopholes, and for the separate vote on the transfer year waiver, which he considers much less certain and which would change how five-for-five plays out if sitting out a year came back into the picture. Hawley's take is that the proposal is being made in good faith, and that high school players should not have to compete for roster spots against 25- and 26-year-olds.

What he expects downstream is roster efficiency. Programs that used to hoard players will have to be deliberate, and he thinks that pushes opportunity down through every level. His advice to recruits is not to panic about a rule they do not control, and instead to stay focused on relationships, ask better questions, and collect as much information as possible on the schools that fit before making a decision.

Why Every Player Needs an Advocate

Cunningham's version of the problem is arithmetic. There are tens of thousands of high school players who want the same limited number of roster spots, and a coach can only be at one ballpark on one day. Most baseball staffs are working with $5,000 to $10,000 for an entire summer, covering gas, hotels, and food. There is no helicopter and no private jet, so coaches lean on the people who have sent them accurate players before.

"The hardest part about the college recruiting process is getting a fair introduction to get a fair evaluation."

That is Hawley's framing, and it is why he would fight to have someone credible speaking for a player: a high school coach, a select coach, or anyone with a real relationship and something to lose. Cunningham's incentive is the same one that protects the family. If he oversells a player, the coach who took his word stops answering the phone, and every class behind that player pays for it.

"I'm not going to lie for you. I will paint a pretty picture, but it's an honest picture."

He will not call a program he knows is out of a player's range, and he tells families that directly.

Vetting the People Helping You

Cunningham estimates most parents in the game never played it, which makes it genuinely hard for them to tell a good resource from a good sales pitch. His answer is homework: ask your high school coach who has actually helped his players, talk to families who have been through the process, talk to people with no stake in your son's outcome, and look at track records instead of promises.

The harder part is being willing to hear the answer. He has told families their son projects at the Division III level, or is not ready to be recruited at all, and some of them go a different direction within two weeks. He is not trying to hurt anyone's feelings; telling a player he needs the weight room, nutrition, and skill work more than another showcase is a plan, not an insult. Parents will always see their kids through rose-colored glasses, and he considers that a feature of loving your child — as long as it leaves room for some hard truth.

"If my tooth hurts and I go to the dentist and he tells me I need to take it out, I'm not going to tell him that he's wrong."

What Advocacy Looks Like in Practice

Hawley lays out the application side. Sometime around the sophomore or junior year, the player sits down with whoever is helping him and has an honest conversation about where he is now, how he projects, and what his long-term goals are. Out of that comes a list of five to 10 schools, maybe a few more, that fit athletically, academically, and financially, and that both sides actually agree on.

From there the work is the coach's: take the player's information to those programs, make the introduction, and give each staff what it needs to make an evaluation. It will not go perfectly, but a player with a plan and an advocate is ahead of everyone hunting for the same roster spots without either.

X Is the Most Powerful Exposure Tool in Baseball

Cunningham's position is that X is the best recruiting resource in the sport, and not by a small margin — he would take it over every recruiting service combined. Every college coach in America is on it, scrolling in the office, 365 days a year. The events and services post their own highlights there, programs and travel organizations post their players, and the algorithm rewards it: click on two baseball posts and a timeline turns into nothing but baseball.

He offers a recent example. In the first week of their summer season, a 2028 pitcher in their organization touched 96 miles per hour. The player does not have an X account, but his name went out with the organization's, and within roughly half an hour about 20 Division I programs had messaged Cunningham asking who he was — before the team had left the field. The same mechanism works at every level, because the program that knows it cannot get that arm is looking for the left-hander sitting 80 to 82 who throws strikes every time he shows up on the timeline. It is also how players in places like Hawaii get seen by mainland schools without traveling for it.

"If you're not utilizing X, you're playing with one hand tied behind your back."

Building a Profile a Coach Can Use

Hawley's practical advice is to treat the bio like a cover letter and the timeline like a video library. Put the ingredients a coach looks for first in the bio: height, weight, the measurables that matter, high school, hometown, travel organization, and a way to reach you. Pin a strong video at the top, because when a coach gets a short written introduction and a link, the next thing he does is open the profile to see who the player is, where he is from, what the numbers say, and what the swing or delivery looks like.

One habit to break: do not fill your timeline with teammates' and friends' highlights. Cunningham had a coach lose track of which player he was evaluating because of it. Be selfish with the account while you are being recruited.

For parents: if you are not comfortable with a 15-year-old on social media, run the account yourself. Coaches will send direct messages there, the exposure is too valuable to skip, and it is especially valuable for families who are not in a big metro area where coaches already show up.

For players: when a coach follows you, follow back immediately so direct messages open, then send a short, professional note — thank him for the follow, say you are interested in the program, ask whether he is recruiting your position for your class, and ask for a chance to talk. Strike while the iron is hot.

Episode Timestamps

Tap any timestamp to jump the player straight to that moment.

• 0:00 — Introduction
• 1:33 — The academy post on junior college and Division I
• 3:36 — Why most careers now include multiple stops
• 5:14 — Staying at one school is now the exception
• 8:33 — First impressions of the five-for-five proposal
• 10:22 — The junior college math: two years, then three
• 12:07 — Gray areas, loopholes, and the transfer waiver
• 14:24 — What the proposed rule actually says
• 16:29 — From the recruiter's side of the fence
• 18:09 — Track record, and the cost of overselling a player
• 20:54 — Having an advocate in the recruiting process
• 23:04 — Why families struggle to judge who is credible
• 24:30 — Hard, honest conversations about projection
• 26:31 — What advocacy looks like in practice
• 28:59 — Taking advice from an expert
• 30:49 — Using your X account the right way
• 33:32 — A 2028 arm hits 96 and the phones light up
• 36:18 — Bio as cover letter, timeline as video library
• 38:07 — For parents: run the account yourself
• 39:28 — Follow back and start the conversation

---

Aaron Cunningham is the high school director at the Hunter Pence Baseball Academy in the Houston area. Subscribe to the Baseball Forward Podcast for more conversations with the players, coaches, and leaders elevating the next generation of the game.