The Clemson Insider has learned from talking with sources on Friday that Clemson University is bringing back the Academic Common Market.

This is big news for Clemson baseball as it tries to compete with other schools who have certain recruiting vantages over the Tigers. The program helps athletic teams, like the baseball program, recruit out-of-state student athletes to Clemson.

Annual tuition at Clemson cost around $40,000 for an out-of-state student, compared to about $20,000 for a South Carolina resident. The Academic Common Market allowed Clemson students from other states—on both the athletic and academic side—a more affordable alternative to attend and/or play sports at Clemson if they were majoring in a field that is not available to them in their home state.

In the fall of 2018, Clemson University decided to pull out of the Academic Common Market for undergraduates, a decision that put a strain on recruiting for baseball and Olympic sports.

Back in 2019, Clemson athletic director Dan Radakovich told TCI Clemson Athletics was reengaging with the University and having conversations about the Academic Common Market.

Now those conversations have turned into results.

This is a tool the Clemson baseball team needs to stay competitive with other schools in the ACC and the SEC on the recruiting trail. The NCAA only allows 11.7 scholarships to be used for a baseball roster that has 35 players during the regular season and 27 during the postseason.

Of the 11.7 scholarships, at least 25-percent has to be allocated to scholarship-players.

According to an article in The Greenville News in 2018, Clemson had 15 student-athletes benefit from the program between 2015 and 2018.

Schools like Vanderbilt and Virginia, who have combined to win three national titles in the last six years, use large endowments to help fund academic scholarships, allowing them a competitive advantage over most schools.

The Academic Common Market helps schools like Clemson close that financial gap.

The Tigers could use the help.

Clemson (25-27) just completed the program’s worst season in 64 years. The Tigers suffered their first losing season since 1957. This also marks just the second time in 34 years–the first since 2008–that Clemson will not play in the NCAA Tournament.

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