Indiana A.D. Dolson named to NCAA Baseball Selection Committee

Scott Dolson will bring Big Ten (B1G) representation to a committee that had been lacking that

By Carl James @jovian34 January 3rd, 2024

D1Baseball‘s Kendall Rogers shared the 2024 NCAA Division I Baseball Selection Committee names on X last night. Among the three new members of the committee was Scott Dolson, VP and Director of Intercollegiate Athletics for Indiana University Bloomington.

The nine-member committee of athletic directors are charged each May with putting together the 64-team field including determining the 16 host sites for the regional round of the tournament. There has been a history of close decisions favoring conferences and schools with members on the committee and close snubs happening to schools without a conference member on the committee.

In 2022 the two conferences discussed as being snubbed the worst by the committee were the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) and the B1G. NC State and Rutgers were both left out of the field when thought to be safely in, Notre Dame and Wake Forest were denied hosts with top-16 style resumes, and Maryland was denied a top-8 national seed despite a resume that seemingly called for it. Interestingly enough, the ACC and B1G will likely have representation for the next three years with the appointments of Dolson and Florida State A.D. Michael Alford.

As for the advantages to Indiana in particular, that’s a less obvious concept. Committee members recuse themselves on discussions regarding their own teams. That being said, two teams that were somewhat controversial in getting host sites in 2023 were Indiana State and Auburn, who both had their respective A.D.s on the committee. Neither will be on this committee as Auburn’s John Cohen’s term has ended and Sherard Clinkscales was just relieved of his duties with Indiana State. Currently the dominant Southeastern Conference (SEC) has no representation on the committee, but one more position still needs to be filled. The general logic is that having your A.D. on the committee can’t really hurt if you are in a bubble-type situation.

The bigger thing for Indiana, in my opinion, is that this further puts the Hoosiers on the map in college baseball. It also shows that Dolson is clearly prioritizing the sport and will be intimately involved with it for the next three years. I cannot see a downside for IU Baseball and see nothing but an upside for the B1G Baseball going forward.

Assistant A.D. Jeremy Gray and AD Scott Dolson speak with Head Coach Jeff Mercer during batting practice at Kentucky Proud Park before the Indiana/West Virginia game in the 2023 Lexington Regional – photo by Chris Feeny for iubase.com

Another interesting aspect of this is that Dolson was in attendance with the IU Baseball team at the Lexington Regional in June. The decision to grant Kentucky a regional host was controversial as Lexington did not have available hotel space that weekend due to the Railbird Music Festival happening in the area as well. If a similar circumstance presents itself (a potential host can’t guarantee local hotel space), Dolson will be able to provide a first person account of how things went in Lexington for the visiting programs.