College Baseball World Series: 2011 Shows Difference in Wood and Aluminum Bats

Homeruns are Way Down at the College Baseball World Series

The numbers are alarming. 32 homeruns during the 14 games of the 2010 College World Series to just seven homeruns in 12 games of College World Series play in 2011. That is a huge drop-off.

So, what is the source of the difference? While the College Baseball World Series Changed Venues from Rosenblatt Stadium to TD Ameritrade Park, the dimensions and conditions are almost identical.

If this was major league baseball the first thing popping into people's minds would be some sort of crack down on performance enhancers. And in a way that would be right for this change.

Only in this case the performance enhancer is in the bats.

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At the start of 2011 the NCAA initiated a new policy on bat performance. It was a policy a long time coming. In 2008 the NCAA told bat manufactures that they wanted a "wood-like performance in non-wood bats."

I'd tell the specifics of the physics in the change of the bats, but I'd have to be able to understand them to do that. So, let me just say that, according to ESPN, "The limit for non-wood bats was set at a level that is just barely “bouncier” than the bounciest wood bats available."

So while the NCAA still has the ping, and not the crack, of the bat, the ball is behaving like it was cracked. While homeruns always help put butts in the seats, these changes have helped improve safety, and that needs to be the priority.

For more Tournament coverage visit Bleacher Report's NCAA Baseball page.

—Richard Langford