Composites banned by NCAA

[Tumblebug]

You can find our reply to the NCAA moratorium memo on our website. www.andersonbat.com You will find an explanation of the problem there.

[Tumblebug]

The NCAA composite baseball bat moratorium wasn't lifted in NCAA’s Wednesday (8/12/09) meeting with the bat manufacturers in Indianapolis. The issue will go to the NCAA Baseball Rules Committee today (8/14/09) and an announcement for the future of the proposed ongoing moratorium will be made after the NCAA oversight Committee meets on 8/21/09.

It appears the composite bat manufacturers still have some explaining to do. But, as of right now there is indeed a NCAA moratorium on composite barrel baseball bats in play and untested.

The speculated conclusion is that something will have to be done with at least the BESR approved composite bats already in play and available for purchase. The BESR bats may simply remain banned and only BBCOR certified composites will be legal which may mean an immediate sunset date on “grandfathered” bats. Since the bats actually violate a current rule, it doesn’t appear that there is a solid legal stance for the manufacturers to use as leverage. It appears that NCAA is in the driver’s seat on this one.

The new BBCOR test may soon include an ABI protocol much like the ASA softball test now in effect allowing “new” composites back in the game. But the effectivity of that test is being examined and the rules committee will have to weigh in on that possibility.

[MTR]

You can find our reply to the NCAA moratorium memo on our website. http://www.andersonbat.com You will find an explanation of the problem there.

Cute. Parts of the 1st paragraph are a load of crap, but a completely politically correct response.

[PDad]

The NCAA composite baseball bat moratorium wasn't lifted in NCAA’s Wednesday (8/12/09) meeting with the bat manufacturers in Indianapolis. The issue will go to the NCAA Baseball Rules Committee today (8/14/09) and an announcement for the future of the proposed ongoing moratorium will be made after the NCAA oversight Committee meets on 8/21/09.

It appears the composite bat manufacturers still have some explaining to do. But, as of right now there is indeed a NCAA moratorium on composite barrel baseball bats in play and untested.

When did the moratorium go into effect? The last I heard it was only proposed. Aren't all these meetings part of the approval process?

[Tumblebug]

The NCAA composite baseball bat moratorium wasn't lifted in NCAA’s Wednesday (8/12/09) meeting with the bat manufacturers in Indianapolis. The issue will go to the NCAA Baseball Rules Committee today (8/14/09) and an announcement for the future of the proposed ongoing moratorium will be made after the NCAA oversight Committee meets on 8/21/09.

It appears the composite bat manufacturers still have some explaining to do. But, as of right now there is indeed a NCAA moratorium on composite barrel baseball bats in play and untested.

When did the moratorium go into effect? The last I heard it was only proposed. Aren't all these meetings part of the approval process?

The way the NCAA had it all come down was to institute a moritorium and the proposal is about lifting it if the composite bat manufacturers come up with a way to make it right. The onus is on the industry to provide assurances that the results they found in their testing in the field stop. As far as the NCAA is concerned it is on until the industry proves they can build a product that stays within the rules for the life of the product.

[Tumblebug]

You can find our reply to the NCAA moratorium memo on our website. http://www.andersonbat.com You will find an explanation of the problem there.

Cute. Parts of the 1st paragraph are a load of crap, but a completely politically correct response.

First paragraph Cliff notes:
We make aluminum bats so we think this is a great idea oh wise and mighty committee.

There are only a few manufacturers that are exclusively composite bat builders. Easton, Louisville, Wilson/DeMarini, and Worth are aluminum bat makers as well. All but Easton have aluminum products as their best selling performance models. I am a composite bat manufacturer too. I have a composite bat ready for manufacture and distribution. I choose not to offer the fiber reinforced composite technology until it can be appropriately adapted for impact applications. We saw this coming. We were just the first to one willing to walk away from the investment in a bad materials design choice.

I spent $250k over three years with the help of six different expert composite materials engineering groups developing a product that performed well and within the rules but through structural degradation in normal play became illegal. We made every effort to play within the rules and in spite of using formidable industry collaborators and resources found no dependable and affordable solution to the intralayer delamination problems that plague the impact application of this technology. There is no reliable way to predict the level or rate of damage once it starts. We explored materials solutions from the mundane to the exotic and if there is a solution it came on the scene after we stopped development on the project at the inception of the ABI test.

This is not my first rodeo. Before I designed bats, I was a composite structures specialist in aerospace. I have the technical resources necessary to make a good decision. We stopped the development on the project because our results were a product that was a less than elegant solution. We are at a competitive disadvantage for our decision not to distribute a popular me-too product but we continue to make efforts to design beyond the failed composite experiment. We believe we found a better way. I think the others can too but it’s easier to and less expensive to just keep building crap for as long as they will let you. If they stick to their guns, this action by the NCAA may be the wake-up call that gets it done.

I truly believe the NCAA is doing the right thing. And by doing it they got the whole industry into the same room to address the problems. The consumer and the game will be better for it. At least there will be less landfill generated by eliminating the barrels of composite bats taken out of play at the national tournaments alone.

[fastpitch fool]

Mr. Anderson. We ran a local survey recently and found your RT product was preferred handsomely to many of the other big name bats. It was however, slightly behind the Demarini CF4. Those two bats represented 80% of the survey for which bats the consumers chose RIGHT NOW.

Your challenge must be to put out a balanced product that performs as well as your RT. Your TechZilla was in the bat survey as well, and did not do well. Granted, it was a small survey, but still a sampling.

Can you build a balanced product that performs as well as a your RT line? Or do you think you will accomplish that with the NanoTek?

[Tumblebug]

Mr. Anderson. We ran a local survey recently and found your RT product was preferred handsomely to many of the other big name bats. It was however, slightly behind the Demarini CF4. Those two bats represented 80% of the survey for which bats the consumers chose RIGHT NOW.

Your challenge must be to put out a balanced product that performs as well as your RT. Your TechZilla was in the bat survey as well, and did not do well. Granted, it was a small survey, but still a sampling.

Can you build a balanced product that performs as well as a your RT line? Or do you think you will accomplish that with the NanoTek?

Thanks for the input. Over the next two years you will see our fastpitch line remake itself. The NanoTek is directly aimed at the market segment you are talking about. The RT and TZ will both see a redesign based on what we learned in the during the Nano project. The TZ art was very well received in baseball and rebuffed by fastpitch. You will see a separation there. The remaking will be in a wider product offering that will feature a swingweight designation that will describe the balance characteristics of each product. Consumer education will be the biggest challenge.