CLEMSON – It may be four weeks from Week 1 of college football season, but in Clemson on Thursday, it was time for some college baseball talk, courtesy of head coach Erik Bakich.

Clemson’s skipper addressed several key news items surrounding the Tigers’ baseball program, including assistant coach Nick Schnabel stepping down and starting pitcher Aidan Knaak returning to Clemson for his final season. For the first time, Bakich also addressed how the Tigers will approach Colorado Judge Charlotte Sweeney’s ruling that granted the high school class of 2022 one more year of college eligibility.

“It won’t affect our roster coming up,” Bakich said of the decision. “With Aidan and some of the guys that were draft eligible that turned down those professional opportunities to come back, that solidified our roster.”

Clemson’s 2025-26 roster had three players that will now be eligible for the 2026-27 season that were not taken in the MLB Draft in July. Jack Crighton, who maintained a .301 batting average last year, as well as veteran pitchers Nathan Dvorsky and Joe Allen are now free to play one more year of college baseball.

However, as Bakich said, with the roster already finalized, it will not be at Clemson.

“I would love to see some of those seniors get another shot at it as well because I think all of them, whether you’re talking about Jack Crighton and Joe Allen, Nathan Dvorsky, all those guys, they are certainly very talented players and would love to see them play college baseball again. I don’t know if they will, but if we had room, we certainly would look at it, but we don’t have any plans right now for that.”

Those three seniors were part of three consecutive NCAA Regional teams hosted by Clemson, as well as one Super Regional in 2024. Though their final season with the Tigers ended in a disappointing 10-20 ACC record, Bakich does not want their time in Tiger Town to be defined by one year.

“I don’t remember Jack Crighton in his senior year,” Bakich said after the Tigers’ season-ending loss to Notre Dame in the ACC Tournament this past spring. “I remember Jack Crighton going after the umpire in the Super Regional when he gets tossed for stupid play. And I remember Jack Crighton and his positive moments and his highlights and the same with all the other seniors. They’ve been a part of a lot of success here, or a decent amount of success here, and I remember those moments with them, not this year with them.”

As current rules stand, those three players will have a two week window in December to transfer to another team. In the meantime, Clemson will start gearing up for its season-opening tournament in the Shriner’s Children’s College Showdown in Arlington, Texas, this winter.