Ask most coaches on the Texas A&M campus about the number of scholarships his or her program is afforded by the NCAA, and you'll find answers similar to those spawned by this question:

            How'd your root canal go?

            In other words, coaches don't like to talk about it, and if they do, lend an ear, give up a shoulder. and let them cry out loud.

            But the coaches have some legitimate gripes to spew sour grapes.

            And no coach on campus has more ammunition - especially after a season like this one - to fire back at the NCAA than baseball coach Mark Johnson.

            Johnson's Aggies have set new marks of futility on the baseball diamond, mired in a 12-game losing streak last month and its first 30-loss season in school history.

            And several factors caused the rare slide for the Aggies, most notably inexperience.

            But something else can be attributed to the down year - the NCAA folks who years ago decided to strip college baseball down to a skeleton of partial scholarships and happy-to-be-here walk-ons.

            During part of Johnson's long career as a college baseball assistant coach, the sport featured unlimited scholarships, as was the case with most sports.

            Then the scholarship count was trimmed to 18 and down to 13 for first third of Johnson's 16 years as head coach at A&M. In 1991, however, the NCAA pulled out the knife again and sliced 10 percent off the 13 and came up with the ridiculous number of 11.7 scholarships.

            With a typical roster of 30, that means about one third of the team could carry a full scholarship. That wouldn't work, so college baseball teams are saddled with a mix of partial scholarships, divvied up by percentage points.

            It's enough to make Johnson a tenured math professor or a college coach yearning for more gray hair.

            "The baseball coaches felt like we were limited more than any other sport," Johnson said. "The problem we have is we compete in a three-game series on a weekend, and we play with approximately 17 or 18 players.

            "In football, they've got 85, and on a given weekend, R.C. (Slocum) probably uses 45 or 50 guys. In basketball, they'll use probably eight, maybe nine players. But we use more than our allotment of scholarships are."

            The result is star players on the recruiting trail begin to feel the heat of a baseball bidding war: If the pro baseball scouts don't get you, a 50 percent scholarship to some other school will. A&M, with all of its atmosphere and tradition, may fall short with a 40 percent scholarship offer.

            Pay for play? It's still here in college baseball.

            "Unfortunately, kids will make decisions on the amount of the scholarship," Johnson added. "We may offer 40 percent, then Houston offers them 50 and somebody offers them 55, and they're going to take the best deal. When they're 35 years old, they'll look back and say, 'Geez, I made a decision for $800?' That's what it amounts to. They forget about the playing surface or the crowds, the traditions or whether a team has a chance to go to Omaha. They just start looking at the best deal. It's really sick.

            "Of course, it benefits us too sometimes because kids want to come to A&M. But in a lot of cases in the recruiting package, the amount of the scholarship is a critical issue."

            But once the player arrives on campus, rarely does the scholarship amount rear its ugly ahead again. After all, the kid has become accustomed to college life, found a girlfriend and made a new home for himself.

In many instances, Johnson says, a player will ask for a reduction of his scholarship to allow more flexibility in the next year's recruiting race. Or, at some cutthroat programs, a coach will reduce a player's financial aid because of poor performances on the field.

"To me, that's misusing the student-athlete, and it's done by a lot of programs that win," Johnson said. "Most of the aid I've reduced is because of poor grades or problems off the field, but I tell them that up front when I visit their home.

            "What we try to do is bring them in on a small enough scholarship that it won't burden the program if the guy doesn't become a player. I tell them I will increase your aid as you become one of our players. What I would ultimately like to happen is guys who are producing the most are getting the larger scholarship."

            The partial scholarships are surely a burden on Johnson, especially during recruiting when he almost becomes part private investigator.

            Along with analyzing a pitcher's curveball or a hitter's swing, Johnson also has to look at some other pertinent numbers. like how much does a kid's parents earn before taxes.

            "What the NCAA has done on this has pretty much made college baseball an upper- or middle-class sport," Johnson added. "Minutes after I see a player that I like, I'll know what his parents do for a living because I have to find out if they have enough money for me to recruit (their son). On a whole, if you have guys who are equally as talented, you get the guy who comes from a family that has more money."

            The 11.7 scholarships for a college baseball program must be divided carefully, as too many full rides would deplete the talent pool in the middle of the roster. And depth is key to any team's run to Omaha and the College World Series.

            Last year, the Aggies had the depth. This year, A&M is as thin as its ever been. Four catchers had to be used because of injuries, and the Aggies' best closer turned out to be their best third baseman, as well.

            The Aggie freshmen have performed admirably at times, and expectedly inconsistent at others.

            Add the fact that professional baseball raids the college game for its best players as juniors and the high school ranks for the nation's premier prep players, and you can understand the plight of the college baseball coach.

            "If we had 18 (scholarships), it would make it a lot easier," Johnson said. "Ours is coupled with professional baseball. Our recruiting classes can change drastically. We had two big-time left-handed pitchers coming in this year who ended up signing pro contracts.

            "At any rate, baseball's recruiting is the hardest of any sport. Not only does it have a limited number of scholarships - the fewest as you compare it to the number of participants - but it also deals with partial scholarships and professional baseball. You put all that together, and you say it would be hard to be consistent in your recruiting process."

            The Aggies have been a very consistent program under Johnson since he took over in 1985. He never has endured a losing season, much less a 30-loss campaign. Back-to-back Big 12 titles and two CWS appearances highlight his career.

            And, unlike Miami and several SEC schools, A&M under Johnson won't over-recruit or sign kids who have to wait until August to see if their partial scholarship still remains.

            Rather, Johnson recruits straight up. Players defect from other programs and flock to his. Things are done the right way with Aggie baseball.

            And in a sport that seems to do so many things the wrong way, that's saying something.