Learning Disabled: The New Athlete Admission Tool?

Boise State reaps more than money in going to high profile bowl games

Catch the discussion on Radio Times from WHYY

I had an opportunity to call in to the popular current affairs show on NPR called Radio Times regarding the NFL's new rules on concussions. My comments asked the guests to broaden the issue to include more than just football--that athletes in ice hockey, soccer and lacrosse are also incurring concussions at an alarming rate. Take a listen!

BCS--its time for change...

Here's a draft of the letter I sent to USA Today regarding their position on creating a true college football playoff:
I recently completed my dissertation on "The Launch of the Big Ten Network". My findings agree with your analysis--it is time for change.

Athletics departments at the NCAA Division I level are strongly encouraged to be self sufficient. Bowl game revenues and television monies go a long way towards paying the bills for other "non revenue" sports. BCS advocates will argue that Congress has more important priorities than to meddle in college sports; however, I would argue that they have a responsibility to step in when the playing field becomes uneven.

I do not worry for the 40+ schools that are members of BCS conferences--they are and will be fine. I do worry for the other 80 schools who will end up dropping male and female nonrevenue sports while their institutions continue to pump more money into football to remain competitive. It's those student athletes, numbering in the thousands, who are dependent upon Congressional action.

If Congress chooses to, once again, look the other way, it does so at an economic moment in time when colleges are already faced with making cuts in their core mission. When a college president examines where the money is flowing, and recognizes that it is flowing towards the BCS Conferences almost exclusively, what incentive do they have to continue to throw "good money after bad"? The deck is stacked against them.

It is time for Congress to act on their behalf, and not just consider the impact on the local chamber of commerce who hosts the bowl game. Someone needs to speak up for these student athletes--before their opportunities vanish.

An inside look at a football recruit's visit to OSU

College Athletes and Heat Exhaustion

Why does college cost so much?

The Chronicle of Higher Education recently tried to answer this question. By interviewing college administrators and students, this video attempts to explain why tuition and fees have risen so fast in the past 10 years.

20 hours a week? Yeah, right...

Most of you have been following the 'revelations" from the Detroit Free Press regarding Michigan football's alleged violation of the NCAA rules. Specifically, 6 players claim that second year head coach Rich Rodriguez grossly over worked his players by exceeding the maximum daily and weekly practice hours. Some claim that they were told to come in and workout on off days, Sundays after game days and for up to 11 hours per day.

Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel came to the defense of Rodriguez, stating "we sometimes have to lock our practice facility to keep the guys out...they just want to be good." Indeed, in America, we all admire a strong work ethic and cheer on those who, through hard work, want a better life for themselves.

Why should it matter? Who cares as long as Michigan wins, right? WRONG! As I see this, something has got to give. These are full time college students who are expected to carry 12-15 credit hours each semester just to remain eligible and make progress towards their degrees. Less than 1% of all NCAA Division I athletes move on to a professional sports career. For arguments sake, I'll allow that Michigan has a higher percentage that move onto the NFL than most other programs; they probably average 4-5 per year. That means of 105 athletes on Michigan's roster, 5 will actually see a return on their investment of 30-40 hours a week just on football related activities. I'm worried for the other 100--peer pressure alone says they need to invest this kind of time, too. How will they mange their classes, papers, presentations and research projects?

The issue is not with the 5 who DO move on...its creating a culture that all feel compelled to follow that has diminishing returns for the vast majority of team members. Ignorance of that fact by the coaches is what created this issue--and I'm guessing that's the reason 6 student athletes went to the Detroit Free Press--who else was going to listen?

Time for change on NCAA head coaches who break the rules...

It is getting obvious that head coaches, particularly in men's basketball, are jumping ship and moving on to another program before the NCAA gets wind of potential major violations in their previous programs. While some may say--"good for them", I would argue that a coach who leaves behind an entire athletics program in shambles should NOT be rewarded with a multimillion dollar contract at his next stop. For those of you who don't know, even if the NCAA finds one program in major violation of its rules, the entire athletics program is held accountable for the length of a probation. So, if the tennis coach commits another different infraction, the entire department will be punished by the NCAA, not just those individual programs.

So why do recruits need to pay attention to this trend if it is not in their sport? Because of the inevitable "guilt by association" imparted on all sports within that University's athletics programs by the NCAA. It hardly seems fair that a coach gets to leave for another huge payday, while those he leaves behind (most of whom had no idea of his behavior) are left to pick up the pieces. Some food for thought....

A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing...

Recently, I've set up a google web search that allows me to daily collect the news articles and blogs that are written about college athletic recruiting. In the summaries, I noticed some local newspapers who publicize a seminar being held at the local high school. Headlines say "Former Notre Dame asst coach to speak at high school", or "Former Division II College Head Coach to speak on NCAA recruiting at local high school". Wow, a celebrity visiting our home town school? And for free? Buried in the short announcement was a mention that the former coach was now representing XYZ Scouting service.

While I knew there were a few companies who did seminars for high schools on college athletic recruiting, I was troubled by the number of high school administrators who did not realize their own complicity in steering their students towards the recruiters. I can imagine the phone call:

Hello? This is George so and so, former asst at Michigan. I'll be in your area next month and would love to come by and speak to your varsity athletes about the college recruitment process. You know, I recruited several All Americans when I was at Michigan...maybe the next one's at your school! Charge? No charge! I'm doing it for the kids!


High School budgets are tight, and little money is often made available for activities coordinators to bring in college experts --most struggle to pay the daily bills, and to keep the games moving. Most of these well intended folks realize that they don't have the expertise to guide their students, so they want to bring someone in to provide this information. A good idea, right? It is...except when the "expert" you bring in has another agenda.

Companies who are willing to provide one of these "scouts" (former college coaches) to speak do so for one reason--the high school is providing access to a potentially lucrative database --the parents and student athletes who attend. Once the seminar is done, names and email addresses are collected by the presenter and sent back to corporate headquarters. They are placed on a mailing list that markets recruiting services, video services, scholarship locator services to the student athlete, etc. Cost? Anywhere from $600-$1,000 per person, provided almost exclusively to that company.

Assuming that 100 families attend the seminar and only 10% sign on to the follow up marketing pitch...at an average of $750 per service, the company made $7500 for presenting that "free" seminar. Worse, the families who are then marketed to believe their school's athletic program has blessed this company's approach because the speaker was brought in by them.

What's the moral of this story? Be careful of those who offer you something for nothing--someone usually pays for it anyway...and it shouldn't be your student athletes!

Speaking Frankly...

At a recent seminar to a decidedly upscale group of parents and student athletes, I noticed a pattern in the questions that were asked. More and more, parents want to know "what is my child going to get from their college experience?" And how can they leverage their time and effort investment in their child's athletic opportunities to gain admittance to the best academic school they can find? Fortunately, by the end of the evening, most parents had a pretty clear roadmap of what to do and when to do it. In today's economic climate, only focusing on the college sports scholarship can actually hurt your chances.

How? If you consider the long term impact of the value of your undergraduate degree, multiplied by the amount of indebtedness when you graduate, and divided by the career opportunities your major provides, athletics should be a small part of the formula. Use it to get your foot in the door...then take advantage of every opportunity to build your collegiate and professional network over your career and on campus. Your varsity athletics career, while important and meaningful, should NOT dominate your thinking. After all, as a competitive athlete, you know that when you graduate, you will be entering the most challenging job market in decades. Get your game face on!