[Hat tip to Kevin Weakley for sending me the link to the article that inspired this blog.] The worst contract in American sports -- that's what Sports Illustrated magazine's Andy Staples called the National Letter of Intent, a document that commits a high school athlete to a scholarship from a particular university. Upon signing the Letter of Intent, that athlete forfeits one year of college eligibility in the event he or she fails to enroll in that school. In contrast, the school doesn't really have to honor the scholarship offer to the athlete. As Staples points out, Sure, the NLI claims to guarantee a scholarship, but that simply isn't true. That is contingent on the player being admitted to the school and on the football program staying below the 85-scholarship limit. A school can dump the player at any point between Signing Day and preseason camp, and he would have no recourse. This guarantee is no different than the one on a conference-approved financial aid form, but it costs the player something the financial aid agreement does not. This situation drew national attention when highly sought linebacker Roquan Smith verbally committed to UCLA in a ceremony televised on ESPN, but news broke revealing the primary recruiter who gave Smith his very first scholarship offer and cultivated a relationship with the player over three years would be leaving to take a coaching job in the NFL, working for the Atlanta Falcons. Had Smith signed the letter of intent and faxed it, he would have forfeited a year of eligibility unless UCLA granted him an unconditional release. … [Read more...]
Brian Bell and bizarre death of Kendrick Johnson
Today is national signing day for college football scholarships. It is a big day for a select group of young men who live in the state of Georgia. Valdosta, Georgia is a small city with a population of roughly 54,000 people down in the heart of south Georgia farming country. Valdosta is located only about 35 miles from Tallahassee, Florida, the home of Florida State University. It so happens that I personally know the city of Valdosta fairly well. My wife was a cheerleader at Valdosta high school.We still have family who live down there, including our daughter and grandchildren. Compared with metropolitan Atlanta, the crime rate in Valdosta is fairly low, and violent crime even more so. It may not be paradise, but it isn't a bad place to grow up. Valdosta is more or less known for two things: farming, and high school football. For a very long time, Valdosta has had a reputation for developing high school football talent, and Valdosta High School was a football powerhouse, claiming an incredible 23 state championship titles in their program's history that dates all the way back to 1913. In more recent years, the balance of power shifted more to arch-rival Lowndes County High School. The Vikings football program didn't exist prior to 1966. yet they have won 5 state championships of their own. Georgia Bulldog fans will remember Buck Belue, quarterback of the 1980 national championship team, played high school football for the Wildcats. More recently, Jay Rome and Malcolm Mitchell came to Athens by way of Valdosta. Another young man named James … [Read more...]
The University of Georgia, Todd Gurley, and the NCAA’s growing credibility problem
[FULL DISCLOSURE: I am an alumnus of the University of Georgia, but not affiliated with the university in any official capacity. These comments merely represent my personal opinion and nothing more.] I need to vent my frustrations, before my head explodes. I need to express my anger, even though I have no idea how demanding the right thing be done will actually help or accomplish anything, except it might make me feel a little bit better. We can save the argument for another day about whether the NCAA should allow players to be paid. Though I think that players should be allowed to have some sort of income, it's irrelevant to the point that I intend to focus upon today. Likewise, for the time being, we can also ignore that the NCAA earns nearly $1 billion dollars per year in revenue, in spite of the fact the organization is treated as a non-profit by the IRS. Right now I don't even want to bring up the relevance of the Ed O'Bannon court decision to this suspension, even though the ruling would seem to be quite pertinent. It's also helpful and important to note that the NCAA lost that case. However at the moment, I only want to figure out the answer to one question: what is the NCAA going to do about its very serious and growing credibility problem? And what message did Mark Emmert and the NCAA think they sent the college football world by increasing Todd Gurley's suspension from two to four games? I agree with Bill King of the AJC, when he says their message is "honesty doesn't pay." While I believe most Georgia fans are proud of their school, their … [Read more...]
