Non-guaranteed athletic scholarships

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100524/ap_on_sp_ot/us_ncaa_losing_scholarships
Thought this AP story was interesting. I'd always assumed scholarships were "guaranteed" provided athletes stayed academicly eligible. Figured coaches tried to "run off" players they didn't want anymore (i.e. One on One, Meat on the Hoof).
Can athletes negotiate for an unrevokable five-year deal? Or are all athletic scholarships created equal? What about partial-aid sports like baseball?

 

Scholarships have been one-year deals for about 30 years now.

 

Obviously spurred on by the crusading story of the Robby Benson epic "One on One."

 

And it's a load of bull that a team can yank the scholarship, but the player still has to sit out another year if they transfer.

But heaven forbid a player should leave school after one year to go to the NBA.

 

Yeah, but rarely does a team "yank" a scholarship. They usually tell the player he can stay but will be glued to the bench, so it might be in his best interest to transfer.

But I agree that it's all in the school's favor.

 

To me this practice of running off players can show a lack of accountability by coaches.

If a player is truly committed to the program, takes care of business in the classroom and is a model citizen, I don't know how a coach should be allowed to cut him. At some point the coaches should know what they are getting and what they can mold out of the talent they get. In some cases I think the coach has to eat that one. Maybe he could be a better evaluator of talent and potential. Maybe he could be better at developing players.

I'm sure a lot of these guys go on their own, just because of the playing time issue. But how often is the coach's prediction of a guy's future playing time based on over-signing?

For example, at New Mexico, Steve Alford's latest recruiting class plus transfers gave him 16 scholarship players (three over the limit) for 2010-11. Darington Hobson decided to skip out for the NBA draft. And a reserve guard transferred. So the Lobos are still one over the limit (interestingly the guy rumored to be booted sent a letter to the local paper stating he has no intention to leave on his own).

After announcing his decision, the reserve guard said he proposed transferring earlier in the year (though had denied it publicly before the transfer), so maybe Alford was preparing for it. Hobson was on the draft bubble most the latter half of the year. And maybe Alford got a yes from more of those transfers than he expected because of the breakout season UNM had. But it still feels like Alford was recruiting over the limit and knew he was. It bugs me to think a coach can recruit like this and just toss lesser players aside.

I'm sure this happens a lot, but I'm not a fan.

 

I know a little about this because of a very bad coach. My daughter signed a D-II scholarship agreement and, in the third practice of the season, blew out her knee running on the beach. She elected to have it worked on at home over vacation and the coach told her "you'll never play here, or anywhere else" telling her she would hold her to her agreement. My daughter chose not to go back after the first semester, she hasn't played since, her career is over and she is OK with that, but the coach apparently put out the word that no one should talk to her. She heard that from a JC coach that contacted her to gauge her interest in continuing to play. The JC coach told here there would be no problem, but the word was out from the first coach.

But if the coach who had recruited her left, my daughter would have been stuck.

 

Non guaranteed scholarships, or what I like to call Nick Saban scholarships.

 

Don't forget that Calipari ran off a good number of Tubby Smith's and Billy Gillespie's players, so he could free up a few to get his own guys into Lexington.

 

You're just a G.D. Spradlin hater...

 

It works both ways, though.

My wife played Division I sports and got a 70 percent scholarship out of high school. After the first year, she was able to sign a new scholarship for 100 percent when more money was available after a big senior class left.

 

All the way with a red-hot poker. I can go anywhere I want....