| FTBL New Rule will change the way athletes are recruited

[TerryP]

Jerrell Powe. Brandon Jennings.Neither is a household name among University of Alabama sports fans.

Powe's name, at least, might ring a bell since he has been a fairly well-publicized Ole Miss football recruit. Jennings, a basketball prospect who has signed with Arizona, is noteworthy in prep recruiting circles but wouldn't register at all with the average SEC sports fan.

However, both young men — and Powe in particular — are part of scenarios that could signal a profound change in the way certain athletes are recruited in the future by many schools, including the University of Alabama.

Powe's case is particularly relevant to Southeastern Conference football programs. His story has been a long one and will require some summarization here, with much of the information derived from the work of my friends Rusty Hampton and Kyle Veazey in the Jackson (Miss.) Clarion-Ledger.

In a nutshell, here is the Powe lowdown. He was the No. 1 rated defensive line prospect in the country out of Waynesboro, Miss., in the 2004 prep football season. The 6-foot-3, 345-pound Powe signed with Ole Miss He didn't qualify and went to Hargrave Military Academy where he played football in 2005, the last time he has done so, to this point. In February 2006, Ole Miss signed him again.

Since then, Powe's eligibility has been an ongoing soap opera marked by court injuctions, correspondence courses from BYU Online and at least one quote from Powe's mother, Shirley, that made him infamous among guardians of academia.

'He's a nice child, he just can't read,' Mrs. Powe was reported as saying. (She has subsequently denied that she said it.)

Attorneys got involved, including Montgomery's Donald Jackson, who has jousted with the NCAA before. Finally, the NCAA, wary of litigation and more enamoured of special dispensations than a 15th-century pope, made a 'special ruling' in Powe's case. It declared him a partial qualifier, allowing him to enroll in Ole Miss and receive financial aid, although he couldn't play (or practice) football.

That didn't necessarily end Powe's problems, since the Southeastern Conference doesn't allow partial qualifiers.

Make that 'didn't' allow them. Now, let's zoom into the present to get up to speed.

At its most recent meetings in Destin, Fla., the SEC apparently relaxed its rules concerning non-qualifiers. I was in Destin but missed that development, as did most of the other reporters there, none of whom (at least as far as I have seen in extensive on-line searching) mentioned it at the time. It's only been referenced in stories about Powe. But here is what Ole Miss athletics director Pete Boone had to say about the change.

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[imported_porkchop]

The whole thing is a joke, and Powe's situation is only a small piece of the problem. It's not like he's the only kid on an SEC roster (or trying to get onto an SEC roster) that can't read. Let's be honest here. SEC coaches are not exactly recruiting Rhodes Scholars.

My issue is moreso with Powe's family and their perceived right to file suite against a school to allow their kid to play college football. Since when was it a God-given right to go to college? Especially when, by your own mother's account, you are dumb as a brick. And for people not familiar with this situation she did make the statement about him not being able to read. In fact, his mother was trying to play the "learning disability" card on Ole Miss at the time and she said a lot of things.

Last I heard a year ago Ole Miss and Orgeron were in deep with this kid and his family. I was under the impression he was going to finally be cleared last year to play, but I guess they're still going at it.

 

[TerryP]

Bring a kid like Bobbie Massie into this conversation and I'm all for him getting the help he needs to get qualified

 

[Guest]

Allow me to be politically incorrect. Some rough words must be used and there is no getting around it.

Do stupid people make better football players? Are men that can't read, can't add, can't subtract, can't count change in their pockets inherently better at sports than smarter athletes?

It would see to me that stupid could cause problems. For instance, Jimmy Johns didn't have enough mental capacity to learn plays, correct?

This is not too good.

No matter the athletic prowess of players, is it wise to have someone on your team that doesn't know how to tie their own shoe laces? Then you would have to have a shoe tying employee and the list of problems could just go on and on and on.

 

[Guest]

These kinds of things are really starting to bother me. While I do not object to giving a disadvantaged kid a hand up, when you go after a player whose sole purpose for enrolling would be to make himself marketable for professional sports, having not the least interest in an education, then the school is getting far from its intended purpose. The role of college sports should not be that of a developmental league for the NFL, NBA or MLB. When athletes of dubious academic qualification are enrolled and then through hook or crook kept eligible the academic integrity of the school is damaged. While the athlete and the sport he represents might prosper under such an arrangement, the value of academic work at the school is reduced. Case in point, just how well would a graduate from Aubrun with a sociology degree do in the job market?

Even though the SEC has created a defacto Prop 48 rule, I hope we don't take advantage of it.