NCSA Blog

Why is this man smiling? 

This smirking gent is none other than new Duke head football coach David Cutcliffe, and indeed, he should be smiling.

First of all, because one can assume the cameraman told him so (and from my experience, cameramen mean business when they tell you to say “cheese”).

But secondly, because Cutcliffe is finding out that just because you take over a team with a combined four wins over the last four seasons, doesn’t mean you can’t sign two 4-star and three 3-star recruits. 

And Cutcliffe did just that.

Now, this isn’t to say that the Blue Devils, who were 1-10 last year, are going to be BCS-bound in 2008 — or even have an above .500 winning percentage. But rather than accepting the fact that Duke has, is and always will be a “basketball school,” Cutcliffe is making a conscious effort to improve his situation.

That’s lesson one — although you might be playing against some teams that have been historically better than your school, doesn’t mean you should come in expecting to lose. Otherwise, what are you playing for – to be average?

Put in some extra practice time, do that one extra-rep. I guarantee that four-star recruits weren’t lining up outside of Cutcliffe’s door. He had to put in some extra elbow grease to get where he wanted to be, including fighting the big boys. From the article:

The headliner has to be four-star running back Desmond Scott, the nation’s No. 4 all-purpose back out of Hillside (Durham, N.C.). He turned down scholarship offers from many of the nation’s top teams, and he had made a commitment to Rutgers. But he had a change of heart and is instead staying closer to home.

Here’s lesson two — as a recruit, don’t shed away from the opportunity to be a big player at a sub-par team. During the recruiting process, the goal is to stand out and above the crowd. So why should you necessarily play for a team where you’re going to be back in the crowd? If Scott were to go to an Virginia Tech, a USC or a Ohio State, he’d still be a four-star recruit, but he’d be surrounded by a lot more fellow four-star recruits and some blue-chippers. And at those programs, there’s a lot of pressure to have a very successful season.

With Duke, Scott is at the forefront. He’ll more than likely start as a freshman, and because Duke has been so bad, he’s not going to feel a ton of pressure to win five or six games. If Duke wins just two, the season’s better than last year.

Here’s another thing going for some of these less powerful schools – you can get a good education! In the 2007 NCSA Power Rankings, which “are calculated for each college/university at the NCAA Division I, II and III levels by averaging the U.S. Sports Academy Directors’ Cup ranking, the NCAA student-athlete graduation rate of each college/university and the U.S. News & World Report ranking,” Duke finished in 3rd place, ranked No. 8 in academics and No. 16 in graduation rate. My alma mater, Truman State University (No. 69 on the list), never really had tremendous football or basketball programs, but we were ranked No. 1 as far as graduation rate.

And here’s what I tell every family I talk to: Unless you’re in that extreme upper echelon of football, men’s basketball and baseball and have a realistic chance of being drafted, it’s all about getting that degree. Playing for a competitive program is important to some players, but in the end, what you do on the field will pale in comparison to what you do in the classroom.

So don’t immediately rule out a school because of its low winning percentage. Ten years later, after you’ve graduated from that school, and when you’re working at a job that you love and making a decent living, you’ll realize that you’re truly experiencing a high winning percentage.

-by Diego Pons 2009 Basketball Grad 

The first camp my team went to was the West Virginia University Team Camp on June 27 -29.  This is the second time I attended this camp, but I was very excited because, at last, I was going to meet a college coach!  I had sent an email telling him I was going to attend the camp and he agreed to meet with me. I was also excited because I knew we would have great competition; the good Triple A teams from my county were there, and the other teams I didn’t recognize were looking good and athletic.       

We played games from Saturday through Sunday. I started the later games sore from playing aggressive and getting over screens while taking knees to the quad in the many previous games.  However, I wasn’t the only one feeling sore.  I also remember seeing other teams exhausted - well - I thought so because I was outrunning them and out hustling them on defense. We ended up winning all our games except two games, both again Morgantown.

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 The NCAA has always tried to walk the fine line between marketing their sporting events while not violating their amateurism principles.  That line will again be tested thanks in part to a recent Supreme Court decision that essentially ruled that an entity does not own the rights to statistics and names that are in the public domain.  The ruling spurred CBSSports.com to change their College Football Fantasy League’s naming of players. For the first time they will use the actual players names instead of the previous generic tags. This season FLORIDA QB will be replaced with more recognizable Tim Tebow.  CBS believes this will be a huge boost to its Fantasy Sports Division.

NCAA spokesman, Bob Williams, confirmed that they had sent a letter to CBS informing them that their bylaws were being violated but given the added exposure it could bring to the player they would not stand in their way.

“We are concerned with protecting the amateur status of the student athlete,” Mr. Williams says, but conceded that their bylaws were created in a era “before new media.” do not properly address a situation like this. Still, he warned that the NCAA will be watching closely.

This seems to open Pandora’s box for the NCAA.  They don’t want to see their athletes exploited for profit, but likely don’t have any legal ground to stand on.  They have been backed into a corner and it seems the only solution is to work with CBS for now, but what will happen when other companies jump on the bandwagon?

 I always tell recruits “You need to be proactive; you can’t wait for colleges to contact you!”  Sometimes I get a puzzled look and they ask the question, “If I’m good enough wont they find me?”  First of all you never want to place your future in someone else’s hands, but also from a practicality standpoint colleges can’t recruit the entire nation.  The Chronicle of Higher Education recently released a report on recruiting budgets for programs at every level.  When you look at the numbers you come to the conclusion; Colleges don’t have the money to find me, I have to go find them!

In the last 10 years Division I schools have drastically increased their budgets.  The top 65 schools increased budgets a whopping 86% with 21 schools topping the $1-million dollar benchmark.  However, when looking at the numbers behind the other divisions you see a far different picture.  More than a quarter of Division II schools actually spent less on recruiting 2007 than in 1997.  The median budget for Division II was $28,000 and Division III only $19,700.

Keep in mind these numbers aren’t for one sport, they are for an entire athletic department. These numbers also only reflect recruiting budgets, NOT the amount of money available for student athletes.  I encourage athletes to use this information to their advantage and start contacting schools and taking more unofficial visits.  Just because a coach doesn’t have the budget to recruit you, doesn’t mean he doesn’t want you at his school!

Congratulations to Another NCSA Student Athlete!

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 For Jerrell Powe the phrase “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again,” can sum his entire college career.  After a 3 year struggle the former 5 Star recruit was finally declared eligible today by the SEC.  The now 21-year old released the following statement. 

“I am deeply grateful to Ole Miss and to the SEC for the opportunity to be admitted here and to prove that I can succeed academically and on the football field,” Powe said. “I have always had faith and a plan, and both are beginning to show results.”

Powe initially attended Hargrave Military Academy in 2005 after the NCAA deemed that he did not meet qualifying standards.  He was again signed by Ole Miss the following season only to be told that he had received too much assistance while at Hargrave.  Most student athletes probably would have given up at that point, but Powe continued his struggle and re-entered courses at Wayne County high School and Penn Foster Career School.

He was finally admitted as a partial qualifier to Ole Miss in 2007 and spent the year focusing on his school work hoping to be eligible for this season.  However, since the partial qualifier rule has been eliminated the SEC was required to make a special ruling on this case.  After completing the necessary work the SEC felt that Powe had indeed proven that he was ready to be a student athlete.  So he will finally be able to show what he can do on the field this year!  Head Coach Houston Nutt has been urging patience, but Ole Miss fans are already extremely excited.

His tale is one of optimism and caution. Student athletes should take away that they don’t want to put themselves in such a tough spot, but also that it is never too late to turn things around.  Sometimes putting in that extra hard work and trying one more time can make the difference of a lifetime.

-by Jacob Parker 2010 Soccer Grad

It was January 25th on a warm Friday evening.  Unfortunately for me, my high school soccer coach and I had been bumping heads for about two weeks.  This left me a spot on the bench for our District Championship game against our main rival.  When I was sure that I wouldn’t be entering the game in the first half, my coach calls me over and tells me to go in at left mid.  Determined to make a difference with the 10 minutes left until half, I went in at 110%.

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 - by Taylor Graves 2009 Lax Grad

After finding out that I made the Adidas All-American team, I had a chance to meet my coach, Glen Miles. He contacted me about a week before the tournament and asked me if I wanted to be part of a team for a tournament held at San Diego State University that was sponsored by Great Western Lacrosse and was a memorial tournament for Norman Webb. He is honored and credited with starting lacrosse programs in southern California. I thought that it would be great to have the chance to play for my Adidas coach a week before I would play for him in the Adidas National Lacrosse Classic.

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Let’s get one thing straight: Pat White is quarterback for West Virginia football, and not a pitcher for West Virginia baseball.

And after the Big East Conference’s football media day, in all likelihood, we won’t see White suiting up for the latter team any time soon.

It was there that White, who was drafted by the Anaheim Angels right out of high school, was asked about the possibility of playing for WVU’s baseball team.

But White announced that he has no plans to play for the team because of what he’s heard about the coach.

Now, I have to hypothesis on how White came up with his conclusion:

• He talked directly with him and the coach admitted to what White said him of

Or

• He’s gotten his information through the classic, “he said, she said” methodology.

I’m guessing the latter of the two probably is what happened. Some people out there, for whatever reasons, have an agenda. And just as much as you’re going to hear some good about a coach, you’re more than likely going to hear some bad as well.

So how do you distinguish what’s right and what’s wrong? My advice: If you want to get to know more about a coach, talk to the coach directly. I’m sure he’d be willing to address any questions or concerns you might have.

I was as stunned as you when I read the above title, and I’m the one who wrote it!

But this column from the Los Angeles Times, written by Eric Sondheimer, has opened my eyes. In it, he details his recent experience with a series of Las Vegas AAU tournaments. He writes:

Yes, there are benefits to having so many players in one location, but lets stop spreading the false impression to gullible parents that by playing their sons are suddenly going to be on the recruiting radar.Most of the time, college coaches, wearing shirts with school logos and school colors, showed up at games as babysitters, simply letting kids they have been recruiting for months know they support them. Michigan State Coach Tom Izzo watched a game in which Michigan high school players were performing. Louisiana State Coach Trent Johnson watched a game involving a team from New Orleans. Washington Coach Lorenzo Romar watched a team from Seattle. North Carolina Coach Roy Williams watched Tar Heels commit John Henson.As I tell parents every day, serious student-athletes wanting to play in college are going to start contacting coaches their freshman year. Chances are, the coaches who are at your showcase are watching the athletes that have been contacting them. Think about it this way: Would you, as a coach or a recruiter, spend money to travel to a showcase without knowing what kind of talent that’s going to be there? Probably not.Sondheimer details the story of Ray Penn, a guard from Richmond, Texas, who scored more than 35 points in three games during the one of the tournaments. And although he got some phone calls a few days later, they weren’t from the big institutions. As Sondheimer writes:

The problem was, coaches made plans before the tournament about who they would watch, and Penn wasn’t on the agenda.

Here’s another thing. Even if the college notices that you have athletic talent, without contacting them prior:

1. they have no idea who you are
2. they don’t know what kind of person you are
3. they don’t know if your performance that day is consistent or just a fluke
4. they don’t know if you’re even interested in their program

What’s the lesson here? “Showcases” aren’t called “Discoveries.” They provide a good opportunity to showcase your skills, but if you haven’t done anything to warrant a college’s attention before the showcase, don’t expect its attention after one.