TDG News 9-10-08
'Special' treatment for athletes
Little accountability: Only schools know how far they bend admission requirements and how many such
students graduate
Mark Alesia, Indianapolis Star, 7 September 2008
[NOTE: See also the graphic at: http://www.indystar.com/assets/pdf/BG11722497.PDF]
Former Indiana University football coach Gerry DiNardo doesn't recall any battles to get recruits into school,
including the 42 percent of his first class that didn't meet IU's normal entrance requirements.
As at Louisiana State, where DiNardo also coached, he said if players met the NCAA's minimum academic
standards, he could count on them being admitted.
DiNardo said there's nothing wrong with these so-called "special admits" -- as long as schools think the players can
graduate with adequate tutoring. But he's frank about the situation.
"We know they're not qualified academically," said DiNardo, now a commentator for the Big Ten Network, "so our
obligation extends past what it is for a non-student-athlete."
It can be a heavy obligation. Many of the nation's largest universities rely on special admits -- students admitted
under exceptions to normal admission standards for reasons including "special talent" -- to stock their football
teams, an Indianapolis Star study of 55 universities found. At these schools, the percentage of special admits
among students overall is extremely small.
The disparity can be stark: The University of California in 2004 reported that 95 percent of its freshman football
players on scholarship were special admits, compared with 2 percent of the student body. Others: Texas A&M in
2004, 94 percent to 8 percent; and Oklahoma in 2002, 81 percent to 2 percent.
It is a phenomenon that has gone largely unstudied and unchecked nationally. There are no NCAA limits on special
admits, nor are there national statistics on their use, including how many of the students graduate or how far below
normal academic requirements some schools are willing to go.
Myles Brand, president of the Indianapolis-based NCAA and former IU president, said he was surprised at the
predominance of special admits in football when told of The Star's findings.
There isn't even a common definition for special admits. Some schools that say they have none acknowledge that
sports talent can help an academically marginal student gain admission.
Derek Van Rheenen, director of the University of California's Athletic Study Center, which advises student athletes,
said his school was strict in accounting for special admits. He decried others for a lack of transparency.
It's "incredibly cloak and dagger," he said. "Just admit what you're doing."
Schools use 'special admits' to remain competitive
The Star's study, amassed through public records requests and Internet searches, was based on schools' most
recent certification report to the NCAA, anywhere from 1998 to 2007. (The reports are staggered among schools
and required every 10 years.)
Of the 55 public schools in the six biggest sports conferences, 31 reported having special admits, 16 reported
having none and eight either didn't respond or didn't provide information. Private schools are not required to
respond to such requests.
Purdue was among the schools that reported having none, though it said athletes with a marginal academic record,
as well as other such students with special talents, receive extra consideration.
IU's freshman football class this year has 13 special admits, faculty athletic representative Bruce Jaffee said. That's
out of 17 scholarship players, or 76 percent. The percentage of special admits among all IU students isn't available
yet, but last year it was less than 2 percent.
The reason for the preponderance of special admits in football is simple: Football is the financial engine for most
college athletic departments, and schools need such athletes to compete.
Special admits are also common in other college sports, particularly men's basketball, the other big money-maker.
Figures often are unavailable because of small sample sizes and student privacy laws, but former Georgetown
coach Craig Esherick knows what it's like to compete athletically at a school that admitted only 21 percent of all
applicants last year. (For comparison, IU admitted 70 percent).
Now a professor at George Mason University, Esherick had to make a case for each special admit to a committee.
He brought letters of support from the player's high school coaches, counselors and teachers.
"Anytime I went to that well," he said of special admits, "I understood my credibility was on the line."
Esherick also understood another reality: "Coaches have been told many times, 'If you don't win, you're going to get
fired.' I was never told, 'If you don't graduate players, you'll get fired.' "
NCAA's baseline for athletes to play: 2.0 GPA
Admissions standards and processes differ widely among schools. Flexibility appears to be the only constant.
Some schools give extra weight to legacy applicants, sons or daughters of alumni.
"It may be perfectly ethical to be lenient with (someone connected to) a huge donor, because those dollars will help
admit others to school," said Barmak Nassirian of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions
Officers.
Purdue's dean of admissions, Pam Horne, said she would give extra weight to an applicant from Wyoming, for
example, to promote geographic diversity. Athletic talent absolutely carries extra weight, she said.
"We are an academic institution," Horne said. "We're also a broader community where talent in the arts and sports
contributes to the campus."
Yet Brand acknowledges that admissions exceptions for special talent go more often to 240-pound linebackers than
to sweet-sounding sopranos.
The NCAA has a sliding scale for freshman athletic eligibility, based on grade-point averages in 16 core courses
(such as math, English and science) and standardized tests. There is a minimum GPA of 2.0, which would require an
SAT of 1,010. In a nod to what some believe is a culturally biased test, there is no minimum SAT score required. But
the lowest possible score requires a GPA higher than 3.55 for eligibility.
That standard is well below what many schools generally require of students.
Brand said the crucial question is "if, with appropriate help, (special admits) can succeed academically." In schools'
reports to the NCAA, in which they must explain the process for deciding whether to grant a student a special admit,
most echoed Brand.
University of Iowa's standard, for example, is "reasonable evidence that the applicant could earn a degree in five to
six years . . . if he or she effectively uses the available academic support and other services."
How low some schools will go is unclear. Aside from the NCAA minimums, no school reported absolute numbers --
SAT, ACT or GPA -- under which a student wouldn't be admitted. That leaves a lot of room for subjective decisions.
USA Today reported in December that Florida International University football coach Mario Cristobal had it written
into his contract that the school would admit any athlete based on the NCAA minimum standards regardless of
school standards.
Speaking this year at a panel about college football issues, Florida State President T.K. Wetherell said: "It's not
uncommon for a coach to come over and say, 'You've got to let this one in. He can go to Washington or Ohio State.'
And I'm sure somebody at Ohio State is saying, 'You've got to let him in because he can go to Florida State.' Well,
that's probably true on any one given (player), but (coach) Bobby (Bowden) has got a list of 25 of them that he
wants. I say, 'Wait a minute. We can't handle 25.' "
Others are more critical of the use of special admits.
Former Notre Dame football player Allen Sack, a University of New Haven management professor and author of
"Counterfeit Amateurs," said admitting academically underprepared athletes is dubious at any school "especially if
they must give most of their waking hours to highly commercialized college sport."
"If, as it appears, special admits have become a permanent feature of big-time college sports -- without which
schools could simply not compete -- it is time to (institute) freshman ineligibility for any athlete that is academically at
risk," Sack said.
Because there are no national statistics on graduation rates for special admits, it's difficult to judge the degree to
which schools are educating these athletes.
Jaffee said IU had 58 athletic special admits from 1991 to 1998. Of those, 27 graduated (47 percent) within six years
and 16 others left IU in good academic standing (28 percent). He called the results pretty decent. Jaffee also said
the school's special admit, or "faculty sponsorship," program was recognized during a summer meeting of his Big
Ten peers as the "most transparent with the most faculty input."
In their NCAA filings, California and Florida reported that special admits in sports performed as well as other special
admits, but they offered no comparison to the general student body. California said all special admits had just below
a 2.8 GPA.
NCAA committee is looking into 'special admits'
The NCAA makes schools accountable for their athletes through the Academic Progress Rate, which measures term-
by-term retention and eligibility, and can lead to scholarship losses for individual teams. Also, an NCAA committee
looking at special admits, which it calls "at-risk students," is trying to get "a better understanding of the issues
involved and the ability to articulate those issues on a national basis," Brand said.
But he and others are steadfast in saying the NCAA has no business telling schools whom they can admit.
University of Hartford President Walt Harrison, chairman of the NCAA's Committee on Academic Performance,
recalled his time as a vice president at the University of Michigan. "The standard drumbeat at Michigan was that so-
and- so is playing somewhere else -- usually football at Ohio State -- and they couldn't get into Michigan," Harrison
said. "It's up to Ohio State to determine its own entrance requirements."
Two years ago, an NCAA task force of university presidents recommended that schools establish their own maximum
number of special admits for athletes "to alleviate suspicion that student-athlete admissions is based more on the
need to recruit winning teams than on academic integrity." An NCAA spokesman said he wasn't aware of any
schools that had adopted the policy.
Asked whether an entire football recruiting class of special admits would be OK, with appropriate help, Brand
replied, "I suppose that's a logical possibility, but that doesn't sound like a reasonable way to proceed."
Getting into Vanderbilt with an SAT score of 710
DiNardo gave an example of how the system can work.
The former IU coach started his career at Vanderbilt, a highly selective private school in the Southeastern
Conference, widely regarded as the nation's top football conference. He said he had to present most of his recruits
to a special committee, but in four years it rejected "maybe one or two guys I really wanted."
One of his recruits had an excellent high school grade-point average -- at a school with a poor reputation because
of low attendance rates -- but a lowly 710 on his SAT.
"No way an average student gets admitted to Vanderbilt with a 710 SAT," DiNardo said. "I had letters from the coach
and teacher saying he never missed a day of class. He was admitted, he was one of our better players and he
graduated. That's the way the process is supposed to work."
Jaffee is chairman of the committee of four faculty members who review athletic special admits at IU. He said that,
except at highly selective schools, special admits are by definition people who were rejected because they probably
wouldn't graduate under normal circumstances.
"We know the graduation rate is not going to be 100 percent," Jaffee said. "But we sure want to get more than 10
percent."
HOW DECISIONS ARE MADE
IU: FACULTY PANEL CHIEF LOOKS FOR A GOOD CITIZEN, AN ENTHUSIASTIC COACH
A committee of four faculty members, chaired by business Professor Bruce Jaffee, meets four times a year to decide
on IU's special admits, which the school calls "faculty sponsorships."
The coach who wants a player admitted writes a letter of support but almost never shows up in person. An athletic
department administrator presents the case.
Jaffee said the player should be a good citizen interested in getting an education. The coach, he said, should be
enthusiastic about enforcing clear standards for class attendance and grades.
The committee approved 13 recruits in football for this year and rejected one, Jaffee said. There were 32 recruits
approved in all sports.
Altogether, there are 158 faculty sponsorships among freshmen this year in a class expected to be more than 7,400.
IU's renowned music school also regularly uses the program. This year, there were more special admits in music
than sports.
"Just like we're in trouble if we can't find a punter, they're in trouble if they can't find a bassoonist," Jaffee said.
PURDUE: COMMITTEE CONSIDERS STUDENTS WHO MAY NEED ACADEMIC SUPPORT
Similar to officials at other schools that report having no special admits, Purdue dean of admissions Pam Horne
acknowledges that athletic talent can help a student gain entrance.
Horne said the Admissions Committee, of which she is chairwoman, decides on applications from students with
"special experiences and talents" who "may need to benefit from academic support to ensure success."
She said five to 10 Purdue athletic recruits per year go to the Admissions Committee, and that "certainly not all are
admitted."
Horne estimated that 5 percent of all freshman and transfer applications go to the Admissions Committee, including
students with an unusual combination of test scores and grades. "More than half" are admitted, she said, though
she did not have specific numbers.
Horne said Purdue looks at an applicant's entire record, not hard thresholds. (IU says it doesn't have thresholds,
either, but unlike Purdue, its published admissions standards give general guidance on class rank and, starting in
2011, GPA and SAT scores.)
What about Purdue's athletes whose applications didn't go to the Admissions Committee? Would all of them have
been admitted without their talent in sports? "I can't necessarily say that because of the extraordinary contribution
we expect them to make to Purdue's community," Horne said. "It's not unheard of for the glee club director to ask me
to give a special look to a tenor."
U freshmen post lowest reported ACTs in conference
Dennis Brackin, Minneapolis Star Tribune, 26 August 2008
The eligibility issues surrounding prized recruit MarQueis Gray typify the academic question marks associated with
the first full recruiting class of Gophers football coach Tim Brewster, according to data obtained by the Star Tribune.
Gray was the centerpiece of a group of 31 February signees that was ranked among the nation's top 20 by several
recruiting services. But high-ranking university officials admit it was also a class filled with academic concerns.
The Star Tribune requested college entrance scores for incoming freshman football players from every Big Ten
school last summer under the nation's Freedom of Information Act.
Minnesota's freshman class had the lowest scores among the eight Big Ten programs that complied with the
request, and the scores were significantly lower than for the recruiting classes in the final years of Glen Mason, who
coached the Gophers from 1997 to 2006.
The test score data does not include Minnesota's seven junior college signees -- an unusually high number -- that
school officials said represent a greater academic risk than the incoming freshmen. Six of the seven JC signees
were non-qualifiers academically after graduating from high school -- lower grades and test scores disqualified them
from receiving an athletic scholarship directly after graduating from high school.
"I think we know from the beginning, by looking at the numbers, that we have some academically disadvantaged and
challenged kids," Minnesota athletic director Joel Maturi said in an interview discussing the data in late July. "There's
no question [about it]. ... But we believe we have the necessary support to allow them to be successful, or they
wouldn't be here."
Gray, a 6-4, 215-pound freshman quarterback from Indianapolis, has been dropped from the program at least
temporarily while the NCAA Eligibility Center reviews his academic records. Gray's college entrance scores were red-
flagged because of a dramatic increase from previous test scores, according to persons familiar with the situation.
What the numbers mean
Among the findings from the data request:
• Minnesota's average ACT test score in February at signing day was 17.2 (combining ACT scores and ACT-
equivalent scores for players who took the SAT). The next-lowest score among the eight conference teams
responding was Indiana at 17.8. Several Gophers recruits retook the test in June, raising the average ACT for the
recruiting class to 17.78, but the second set of scores didn't include the low score of one recruit who was not
admitted, and includes Gray's scores that are currently under review.
• The average ACT equivalent among nine Gophers recruits taking the SAT was 15, an extremely low ACT score.
ACT administrators consider a student to be college-ready if they score at least 18 on the English portion of the
test, 21 on reading, 22 on math and 24 on science. Any student scoring below 18 generally requires remedial help
in college.
• Mason, who was repeatedly criticized for low graduation rates during his tenure as Gophers coach, had an
average ACT score of 19 for five recruiting classes between 2001 and 2005, according to data collected by the Star
Tribune in 2006.
Several of the February signees already have encountered academic problems. Junior college transfer Tim McGee
and high school recruit Vince Hill did not gain admission to Minnesota. Linebacker Spencer Reeves, like Gray, is
unable to practice because of eligibility issues being examined by the NCAA Eligibility Center. Reeves and Gray
would have been true freshmen this fall.
A history of problems
The university football program has been plagued by graduation rates ranked at or near the bottom of the Big Ten
for at least a decade. The Gophers were ranked 11th and 10th in the Big Ten in the latest two NCAA Graduation
Success Rate studies (measuring six-year graduation rates). In both years Minnesota and Michigan State ranked at
the bottom of the Big Ten, and were the only conference schools failing to graduate at least 50 percent of their
football players.
The Gophers football program scored 927 -- two points above a level that might have resulted in a loss of
scholarships -- in last year's NCAA Academic Progress Report that measures eligibility and retention of current
athletes. The number was below the national average of 931 for Division I football programs and ranked 10th in the
Big Ten.
The university has dramatically increased its college entrance scores in recent years for the general student
population; the average admitted freshman last year had a 25.9 ACT score, and the number is expected to top 26
this year. But the entrance scores for football players have declined during the coaching transition from Mason to
Brewster.
Robert McMaster, university vice provost and dean of undergraduate education, and Maturi said they are not
automatically alarmed by low college entrance scores. The university relies on a holistic admissions philosophy in
which entrance scores and high school grades are only two components considered in the process.
The key stat with at-risk students, McMaster and Maturi said, is not the ACT score but the ultimate graduation rate
of the recruiting class.
McMaster said he believes the university has programs in place to help at-risk students, whether they are athletes
or not. The athletic academic counseling unit has expanded in the past couple of years, and the university last year
instituted a Bridge to Academic Success program. That program brings at-risk students to campus during the
summer before their freshman year and takes them through a couple of courses to provide a preview of college life.
"Last year was the first year of the program, and we saw that the kids who came into the Bridge, both athletes and
non-athletes, did really well," McMaster said. "We're really trying to enhance the programs like this to help at-risk
students ... and provide that extra support."
Maturi said he pays attention to the academic profile of recruits, but said: "I'm not hung up on that. ... Obviously, I will
be hung up about the [graduation] success rate, and we need to make sure that everybody that comes here will
have the chance to graduate."
Need to improve
The Gophers finished 1-11 last season and had one of the nation's worst defenses, demonstrating the need to
quickly upgrade the team's talent level with Brewster's first recruiting class.
Brewster declined to be interviewed for the story.
Said Maturi: "When you're 1-11, you know, you put yourself in a position where your [talent] pool is not as great.
That's just reality."
Brewster turned to the junior college ranks, especially for help on defense. Of the six JC players who are new to the
team this year, five are defensive players. Maturi admits that bringing six JC players into the program in a single
year is an unusually high number, and agreed it's a stopgap measure intended to provide immediate improvement.
Maturi acknowledges there are risks for a school struggling to simultaneously improve its football team and its
players' graduation rate.
"We know statistically that junior college kids don't always succeed academically, and that's our biggest concern," he
said. "Our coach knows that, and our staff knows that. But I think the reality is that when you're 1-11, you're looking
for some immediate improvement in certain positions."
McMaster and Maturi agreed that as entrance scores for the general student population continue to rise, at-risk
athletes will find it more difficult to compete in the classroom.
But Minnesota finds itself in a difficult cycle. As long as the football team continues to struggle -- the school has not
been to a New Year's Day bowl game since 1962, the longest such drought in the Big Ten -- it will be difficult to
attract elite student- athletes. And if the school mandates dramatic upgrades in the academic profiles of football
recruits, it's more likely the cycle of losing will remain unbroken.
And make no mistake, college athletics is big business. University officials admit there is pressure to win at a time
when the school is building a new on-campus stadium set to open in 2009.
Winning, in fact, is the cure-all for all things, including recruiting a better caliber of student-athletes.
"The more successful we get athletically, I think the larger pool we'll get of better athletes," Maturi said. "I believe
that's probably a natural progression."
The problem facing the Gophers: How do you get to that point?
Opinion
Tackling college football fantasy leagues
NCAA rules are clear: college athletes are amateurs and should not be part of these new business
enterprises.
By William E. Kirwan and R. Gerald Turner, August 30, 2008
This weekend, Terrapins, Trojans, Mustangs and more take to the gridiron, kicking off the college football season.
This week also marks the start of a new era in college football, one in which fantasy leagues run by commercial
entities exploit college players as their virtual game pieces.
These online fantasy leagues, which use the real names and statistics of collegiate athletes, raise a crucial question
for higher education leaders: Is it amateurism in college sports that has become a fantasy?
The National Collegiate Athletic Assn. -- the organization of colleges, universities and conferences that governs
sports programs -- has long upheld the principle of amateurism. NCAA bylaws establish that students participating in
college sports "should be protected from exploitation by professional and commercial enterprises." Clearly, these
fantasy contests violate that tenet.
To fulfill its fundamental purpose of retaining a "clear line of demarcation between college athletics and professional
sports," the NCAA and its member universities need to combat these infringements on athletes' rights and the
principles of amateur sports.
Fantasy games allow fans to draft a personal "dream team" of players that earns points based on the real
performances of chosen players. There are many such start-up games online, but CBS Sports' is the most
prominent. That raises particularly thorny questions for the NCAA and its member institutions because the network
essentially funds the NCAA through a broadcast contract worth half a billion dollars a year.
Although CBS Sports' Fantasy College Football is free, other companies charge entry fees of up to $19.95 a team
and offer cash prizes of up to $25,000 for winning teams. One company goes so far as to assign salaries to top-
rated college players because its game requires each team to stay under a pay cap.
The Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, on which we serve as co-chairmen, is opposed to the use of
players' names and statistics in these games and has urged the NCAA board of directors to explore possible
remedies, either legal or contractual.
Since it was founded in 1989, the commission, which consists of university presidents and trustees and former
college athletes, has advocated policies that protect college athletes from commercial exploitation. We believe that
the creation of college sports fantasy leagues, if unchecked, is a step toward undermining the NCAA's bedrock
amateurism principles, which require colleges and their business partners to treat athletes like other students and
not as commodities whose names, likenesses and/or images can be sold or licensed.
NCAA rules allow the names and images of athletes to be used only to promote their teams and their games. In fact,
neither the NCAA nor the universities acquire any other publicity rights to athletes; they simply cannot license the
use of their names or images -- not to fantasy leagues, not to video game companies, not to sportswear companies.
However, CBS Sports and other fantasy league operators believe that they have found a loophole. A recent court
ruling found that Major League Baseball players' names and stats are not owned by the individual players or the
leagues, but instead are in the public domain. This ruling was made by the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in a
case involving Major League Baseball Advanced Media and a fantasy league operator. The court decision
describes these professional players as being "handsomely" compensated and able to earn "additional large sums"
through endorsement contracts.
Legal scholars disagree about whether this ruling applies to amateur athletes who are not compensated for their
participation and cannot earn money from endorsements.
We believe that the NCAA, universities and college athletes should take firm positions that this ruling does not apply
to amateur sports -- and that all those groups should contact fantasy game operators to formally demand they stop
using students' names in these games. Unless the courts clearly decide that amateur athletes' names can be used
without consent and for purely commercial purposes, the NCAA and universities have the responsibility to stand up
for their athletes and the amateurism principles that should guide college sports.
William E. Kirwan is the chancellor of the university system of Maryland. R. Gerald Turner is the president of
Southern Methodist University in Dallas. They co-chair the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics.
NFL, Trade Groups Fight Pay Disclosures
Martin Vaughan, Wall Street Journal, 25 August 2008
WASHINGTON -- The National Football League and a trade-association umbrella group are asking Congress to
prevent salaries of association executives from becoming public when new Internal Revenue Service disclosure
rules go into effect next year.
New instructions for Form 990, which nonprofit organizations must file annually, require that trade associations
report salaries for "key employees" who earn more than $150,000 a year.
The instructions, set by the IRS last Tuesday, define a key employee as one who had responsibility for 10% of an
organization's activities. The IRS bumped that percentage up from 5% in earlier guidance, in response to complaints
from nonprofits that the IRS definition of a key employee was too broad.
Trade associations will only have to report salaries for their 20 highest-earning employees who exceed both
thresholds of $150,000 in annual salary and responsibility for 10% of activities.
Charities, organized under 501(c)(3) of the tax code, have long been required to report salaries for their top
executives. But the new rules will sharply expand the extent to which disclosure requirements apply to 501(c)(6)
organizations, largely trade associations.
Unlike personal and partnership tax returns, information from Form 990 is available to the public.
That has caused the NFL and the American Society of Association Executives to complain that the new IRS
requirements are an invasion of privacy.
Martin Gold, who represents the NFL for the law firm Covington & Burling, said the league's members already have
access to executive-salary information. "To the people that have to know how their dues are being spent, that
information is available and other people have nothing to do with it," he said in an interview.
The IRS says tax-exempt groups -- whether charities or trade associations -- have a responsibility to pay
compensation at fair value and to be transparent about costs.
"Transparency and accountability to the public is key to the system working," said Ron Schultz, senior technical
adviser at the IRS's Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division.
But Mr. Gold draws a distinction between charities, which are financed by tax-deductible donations, and an
association like the NFL, whose member teams pay taxes.
"We're not a charity and we pay taxes. Therefore, I don't think that the public is subsidizing us," he said.
The NFL and the ASAE are seeking legislation to ensure that even if salaries for top employees are disclosed to the
IRS, they will be redacted in information made available to the public.
They have made their case to staff from the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means committees. They have
also approached Reps. Chris Van Hollen (D., Md.) and Jim Moran (D. Va.), who count among their constituents
scores of trade associations in the Washington suburbs.
The salary-disclosure requirements are just one part of a major redesign of the 990 form and instructions that has
won broad support from charities, foundations, hospitals and other nonprofits affected by the changes.
The new form will affect most nonprofits when they file 2008 information early next year, by a May 15 deadline.