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In the article about increasing athlete support by $2k/smester, there was a throw away paragraph at the end that disturbes me:

Emmert said he would also bring a proposal to the board - probably in January but possibly as early as this week - for a freshman "academic redshirt" model where some students would receive athletic scholarships but not participate in sports. They would spend a year of academic preparation getting their grades up to where they need to be.

Can someone tell me exactly what the hell this means? Are some schools now going to be able to admit non-qualifiers and let them get their academic feet under them (read: pass them through athlete friendly majors)?

If that is the goal of this proposal, this could be a huge blow to any school like SMU that has some semblance of admission standards. No more Morelands like last year because he would just go to a school that would accept him under this proposal.

I would be okay with a rule where all freshman have an academic red shirt, better for the sport and the kids.

RE Tycoon wrote:In the article about increasing athlete support by $2k/smester, there was a throw away paragraph at the end that disturbes me:

Emmert said he would also bring a proposal to the board - probably in January but possibly as early as this week - for a freshman "academic redshirt" model where some students would receive athletic scholarships but not participate in sports. They would spend a year of academic preparation getting their grades up to where they need to be.

Can someone tell me exactly what the hell this means? Are some schools now going to be able to admit non-qualifiers and let them get their academic feet under them (read: pass them through athlete friendly majors)?

If that is the goal of this proposal, this could be a huge blow to any school like SMU that has some semblance of admission standards. No more Morelands like last year because he would just go to a school that would accept him under this proposal.

I would be okay with a rule where all freshman have an academic red shirt, better for the sport and the kids.

Like the olden days when freshmen were not permitted to participate in Varsity sports.

Yes that's exactly what it means and SMU should strongly fight any such move. Its just like the deemphasis of the SAT/ACT minimums. If they aren't going to change the sliding scale minimums it might have some validity for those with say less than a 2.5 GPA/800 SAT but good luck getting BCS teams to agree.

Looks like we are getting real close to "hiring" college athletes.

Would that mean 6 to play 4?

Sounds like it would be similar to a Gray Shirt, but the player would actually be on scholarship. Probably throwing schools a bone to compensate for the new APR rules (which we are not in good shape for at the moment.)

I think that would actually help at a school like SMU where many players would not be able to pay their own way during a gray shirt year.

you mean non-qualifier-a greyshirt is not necessarily an academically at risk kid-he's just not usually physically ready

oh. I see what you are saying now about the admission standards, if this is a move back to something like the prop 48.

If it is something you can use for maybe a borderline kid, or could use in any year if a kid is getting in academic trouble, then I could see where it would be a good thing though.

just reinforcing that college athletics is "semi-pro" ball