Academic support for the AD (applies to football and basketball)

[Buffnik]

There's a lot of misperception of CU Admissions and Academic Support out there and I wanted to help clear some things up.

In the past, the AD did not do a good job of working with these groups. Then, following the "scandal" during the Barnett years, a bit of an adversarial environment that was created. Then, Hawkins came in not understanding the process or need to work with Admissions and Academic Support (Boise State is like Kansas State with the guys it can get in and keep eligible. Before that Hawk wasn't even at a D1 program).

But things have changed.

DiStefano is a friend to the AD and wants cooperation. This makes a big difference. He was the faculty athletic rep for the Big 12 for a lot of years before becoming Chancellor of the Boulder campus. He gets it on this issue.

Bohn has really emphasized funding Academic Support for our athletes. He has secured some major donations in this area and our athletes now have a lot more resources at their disposal than they ever have.

Embree completely gets this. He works with Admissions and Academic Support more than maybe any football coach we've ever had. Same goes for Boyle.

One of the big places we see a change is with recruiting. If a guy has an offer, you can be confident that his transcript has been screened and our head coach has been told where the player is as far as being able to get into CU. If the player comes for a visit, you know that the prospect has a test score that is expected to be good enough to get through the NCAA Clearinghouse.

Now, this may mean that the player still has work to do. A lot can be accomplished during the senior year in high school with the core requirements needed for admission. But when they show up for their visit, we know exactly what they need. In fact, a big part of official visits for both football and basketball is time spent with CU academic advisors to lay this out. Not only what they need to do with the rest of their high school years, but a lot of information on CU programs of study and what a degree path would be. This information can be general or tailored to the prospect if he has indicated he wants to major in a particular area or is thinking about a couple.

In basketball, everyone has been getting in for several years now. Also, no one has lost eligibility for academic suspension in years (although we did have one on the women's side during the fall last year). Every single football player was eligible for this season and only 1 player from last year's class did not make it through the NCAA Clearinghouse (we were able to advise him on selecting a JUCO).

Also, the process of figuring out admittance with JUCOs is now working. CU will always have challenges here since we don't accept "D" grades from transfers like some schools do and we don't have some courses as part of the university academic programs (PE and some general studies) so those courses can't transfer in. But the idea that we can't admit JUCO transfers is incorrect. We just can't take as many as some programs and if our coaches work with Admissions, they know whether they should recruit a particular guy.

Last, I know that not everyone here subscribes to a premium site. But if you do, you would be seeing the full interviews with guys immediately after their CU visits. Pretty much every time, the prospect is now bringing up that he had a great meeting with CU academic advisors and that it was one of the highlights of the visit. Not only has the complaint or excuse of CU Admissions and Academic Support being an obstacle become an antiquated notion, it goes beyond that. This is becoming a strength that is making a positive difference for CU athletics. This is a major change and I wanted to post this so that folks got the credit they deserve.

Hopefully some people with more first-hand experience can add to what I have posted.

 

[Darth Snow]

if they are getting CU academic advisors on board... They are making miracles happen. Most worthless group I ever had the misfortune to deal with.

 

[slider]

So no more paying for recruits' visits to find out they don't have the scores when they get here?

 

[Heywood]

thanks nik!

glad to see we are doing it the right way and turning a negative into a positive!

 

[White_Rabbit]

SO you're sayin' we can get Tyler Hasty and Will Jackson in?

 

[Mick Ronson]

DiStefano is a friend to the AD and wants cooperation.

more or less, this is something i've been saying for a long time. it was way too easy to firebomb the guy around here over the Hawkins situation where a lot of hearsay became "truth". i'm glad to see the attention being paid to this and it sounds productive. as a teacher and grad student (teacher, TA) at CU for almost 15 years...my experiences with the Herbst Center (AD academic support) were mostly very inconsistent (shoddy attention to attendance paperwork for away trips re: excused absences...that's not the profs problem to compensate for after the fact when the student/athlete doesn't provide the proper paperwork to miss classes), unimpressive, and often times outright sketchy in Honor Code ways.

 

[CUFan]

thanks nik!

glad to see we are doing it the right way and turning a negative into a positive!

A negative times a negative equals a positive. Say it!

 

[buffaholic]

If the player comes for a visit, you know that the prospect has a test score that is expected to be good enough to get through the NCAA Clearinghouse.

correction there buffnik - If a player comes for an "official" visit, he HAS ALREADYachieved a qualifying test score and been cleared by the NCAA Clearinghouse, by rule.

If the player is on an unofficial visit, he's paying for it, and he may or may not have any chance of getting into CU or any other 4-year institution....

Thanks for making this post and clearing this up. You stated it all much clearer than I might have!

 

[Buffnik]

correction there buffnik - If a player comes for an "official" visit, he HAS ALREADYachieved a qualifying test score and been cleared by the NCAA Clearinghouse, by rule.

If the player is on an unofficial visit, he's paying for it, and he may or may not have any chance of getting into CU or any other 4-year institution....

Thanks for making this post and clearing this up. You stated it all much clearer than I might have!

Then how does a situation like Rashad Hall happen?

 

[buffaholic]

Then how does a situation like Rashad Hall happen?

I stand corrected. The way you said it was exactly correct.

The NCAA Initial Clearinghouse only collects and verifies the ACT/SAT scores, GPA, core class fulfillment status, etc. They then clear the student and make this information available to interested schools. They have not at this point ruled if they qualify. (I thought they did, having had my own kids go thru this a few years ago - but evidently, they just verify the paperwork and don't make a judgment at this point in time).

Schools look at this data and determine if the kid is on track. The kid must have "cleared" the NCAA's clearinghouse to take an official visit. Each school makes their own judgment at this point.

CU would have seen that Rashad Hall was borderline. They can bring him in knowing that his "qualifying score" is dependent on his final GPA, or thinking he could improve his test scores.

CU wasn't the only school that gave him an OV, so I'd guess it was real close. Since the sliding scale is based on two variables (test score and GPA), both of which are subject to change after the OV's begin, all the schools can do is "project". In the end, the NCAA will make a declaration.

Worth noting that the "judgement" a school makes is influenced by how well recruiting is going. Alabama isn't going to take too many chances since their number of OV's is limited. CU at this point in time, might roll the dice a little more....

 

[Buffnik]

Thanks, buffaholic. I thought I had that right, but I wasn't sure. Good info.

 

[somebody]

I agree, I forget this stuff all the time, too. I was going to suggest this be added to our recruiting info thread, but I looked first and of course, it's already in the Recruitpedia. ymssra, so advertising will have to do. :thumbsup:

 

[DBT]

I've got a question for you guys "in the know." After "the scandal," Bitsy, with the cooperation of GB, implimented very strict recruiting guidlines. Most of those, such as amount of time on campus, have since been repealed. There is one restriction that I haven't heard much about since then. That one is the "academic window" change. The way I understand it, and correct me if I'm wrong, the school, overall, will allow a certain number of students in, like 10%, who do not otherwise qualify if those students exhibit other qualities that will make them an asset to the school. The way I understand it, athletics could admit scholarship athletes using this "window." At the time, the number they could admit was fairly much unrestricted. But, under Bitsy, it was changed so that the percentage of athletes admitted through the academic window could only be the same percentage as the general school population. So, if it is 10% and we bring in 20 athletes, only 2 can be admitted through the window. I also have been under the impression that this is much more restrictive than, say, Cal. Am I right or wrong on this? Please clarify any misconception I may have.