Opinions

Five years of eligibility

Rodney Allison, head football coach
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Chattanooga Times Free Press

"It gives kids a better chance to graduate and also another year to play. You wouldn't have to worry about what kids you might redshirt or worry about redshirting a kid you may play later in the year."

John Swofford, commissioner
Atlantic Coast Conference
Miami Herald

"When a regular student is taking 4.8 years on the average to graduate, and you consider the demands on our athletes at this time, it's a reasonable approach. It may actually encourage some players that maybe have 12 hours left after playing four years and don't have eligibility left. Maybe that would push them through that last effort to graduate."

Recruiting proposals

Jeremy Foley, director of athletics
University of Florida
St. Petersburg Times

Discussing a package of recruiting reforms adopted by the Division I Board of Directors August 5:

"I think it's a good start, but it's not a conversation that ends right here."

Bobby Bowden, head football coach
Florida State University
St. Petersburg Times

"A lot of our problems are perpetrated by us coaches. We baby them. We give them this, we give them that. When I went to college, nobody told me what courses to take. Nobody told me where the library was. Now, we get the classes for them and then we check to see if they went to class and we do this and we do that."

Mal Moore, director of athletics,
University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa
Lexington Herald Leader

"The time on the campus, 48 hours, is important, rather than having them come in for one day. I think making a (college) decision like this is important, giving (prospective student-athletes) the opportunity to experience (the campus) a little bit, because it is a big decision. I would vote for, and have voted for, the use of private planes."

Vince Dooley, former director of athletics
University of Georgia
Lexington Herald Leader

Discussing the effect of a rule that prevents the use of private planes for official visits:

"You can cut back on a lot of things, but you can't cut back on football recruiting. You have to be competitive. Football has got to be the economic engine that drives the other sports. You can't skimp on that and be competitive."

Mark Richt, head football coach
University of Georgia
Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"Our concern is that if they have to go through Atlanta, instead of straight to Athens, they will miss the Saturday morning portion of the visit where we talk about academics."

Joe Tiller, head football coach
Purdue University
Chicago Tribune

"We have to rack our brains and see what we can do. I don't know if there's some consideration for a place that's located where we are. What we were doing was simply allowing us to compete with other schools in our conference. It wasn't giving us an edge."

Olympics

Bruce A. Wilson, academic advisor
University of Arizona
Chronicle of Higher Education

Discussing student-athletes in Olympic sports who choose to turn professional before they complete their collegiate eligibility:

"All in all, it seems that the current state of intercollegiate athletics provides a tough environment for those who choose to pursue Olympic dreams. Athletes (who have turned pro)get to work on their crafts full-time now that they are not intercollegiate athletes. Maybe this trend is a good thing -- student-athletes should be required to be as dedicated to school as they are to sport. And for Olympic hopefuls, or those aspiring to reach the NBA and NFL, pursuing these athletics goals in the current highly competitive global sports world is very difficult to do in the context of school sport."