WASHINGTON, D.C. — Prospective, current and former NCAA student-athletes gathered on the campus of George Washington University January 30 to share their athletics and educational experiences in a summit sponsored by the Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics.

The one-day summit included three sessions, all of which were taped and are available online at www.fc-tv.com/webcasts/knight.asp.

Knight Commission members and an audience of about 100 listened to first-hand accounts and opinions from panelists on the subjects of recruiting, performance-enhancing substances and student-athlete life.

The goal of the summit was to provide a forum during which real-life issues that affect student-athletes could be shared with those from the academic community.

One of the most informative conversations came during the recruiting session when prospective student-athletes Myron Rolle and Scottie Reynolds and former basketball student-athlete Ruth Riley spoke of their experiences while being recruited.

Rolle, who graduated in December with a 4.000 grade-point average from The Hun School in Princeton, New Jersey, already is enrolled at Florida State University, where he will take part in spring football practice. He is considered one of the top football recruits in the nation, and he received 83 scholarship offers from Division I universities.

A defensive back with plans to be a neurosurgeon, Rolle said it was common for him to see three or four coaches per day at his high school. He characterized the entire process as “intense.”

“There was an assistant coach from one university at my school more than my (high school) coach,” Rolle said. “He was at my school eating breakfast all the time.”

With the help of his family, Rolle narrowed his list to six finalists. Since he is an unusually diligent student, Rolle was introduced to the presidents of the universities he was considering.

 Current and former NFL players such as Emmitt Smith and Warren Sapp also happened to be on campus when he was making some of his official visits.

Another panelist, Kareem McKenzie, a former student-athlete at Pennsylvania State University and an offensive lineman for four years in the NFL, said it is easy for a high school prospect to be impressed with the glamour of the recruiting visits.

“When I was going to college, it was a matter of who had the biggest weight room or who had the most practice fields,” said McKenzie, who graduated in 31/2 years with a degree in business management. “When I look back on it, none of that stuff matters. It doesn’t matter how big the weight room is or how many fields you have for practice. You can only use one field at a time, one bench at a time and one squat at a time. The grandeur of it all doesn’t matter.”

Rolle said he chose Florida State because it offered the right mix of academics, exposure and comfort level with the coaching staff.

“The process was long, intense and sometimes overwhelming with the amount of phone calls I received from college coaches,” Rolle said. “It’s a lot of pressure. Fortunately, I had four older brothers and my parents who sheltered me from all of that.”

Rolle’s mother and father made every recruiting visit with their son. The family had a checklist of items that needed to be in order, and on September 1, 2005, he verbally committed to Florida State so he could enjoy his final season of prep football.

“It wasn’t an emotional decision,” Rolle said. “I had to make a business decision based on what I can do. I’m going through the exercise science program and through pre-med to eventually be a doctor. I want to be involved in the community in Tallahassee and prepare myself for the National Football League.”

Summer basketball issues

Reynolds, who attends Herndon High School in Virginia, signed early last fall to be a basketball student-athlete at the University of Oklahoma.

He wasn’t heavily recruited upon entering high school, but he quickly developed into a prospect soon afterward.

“I remember the first time I got a letter. It was from Clemson, and I ran out the gym and threw my hands up,” Reynolds said. “I was excited that I got one letter. I knew I had to get my books straight (to be eligible to play college basketball).”

Reynolds built his reputation as a player in the summer, which is the most important evaluation period in his sport.

He met former Duke University all-American Jay Williams at the NBA Development Camp last summer. Williams’ professional career is on hold because of injuries to his lower body from a motorcycle accident more than two years ago.

“Knowing (Williams’) story, I know I have to find something other than basketball to be happy and successful,” Reynolds said. “Talking to him inspired me even more (academically).”

If Knight Commission members weren’t already aware of the atmosphere of the summer travel basketball circuit, two other panelists — Reynolds’ father, Rick, and Joe Wooten, the boys’ basketball coach at Bishop O’Connell (Virginia) High School  — painted a less-than-rosy picture.

Rick Reynolds told one individual to stop portraying himself as his son’s summer travel team coach. Wooten said that he has heard of high school athletes and their families being offered up to $15,000 to play for summer travel teams.

“Money is exchanging hands well before college,” Wooten said. “Unless you have strong parents, it’s easy for a kid to get corrupted and think, ‘It’s all about me.’ ”

Knight Commission member Janet Hill, the mother of former Duke all-American Grant Hill, asked panelists for suggestions to improve the summer basketball situation.

Peter Roby, the director of Northeastern University’s Center for the Study of Sport in Society, believes the NCAA should consider sponsoring its own recruiting evaluation camps and restrict off-campus evaluations to only those camps and actual in-season games.

He also suggested sanctioned summer leagues that are monitored by the state high school associations, instead of summer travel teams sponsored by shoe companies or other entities.

“Like most solutions, this calls for collaborative action,” said Roby, who is a former executive at Reebok. “College presidents, state high school associations, parents, athletes, shoe companies and the NCAA must work together and do what’s in the best interest of the young athletes.”

Riley, who grew up in a rural Indiana town, said playing on a travel team in the summer helped her gain exposure and compete against a higher-level player than she would have otherwise. The eventual most outstanding player in the 2001 Women’s Final Four and her mother became overwhelmed by all the phone calls.

“It was like ‘The Dating Game’ in a way,” Riley said. “All these coaches are putting their best foot forward. You are trying to put your best foot forward, too, because you don’t know exactly where you want to go.”

She made her only official visit to South Bend, Indiana, and she knew right away it was the perfect fit for her student-athlete experience. However, that didn’t end the stressful part of the recruiting process.

“It’s also hard for a high school student to tell a college no,” said Riley, who was the most valuable player of the Women’s National Basketball Association finals in 2003 and an Olympic gold medalist in 2004. “You have these universities throwing a package at you, and it’s very difficult when you don’t know a lot about the university. You want to make the right decision. Some coaches don’t accept no very well.”

Life choices

The Knight Commission also heard about the choices student-athletes make when it comes to substance abuse, performance-enhancing drugs and violent behavior.

University of Florida football student-athlete Jemalle Cornelius told members about the effect of new coach Urban Meyer.

Cornelius said several of his teammates were involved in fights with fraternity members and alleged violence against women. Meyer stressed core values and had the football team go through the “Mentors in Violation Prevention” program, which was developed at Northeastern University.

“Student-athletes need to be hit with more real-life situations,” Cornelius said. “That’s what the program did. They showed us what battery, sexual assault and harassment is. They didn’t just read the definition, they gave us scenarios. ... You are going to be hit with these situations, and what values and what choices are you going to make? The program was good at giving us a plan.”

All 12 Southeastern Conference institutions will have facilitators from the Mentors in Violation Prevention visit their campuses annually. Roby hopes other conferences see the value in the program and implement it as well.

“We give them scenarios such as being at a party and seeing a teammate involved in something questionable. So what do you do?” Roby said. “We want them to engage in conversation on how they can approach it. It gives teammates permission to challenge each other regarding their behavior. We want to give guys critical-thinking skills, so when they see a situation like the one in the program, they have something to fall back on.”

Athletes express opinions on issues in college sports

One of the more compelling sessions during the Knight Commission’s student-athlete summit touched on the new Division I Academic Progress Rate, commercialism and grant-in-aid issues.

The session featured former student-athletes Mike Aguirre, (Arizona State University, football), Ian Gray (University of Nebraska, Lincoln, cross country and track), Tye Gunn (Texas Christian University, football), Molly McLaughlin (Ohio State University, lacrosse), Ruth Riley (University of Notre Dame, basketball) and current George Washington University soccer player Shari Taylor. Knight Commission member Len Elmore moderated the discussion.

Panelists applauded the APR, the real-time measure of academic success that rewards retention and progress toward degree on a term-by-term basis. But they also cautioned about the penalty phase in which scholarships can be reduced and postseason play compromised if a team doesn’t meet the standards.

“What is really important to student-athletes is that they aren’t unfairly punished due to activities of others,” said Aguirre, a former chair of the Division I Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. “I think that can create a challenge when you develop penalty structures for graduation rates and rules violations. We need to target the offenders. We need to hold coaches more accountable to recruiting the student-athlete who fits the profile of the institution.”

Panelists also addressed commercialism, which has long been a Knight Commission concern. NCAA President Myles Brand said in his State of the Association speech at the 2006 NCAA Convention that commercialism is good for intercollegiate athletics as long as it coincides with the mission of the university.

Riley said that in women’s basketball, a conscious effort is being made to continue the growth of the sport, and commercialism is a factor.

“I benefited from the sport becoming more commercialized,” said Riley, who graduated from Notre Dame in 2001. “It was amazing how far women’s basketball grew (in her four years of college). For me, it was a good thing. But my experience at Notre Dame and my experiences at the professional level are two completely different things.”

On the grant-in-aid issue, the student-athletes see a double standard, because their scholarships are renewed only on an annual basis. They believe that the scholarship should be for five years, which is the normal time it takes a student-athlete to exhaust his or her eligibility.

“I think it is unfair for us to sign for a (one-year) scholarship and be expected to stay four or five years,” said Gunn, a four-year starting quarterback at TCU. “But that can be taken from you. Coaches can leave whenever they want. I think if we were given that opportunity, it would give (student-athletes) a little more pull.”