Division II football

Neill McGeachy, director of athletics 

Lenoir-Rhyne College

Charlotte Observer

Discussing potential legislation in Division II that would create a second championship bracket in football:

“Dividing it into two tiers, you’re going into a nomenclature that I don’t really like. It might be perceived as a second division of something that’s already called Division II.”

The collegiate model

Adam de Jong, student writer

Daily Bruin (University of California, Los Angeles, student publication)

Discussing the integrity of the student-athlete in big-time sports:

“There’s nothing more insulting than being told that it is all about creating strong young adults who use their God-given abilities to get a top-notch education. In this God-fearing land of ours, college sports start and end with that smirk on Benjamin Franklin’s face. And when we pretend this is not true, the student-athletes are the ones to suffer.

“These are young men and women, barely out of high school, who get blamed for the money-making schemes of the colleges. Why should they be singled out? If athletes think they are only at college to win games, it’s because that’s what everyone is telling them to do.”

Transfer issues

John Shulman, head men’s basketball coach 

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Chattanooga Times and Free Press

Discussing the culture of transfers in men’s basketball and how it affects Academic Progress Rates:

“(The culture is that) the grass is always greener. There’s always more playing out there, more shots to take out there. We won 20 games (last year), went to the NCAA tournament and kids still left the program.

“You either want to be part of a winning program, or your goals are to play and you don’t care about the program. ...

“There isn’t one Division I coach who goes into the season not expecting to lose (a player to transfer). This is the landscape of college basketball. ...

“I do worry about the APR, but I’m not going to let our program be run by the APR. I’m not going to keep a kid here just to appease the APR.”

Bob McKillop, head men’s basketball  coach

Davidson College

Chattanooga Times and Free Press

“The culture, the landscape of our society seeds (the transfer) mentality. A kid who plays for an AAU team, if he doesn’t play enough on one team, then he changes teams.

“The kids who were given that sense of entitlement early think they have it (in college).”

Fifth-year eligibility

Joel Maturi, athletics director 

University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

St. Paul Pioneer Press

“The reality of it is the NCAA is trying to enact more legislation that affects all sports and not so much making rules sport-specific. But also in reality, there are more (football players) redshirting and staying five years, and financial aid generally works on a schedule of four-plus years. So there are a lot of reasons a fifth year of eligibility makes sense.”

Division III financial aid

Mike Murphy, men’s lacrosse coach

Haverford College

The New York Times

“Colleges just buy athletes for their programs. It’s become especially true for athletes with good academic credentials. If you’re a school that’s in the top 50 academically and you can get an athlete who’s qualified for the top 20 schools academically by upping that kid’s financial package, you’ve not only added a good athlete, you’ve added higher SAT scores and a higher GPA to your incoming class. That’s good for your U.S. News & World ranking, too.”