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Football panel subdivides to hone academic focus
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By Greg Johnson
The NCAA News
The NCAA News
The NCAA Division I Football Issues Committee is forming four subcommittees to focus on academics, sportsmanship, sports wagering and minority hiring.
The committee, which met via conference call August 10, subdivided strategically to enhance the sport. Committee Chair Steve Pederson, athletics director at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, said members cited the four areas as primary to maintaining the sport’s success, and that attacking each in small groups would lead to better outcomes.
Football joins baseball and men’s basketball in a focused academic review. The latter two sports relied on specially appointed working groups to address low Academic Progress Rates. The baseball panel completed most of its work last spring, while the men’s basketball group has just begun to meet. Football’s three-year average APR score is 931, which is sandwiched between baseball (934) and men’s basketball (927).
“This is at the core of our mission,” Pederson said. “The purpose of the APR was not to punish teams for poor performance, but to drive success and push programs to higher levels.”
Like basketball and baseball, the football issues subcommittee will analyze data to identify academic-performance trends. Members also will pinpoint factors that hamper academic performance.
“We are not naïve to the fact we need to continue to make progress in the APR,” Pederson said during a media conference call to discuss issues before the 2007 season. “We, as a Football Issues Committee, want to make sure we give every bit of support to our institutions.”
The sportsmanship subcommittee should get an assist from the American Football Coaches Association, whose board of directors adopted a resolution to work on that aspect of the game.
“The AFCA understands how important the role of coach is on how the game is played,” said Dennie Poppe, NCAA managing director for football and baseball. “The NCAA stands ready to support in any way we can.”
The subcommittee on agents, gambling and amateurism is spurred in part by the fallout from former NBA referee Tim Donaghy pleading guilty to betting on games and providing inside information to gamblers. That incident has prompted more discussion of background checks on officials.
Pederson said NCAA football bowl officials already have undergone extensive background checks over the past two seasons.
“We are very diligent at protecting the integrity of the bowl games,” Pederson said. “The background checks are performed randomly, as they are for the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. Our officials also are required to complete sessions on sports wagering.”
Pederson said more conferences are conducting background checks as well.
On the issue of hiring, Pederson cited just seven minorities among the 119 head coaches in the Football Bowl Subdivision. They are Mario Cristobal (Florida International University), Sylvester Croom (Mississippi State University), Karl Dorrell (University of California, Los Angeles), Turner Gill (University of Buffalo, State University of New York), Ron Prince (Kansas State University), Randy Shannon [University of Miami (Florida)] and Tyrone Willingham (University of Washington).
“Certainly, seven head coaches in the Football Bowl Subdivision is not as large a number as any of us would hope,” he said.
Pederson said interaction such as that conducted by the Black Coaches and Administrators (formally known as the Black Coaches Association) in which athletics directors meet minority assistant coaches from around the nation can help spread the word among decision-makers about potential candidates.
“I had a chance to meet a group of outstanding young coaches at the BCA session, and the more opportunities we have to do that the better it will be for everyone,” Pederson said. “The Football Issues Committee is going to talk more about this over the next several months. We are trying to make sure athletics directors and presidents have the best opportunity to meet the greatest number of qualified candidates.”
In addition to forming the four subcommittees, the Football Issues Committee is also examining an early signing period for football. Currently, the signing period for football student-athletes is the first week of February.
The AFCA is surveying its members about the best date for prospects to sign a National Letter of Intent. Some coaches believe the start of the football season would be ideal, while others think December is better.
“Some student-athletes are ready to commit as early as April, May or June, but they can’t sign until February,” Pederson said. “Coaches still have to spend time recruiting them until they sign.”
Pederson said an early signing period could close gaps in recruiting classes for some institutions. If a prospect changes his mind on the February signing day, for example, that grant-in-aid could go unused for the upcoming season. An early signing period also would give coaches more time to fill their grant-in-aid allotment by February.
The committee also is revisiting the idea of granting football student-athletes five years of eligibility.
The committee, which met via conference call August 10, subdivided strategically to enhance the sport. Committee Chair Steve Pederson, athletics director at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, said members cited the four areas as primary to maintaining the sport’s success, and that attacking each in small groups would lead to better outcomes.
Football joins baseball and men’s basketball in a focused academic review. The latter two sports relied on specially appointed working groups to address low Academic Progress Rates. The baseball panel completed most of its work last spring, while the men’s basketball group has just begun to meet. Football’s three-year average APR score is 931, which is sandwiched between baseball (934) and men’s basketball (927).
“This is at the core of our mission,” Pederson said. “The purpose of the APR was not to punish teams for poor performance, but to drive success and push programs to higher levels.”Like basketball and baseball, the football issues subcommittee will analyze data to identify academic-performance trends. Members also will pinpoint factors that hamper academic performance.
“We are not naïve to the fact we need to continue to make progress in the APR,” Pederson said during a media conference call to discuss issues before the 2007 season. “We, as a Football Issues Committee, want to make sure we give every bit of support to our institutions.”
The sportsmanship subcommittee should get an assist from the American Football Coaches Association, whose board of directors adopted a resolution to work on that aspect of the game.
“The AFCA understands how important the role of coach is on how the game is played,” said Dennie Poppe, NCAA managing director for football and baseball. “The NCAA stands ready to support in any way we can.”
The subcommittee on agents, gambling and amateurism is spurred in part by the fallout from former NBA referee Tim Donaghy pleading guilty to betting on games and providing inside information to gamblers. That incident has prompted more discussion of background checks on officials.
Pederson said NCAA football bowl officials already have undergone extensive background checks over the past two seasons.
“We are very diligent at protecting the integrity of the bowl games,” Pederson said. “The background checks are performed randomly, as they are for the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. Our officials also are required to complete sessions on sports wagering.”
Pederson said more conferences are conducting background checks as well.
On the issue of hiring, Pederson cited just seven minorities among the 119 head coaches in the Football Bowl Subdivision. They are Mario Cristobal (Florida International University), Sylvester Croom (Mississippi State University), Karl Dorrell (University of California, Los Angeles), Turner Gill (University of Buffalo, State University of New York), Ron Prince (Kansas State University), Randy Shannon [University of Miami (Florida)] and Tyrone Willingham (University of Washington).
“Certainly, seven head coaches in the Football Bowl Subdivision is not as large a number as any of us would hope,” he said.
Pederson said interaction such as that conducted by the Black Coaches and Administrators (formally known as the Black Coaches Association) in which athletics directors meet minority assistant coaches from around the nation can help spread the word among decision-makers about potential candidates.
“I had a chance to meet a group of outstanding young coaches at the BCA session, and the more opportunities we have to do that the better it will be for everyone,” Pederson said. “The Football Issues Committee is going to talk more about this over the next several months. We are trying to make sure athletics directors and presidents have the best opportunity to meet the greatest number of qualified candidates.”
In addition to forming the four subcommittees, the Football Issues Committee is also examining an early signing period for football. Currently, the signing period for football student-athletes is the first week of February.
The AFCA is surveying its members about the best date for prospects to sign a National Letter of Intent. Some coaches believe the start of the football season would be ideal, while others think December is better.
“Some student-athletes are ready to commit as early as April, May or June, but they can’t sign until February,” Pederson said. “Coaches still have to spend time recruiting them until they sign.”
Pederson said an early signing period could close gaps in recruiting classes for some institutions. If a prospect changes his mind on the February signing day, for example, that grant-in-aid could go unused for the upcoming season. An early signing period also would give coaches more time to fill their grant-in-aid allotment by February.
The committee also is revisiting the idea of granting football student-athletes five years of eligibility.
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