Incentive program is academic for Arizona State gridders

 Football student-athletes at Arizona State University are being challenged to excel as highly in the classroom as they do on the field through a unique incentive program. 

The Scholar-Baller program encourages participating student-athletes to perform well in the classroom by offering incentives such as clothing for achieving academic success.

As part of the program, Arizona State football student-athletes are divided into academic teams that compete against each other for the chance to earn Scholar-Baller gear such as hats, T-shirts, shorts or backpacks stamped with the program logo. Student-athletes also may earn gear by earning a cumulative 3.000 grade-point average or earning a "B" average in either the fall or the spring semester. 

New to the program this fall, Arizona State will become the first Division I football program to acknowledge student-athletes' academic success by displaying a Scholar-Baller patch on the jerseys of those who have met or exceeded the GPA standards. 

One of the program's collaborators, C. Keith Harrison, director of the Paul Robeson Research Center for Leadership, Academic and Athletic Prowess, and visiting scholar at Arizona State, said the term "Scholar-Baller" was developed as a way of increasing student-athletes' interest in the classroom.

"To spark interest in academics, we created the concept of 'scholar-baller' -- 'scholar' obviously being academic and 'baller' relating to the popular term in urban and mainstream culture that means success," said Harrison. "We tried to create a concept through this term that student-athletes can identify with as cool, hence making academics a little bit cooler."

There's ample evidence that the program does indeed work. 

Jean Boyd, assistant athletics director for student-athlete development at Arizona State and Scholar-Baller program collaborator, noted that in the three years the program has been in place, the team's GPA has increased overall and during football season. The number of 3.000 student-athletes also has jumped from the teens to 38 during the past academic year, and only one student-athlete of the 68 recruited by current head coach Dirk Koetter has been declared academically ineligible.

"When we started, there were nine Scholar-Ballers," Harrison said. "Now there are more than 30. It works."

For Boyd, the key to Scholar-Baller's success at Arizona State is the coaching staff.

"What must be understood is that, first and foremost, without the incredible support of the football coaching staff, this ideology would not have this type of impact," he said.

Scholar-Baller was introduced at Arizona State in 2001. So far, the program has applied solely to the Arizona State football team, but Harrison said other teams and other schools have shown interest in adopting it in the near future.

'V' has spirit, how 'bout you?

The V Foundation for Cancer Research and ESPN are teaming up to launch a national fund-raiser to fight cancer. 

The inaugural "Show Your Spirit Day," slated for September 7, invites individuals, companies, schools and organizations to celebrate sports and their favorite teams by donning team apparel in exchange for making a requested minimum donation of $5 per participating individual to the foundation. The money raised will fund research grants.

Participants can go to www.jimmyv.org and click onto "Show Your Spirit" to register. Once registered, they will receive a personalized V Foundation kit to help organize and promote the event, including a poster; a booklet with a sample press release, e-mail correspondence, advertisements and logos; and "V" pins and V Foundation information cards for all participants. 

Companies also can register for other dates more suitable to their schedules.

Individuals who do not wish to register but still want to make a donation may do so via credit card by visiting www.jimmyv.org or sending a check made payable to The V Foundation for Cancer Research to 100 Towerview Court, Cary, North Carolina 27513. 

Founded in 1993 by ESPN and the late Jim Valvano, college basketball coach and commentator, The V Foundation funds essential research and has raised more than $40 million and awarded more than 200 research grants for all types of cancer. 

-- Compiled by Leilana McKindra

Number crunching

Looking back

Here's what was happening within the Association in August 1999:

• The NCAA national office completes its move from Overland Park, Kansas, to Indianapolis August 2.

   

• The Division II Presidents Council commits $250,000 in funding for the 1999-00 fiscal year to a matching grant program designed to aid Division II conferences and institutions working to enhance gender and ethnic-minority diversity. The three-year pilot program is known as the Division II Strategic Alliance Matching Grant Program.

   

• Jane C. Meyer, former associate director of athletics at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, is named NCAA director of education outreach. She replaces Janet Justus, who decided not to relocate when the national office moved to Indianapolis.

   

• The NCAA Executive Committee approves an operating budget of $303.3 million for fiscal year 1999-00. That represents an increase in revenue of 7.2 percent ($20.3 million) achieved primarily from scheduled increases in television rights fees. More than $16 million of the new revenue will be distributed to the membership and conferences to support local programs and student-athlete well-being initiatives and to conduct championships in all three divisions.

  * The latest research shows that Division I student-athletes graduate at a higher rate than the general student body. This trend has held every year since Proposition 48 became effective with the 1986 fres hman class. The most recent report examines the 1992 entering class of student-athletes. Of that class, 58 percent graduated in six years, compared to 56 percent for the collective student body.

   

• More than 174,000 entries for tickets for the 2000 Men's Final Four are received, representing the second-largest ticket drawing in Final Four history.