Academic Progress Rate

Jack Crowe, head football coach 

Jacksonville State University

Huntsville Times

Discussing differences in support among I-A and I-AA schools:

“We are built for attrition. I didn’t make the rules. We can sign 30 a year and you can be on scholarship for five years. That’s 150. If you want to transfer from Auburn or Alabama and come in here and play immediately, you can do it. We didn’t create it, but we are trying to be successful in this environment.

“If we had the stick to go out and recruit everybody that was a perfect fit, and we had a million dollars invested into academic support every year, it would change in a hurry. ...

“Just like the size of stadiums, size of dressing rooms and those things, (Division I is) in an arms race to see who can do it better. We have a full-time academics person and great support of the students in general, but we don’t have a budget. We don’t have a facility. If you don’t have private funds, you’re not in the race.”

Life after athletics

Julie McBride, director of life skills

University of Missouri, Columbia

Athletic Management

Relating the case of a former Missouri football player who exemplifies the need for life skills programs to help student-athletes focus on their careers beyond athletics:

“When University of Missouri student-athletes talk about their plans after college, I like to bring up the story of a pretty good football player who’s an alumnus. After college, he signed with the Cleveland Browns. He did OK, earning a living and getting a taste of the big time. Then he was cut. He signed with the then-St. Louis Cardinals, played for one year, and was cut again.

“While at Missouri, he had thought only of football and left well short of a degree and without any practical career experience.

“After the NFL, he was in and out of jobs, which included the night shift at UPS and cleaning up at a meatpacking plant. He worked as a hotel bellhop and realized that in just six months, he’d gone from being a guest to carrying other people’s bags. It was honorable work, but not what he’d imagined.

“He was directionless, broke, and despondent over the realization he’d wasted a golden opportunity to prepare himself for the world after sports.

“I know him well. He’s my husband.”

Presidential leadership

Christine Brennan, columnist

USA Today

“It’s not a right to be a college athlete, it’s a privilege. Sports teams are significant representatives of a school. And just as university presidents disband fraternities and the occasional sorority for behavior worthy of ‘Animal House,’ so too should presidents jettison athletics programs that exhibit the same boorish behavior. ...

“(I)n places where our children are supposed to be learning, there are lessons to be learned by us all, if only we choose to go looking for them.”