Free
At Last Following his appeal
of the decision by the USC Athletic Department to not grant him permission to
contact Florida, Arizona, Arizona State and Oregon, California State 100 and 200
meter champion and top football recruit Jamere Holland has been released from
USC to transfer to Oregon. Why is the decision newsworthy? Well, considering the
nature of NCAA, the ruling is a big step in the right direction of giving student-athletes
the same rights as regular students on college campuses across the country. The
NCAA is a voluntary organization through which the nation's colleges and universities
govern their athletics programs. The NCAA employs approximately 350 professionals
who implement the rules and programs established by the member institutions. With
an annual budget of over $563 million, most of the rules are designed to protect
and preserve the NCAA’s big-time commercialized college sports entertainment
business under the guise of being a tax-exempt organization dedicated to higher
learning. One of the NCAA’s harshest
set of rules governs transfer. Even though a U.S. Department of Education study
determined that over 40% of students attend more than one school before earning
their B.A. degree, a student-athlete who wants to transfer cannot even speak to
another school unless and until his current school agrees to allow another school
to contact the athlete regarding the possibility of transfer and consideration
for athletically-related financial. Coaches on the other hand, change jobs whenever
they like with no consequence and Nick Saban recently “transferred”
from LSU to the NFL Miami Dolphins and then back to the University of Alabama
in 1 ½ years with a substantial raise at each stop and leaving kids who
had selected LSU based on his being the coach to fend for themselves. The
current school can grant permission to some or all of the schools an athlete is
considering and the athlete’s only recourse is an appeal to a panel made
up at administrators at the same school who are not part of the athletic department.
However, when you consider that there is no standard for the exercise of the appeal
panels’ authority, i.e. the panel can side with the athletics department
for any reason or no reason, it becomes clear how student-athletes are held hostage
by the NCAA based on decisions they make as 17-18 year old kids. In
the event an athlete obtains the required permission, NCAA rules require that
the athlete sit out a year before becoming eligible to participate in athletics
at his new school. The athlete does not, however, loose the year of eligibility
for competition purposes, and NCAA rules allow the athlete to receive athletically-related
financial aid during the 1-year period. Under NCAA rules, each member conference
can establish its own rules, which can be stricter but not more lenient than NCAA
rules. The PAC-10 took advantage of this rule
and its transfer rules require that an athlete not only sit out 1 year, but also
loose the year of eligibility for competition purposes, and be ineligible to receive
athletically-related financial aid during the 1-year period. As a result, and
absent a decision by the PAC-10 Council to reduce the financial aid prohibition
(which requires a separate hearing), the only way an athlete can transfer from
one PAC-10 school to another PAC-10 school is if the family is willing and able
to pay the full cost of tuition which will likely exceed $25,000. When you consider
that NCAA rules require that all of this be accomplished by the 12th day of class
in order for that academic year to count towards the residency requirement, it
becomes even clearer that the student-athletes who generate the $563 million in
NCAA revenue get the short end of the stick. In
our case, USC was willing to allow Boise State, Colorado, Maryland and Utah to
contact Mr. Holland, but was not willing to allow Arizona, Arizona State, Florida
or Oregon to contact him.
In the case of Florida, permission was denied because
USC “believed” that Mr. Holland had been contacted by Florida, without
any proof, based on the close relationship between Mr. Holland and his high school
coach, Terry Starr, who is now Director of Football Operations….a close,
personal relationship that USC relied on in their recruitment of Mr. Holland.
USC offered no reason for denying permission and it was assumed that USC did so
because it did not want to have to face Mr. Holland on the football field as a
member of the football team for another PAC-10 school. What
can a parent do? I suggest that parents consult an attorney before they allow
their kid to sign a national letter of intent in order to negotiate an agreement
on the part of a school to support a decision to transfer (or any other possible
change of circumstance) if for any reason things do not work out. Shaq recently
filed for a divorce from the mother of his 6 kids. If Shaq could require that
Shaunie sign a “Cohabitation/Prenuptial Agreement and Acknowledgement of
Property Disclosure and Waiver of Further Disclosure Agreement,” then why
shouldn’t parents protect their 18-year old from a decision which might
have been based on school colors? If
you have questions or require additional information, please contact Everett L.
Glenn, Esq. at eglenn@espsportslawpro.com
or call 562.619.8460.
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