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Football player enrolled at a D2 school in the fall as a 1st semester freshman, and received athletic scholarship dollars. Gets to the school in the fall and he is deemed ineligible for the year and can't participate in practice - games for a year. Will be eligible next season. I'm very sketchy on the details but it had to do with his hs transcript...

 

Guesses...

1. graduated from high school but was not on a college tract course of study

2. SAT was low and school allowed him enrollment but has an old Prop 48 status for students who are enrolled with low test scores.

3. Somebody screwed up - high school or college coaches/admissions

4. More to the story that I don't know about. Weird situation as described to me. He apparently didn't know he would't be eligible when he came in the fall???

 

Any ideas? Anyone heard of a kid being enrolled and declared ineligible before taking a class?

 

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If this is not your player, why be concerned?

Definitely sounds like he was not eligible under the clearinghouse guidelines. Maybe missing  required courses, etc.

A good example of the necessity of being educated in the entire process and trust no one unless you directly speak to the admissions dept.

JMO

Originally Posted by im647f:
Originally Posted by TPM:

If this is not your player, why be concerned?

Can questions only apply to family members? Who are you to questions why he is asking? If you can help answer then do so, leave you "JMO" to yourself.

 

Whoa..calm down and relax. 

He really didn't give much info to go on, and it was about football, I did the best I could.

Maybe you have something to offer by way of advice?

JMO

I'm concerned because I've known this kid since he was in middle school. He played football with my son for several years. He committed and signed with this school, went there to play, is currently taking classes, but not on the roster. I ran into one of their other teammates last night and was informed of the transcript issue (whatever it may be). 

 

My curiosity is more along the lines of where did this all go wrong??? Was it with him and his parents, the college, or the high school? It was obvious that he was a potential college player from the time he entered high school (he's BIG and can play). He was a D1  prospect coming off of his junior year, played in a post season all star game after his sr. year, and then ended up signing with a lower level D2. So, there must have been some issue. He was not the greatest student. 

The son of a member of this site was in this situation a few years ago at a D2.

 

He was a reasonably good student who had taken a reasonable college prep program, but he just missed on each of the various ways a D2 player can become eligible. 

 

If I remember right, he didn't find out he was ineligible until well after his performance in fall practices had earned him a likely spot in the starting line up.

 

He had to sit out his freshman year, but he was eligible his sophomore year and regained his starting spot.

 

Originally Posted by Stafford:

I'm concerned because I've known this kid since he was in middle school. He played football with my son for several years. He committed and signed with this school, went there to play, is currently taking classes, but not on the roster. I ran into one of their other teammates last night and was informed of the transcript issue (whatever it may be). 

 

My curiosity is more along the lines of where did this all go wrong??? Was it with him and his parents, the college, or the high school? It was obvious that he was a potential college player from the time he entered high school (he's BIG and can play). He was a D1  prospect coming off of his junior year, played in a post season all star game after his sr. year, and then ended up signing with a lower level D2. So, there must have been some issue. He was not the greatest student. 

Thanks for clarification on your relationship with the player.

The problem with this scenerio is that we just don't know exactly what happened to cause his ineligibility but it can be something tjhat we all can learn from.

 

JMO, if that is OK with you.

 

Last edited by TPM

I think TPM hit on it. Sounds like the school/coach agreed to the scholarship dollars before the NCAA Clearinghouse indicated the student's ineligibility. 

 

When my son was offered a D2 scholarship when he was finishing his two years at a JuCo, the coach had already requested we forward a copy of his HS transcript and his JuCo transcript before finalizing the offer and sending the NLI to be signed.  So even though the NCAA hadn't confirmed his eligibility, the coach was pretty sure he met the requirements.  My memory is hazy, but it took a few weeks to get everything sent to the NCAA.  Son received the offer about two weeks after he was home from the Junior College.  Not long after we had confirmation on his eligibility.

Stafford, I have a couple of thoughts on where this went wrong for this athlete.  First of all, many parents aren't even sure what questions to ask, or who to ask.  That's why this site is great for the baseball community.

 

Also, one of the things I've concluded from consulting with many athletes and parents over the last few years is that at some high schools, the athletes and parents "fall through the cracks" between the coaches and guidance counselors.  Some coaches think it's the counselors responsibility to make sure that the athletes (like the other students they advise) are prepared for college (not stopping to think that the NCAA requirements are different than college admission requirements).

 

And, on the flipside, some guidance counselors believe it's the coach's responsibility to make sure that athletes are prepared for college, AND the athletic eligibility requirements, so they aren't advising with any thought of NCAA eligibility requirements.

 

And, finally, it's the college coach's responsibility to make sure that he's requesting the athlete's transcript to have it evaluated and make sure that the athlete will be eligible.  We've started offering a transcript evaluation review so that athletes don't get caught up in this situation, because we've seen it happen too often.

Rick nailed it.  Thats why its hyper-important for parents to not be afraid to ask about eligibility/admission questions.

 

Our 2 sons went to 2 different high schools.  The older one to a good public that had only had a couple D1 athletes in their memory.  We parents had to manage and babysit every step of the way in terms of admission, eligibility and recruiting.  I'm not bad-mouthing them, they just didn't know how and so we over-researched it to make sure.

 

Our younger son's HS has about 30 D1 athletes per year and so when I first emailed the counselor to let them know he was being recruited and would need to do the Clearinghouse stuff and everything else including mailing coaches transcripts, they said, 'We know Mr. D, we've already taken care of it.'  Amazing difference, but I think this wide range of help through the process is not unusual.

 

Parents need to know what situation they're in, ask lots of questions and follow up.  Every school that recruited our sons that we anticipated may(?) be an academic reach - we asked right up front starting with the coaches but sometimes beyond that about any and everything about admissions.  In our older son's case, the college head coach even looked over our son's class schedule for his HS senior year and advised picking up one more higher end academic course instead of a 'leadership role,' which he did.

 

Ask questions.  Educate yourself.  Don't be left in the blind or leave it up to others unless you're 100% certain they will fully execute.

Actually, you are not eligible until the school receives your final transcript. We were told that the day after graduation to take a self addressed stamped envelope addressed to the right parties at the school and have them mail the transcript asap because this process takes time under normal circumstances but as as athlete you can't even practice until you have been declared eligible.

So to answer the question asked, appears more than likely the player was non eligible after his transcripted arrived to play D2 level and must take the appropriate courses to become eligible for next year.

 

I really like the idea of a review of the transcipt with the player and family, it certainly will help avoid situations such as this one.

Last edited by TPM

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