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Notes, Quotes and Slants
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College
Notebook No. 8
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
By Denny O'Brien |
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Fifth year of eligibility
back on the agenda
©2005 Bonesville.net
The Atlantic Coast Conference wants to re-explore the possibility
of granting a fifth year of eligibility in college football. That was one
of the decisions made at the league's annual spring meetings last
week.
While the ACC has been a source of turmoil
for its dealings on the expansion front, this appears to be an area in which
it can rally support. With many other leagues slated to convene
meetings over the
next few weeks, it's a good bet the topic will receive increased discussion.
Conference USA is staging its annual spring
gathering this week in Destin, FL, and has hinted in the past that it
supports a fifth year.
"The statistics show that most regular
students graduate in closer to five years, anyway," C-USA commissioner
Britton Banowsky said last year. "So why hold these student-athletes to
higher standard?
"Their eligibility track is a five-year track. The idea of redshirting
students just for redshirting them is flawed. ... If a kid can play and wants
to play and wants to go to school, then I don't see a real down side to it."
The ACC originally proposed a fifth year of
eligibility in 2004, and also pushed for the removal of redshirts.
That legislation was later withdrawn when it became apparent that it would
not pass.
However, that hasn't discouraged the ACC
from pursuing what remains to be a hot issue among its members.
Many administrators and coaches feel that
granting a fifth year will help with player retention. With the number of
transfers increasing annually, their thinking is that an extra year will
provide more opportunities for players to see the field.
"I'm for it," South Carolina co-defensive
coordinator John Thompson said last year while at East Carolina. "I think it
helps in so many ways. I think it helps in retention and I think it helps in
graduation. What can be wrong with that?
"It also takes so much pressure off those guys in that some of them aren't
ready to play, but you never know until you put them out there, test them a
little bit, let them get a little bit of action and see if that can help
your team."
With the NCAA's approval of a 12-game
season in Division I-A, a new proposal might receive more widespread
support.
The extra week opens the door for
additional injuries, which often requires coaches to reluctantly burn
redshirts in order to restock the depth chart. In that scenario,
student-athletes have their careers shortened to only three complete
seasons, which often isn't enough to fully mature within a program.
Approval of a fifth year eliminates that
problem.
Size matters
There was some good news for the Big
East that resulted from the Bowl Championship Series meetings last month.
In 2008 and 2009, the number of leagues
that will receive automatic berths to the BCS will be capped at seven. And
here's the best part: market size could be counted as part of that
criteria.
It's the latter that doesn't sit
particularly well with Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson.
"You pick out any measurement, any
criteria, we have probably finished fifth, sixth or seventh in our
six-year existence," Thompson said three
weeks ago. "Whether that's attendance, strength of schedule, bowl
appearances, national TV appearances. We're right in the hunt."
Except for market size.
However, the same can also be said about the
Southeastern Conference, which is comprised largely of institutions in small
college towns. In fact, an overwhelming majority of the football
powerhouses nationally reside in relatively small outposts that were built
around their schools.
Even so, market size has received heavy
focus since the ACC sparked the expansion movement two years ago. With so
much of the money dictated by television, leagues have scrambled to add
large-market schools to enhance their national profiles.
Even if that means those schools barely
register on the media's radar in their hometowns (see Boston College,
Cincinnati, and South Florida).
Liberty Bowl looking
C-USA saved the Liberty Bowl. The Mountain
West Conference also should be credited for boosting its profile.
But based on recent reports out of Memphis,
it looks like the annual New Year's Eve game could go a different route in
the future. In fact, officials already are in discussions with the Atlantic
Coast Conference about replacing the Mountain West.
Adding the ACC no doubt would give the
Liberty Bowl more of a regional flavor. From that angle, it would make
sense to at least test the waters.
However, the best-case scenario the ACC
likely could offer is the fifth or sixth-place finisher, which definitely
would drop the Liberty Bowl's status a few notches on the postseason ladder.
The Liberty Bowl holds the distinction of
being one of few postseason games that features a match-up of conference
champions. That dynamic has generated a lot of national interest in recent
years, and the game has flourished as a result.
By pursuing lower-tier schools from power
conferences, maintaining that new standard is far from a guarantee. There
are plenty of bowls that support that notion.
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02/23/2007 01:59:58 AM |
