Reggie Ball ineligible for Gator Bowl
The most egregious example of how much emphasis the NCAA puts on the student part of student athletics is their practice of periodically ruling that students are academically ineligible to play.
Students have to be in good standing (not failing any classes) in order to play. Schools like Georgia Tech and Stanford, with superior academic reputations, make certain from the initial recruitment process that their student athletes are able to maintain their academic standing in addition to meeting their athletic goals.
Seniors Reggie Ball, a four-year starter, and CB Kenny Scott, a three-year starter, lost their eligibility somewhere between the start the season and now: over the course of a single semester or quarter. After an entire career at Georgia Tech, they knew better than to let their academics slip.
On the other hand, while they might not ever receive degrees from Georgia Tech, their lack of eligibility this late in their careers isn't going to matter much to NFL scouts.
posted by CM Gayley @ 22:04
3 comments
3 Comments:
Wow - you really feel strongly about this subject don't you? Take it easy - no need to get all wound up...
Just to clear up a few things: there was a discrepancy with the submission of a class assignment in one of his senior level classes that was the difference between Reggie Ball making a B or a D in class. Unfortunately, the Gator Bowl will be history before this matter is cleared up... so he will not be able to play.
The source of this information is from a member of Georgia Tech's football team who is intimately aware of the situation.
The other issue is more serious and daunting: as you state in your post, it seems kind of fishy that a 4-year starter would lose eligibility in the course of one semester! I agree with your assessment. But when you understand that Reggie Ball is the most disliked person on the team and his poor performance is sited as the reason for the fourth consecutive loss to our in-state rival (University of Georgia) and the loss in the ACC Championship game against Wake Forest (which would've given us a berth in the Orange Bowl), I have no doubt that the coaching staff did little to mitigate this grade dispute and would prefer to use a guy who has only started one game in 3 years against West Virginia in the Gator Bowl. The flip side of the coin is that he did lead the team to a 9 win season and won the Atlantic Division of the ACC.
He had a rough 2 game stretch at the end of the season and I'm frankly quite disturbed that the coaching staff would throw a young man and college student under the bus for the last game of his college career.
I have written a post about this incident on plezWorld.
Thanks for the information. It's amazing to me that something so small, that so many other students have to face every semester, can have such out-of-proportion impact on student-athletes who are already under disproportionate pressure to perform.
I'm a little shocked about the rest of the picture you paint: talk about office politics. Ball hasn't lived up to his potential (or led the team to live up to its potential, either), but he has given his best shot. If the coaches wanted to bench him, they should have benched him and not manipulated such a distasteful outcome.
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