Posted by bambi2godzilla on 8/13/2007, 10:16 am Idea, orginally proposed by Boise State in 1983, would give players five years from enrollment to play as much as possible. The Boise State football staff will spend the next week or two debating whether to play a handful of true freshmen this season. Within two years, they might not have to make that choice anymore. A radical change is brewing in college football — one that would allow athletes to play five full seasons. And it all started at Boise State 24 years ago. "If somebody were to have the interest to really go in and mobilize the troops," Boise State athletic director Gene Bleymaier said, "they could get it done." Bleymaier and Boise State proposed in 1983 that all college athletes be allowed to compete for five seasons, a career that more closely matched the length of time they needed to earn their degrees. The Big Sky Conference endorsed the idea, but it never got through the NCAA bureaucracy. More than two decades later, the American Football Coaches Association has adopted the five-year-eligibility plan — and the group is making progress. The five-year plan would give football players five years from enrollment to play as much as they can (they have five years to play four seasons now). It would remove all redshirt and hardship years. The result would be more true freshmen getting into games and some players rewriting the record books by playing five full seasons — up to 65 career games. More players also would complete their degrees, coaches say. The most recent proposal covered football only, but the rule could spread to other sports if it succeeds. "It's gaining traction, but it's still being reviewed," said Dennis Poppe, the NCAA managing director for baseball and football. "It has probably gained a little more momentum this year than in previous years. There were more parties discussing it." The five-year plan surfaced this year in the Division I football issues committee. The idea was forwarded to the conference offices, which will study the plan and what it could mean for the NCAA's Academic Progress Rate — the new measure of academic performance and player retention. The expectation is that the five-year plan would increase retention among younger players and boost the academic performance of older players. The five-year plan could be implemented as soon as 2009-10 if it is formally proposed by next summer. The eight Western Athletic Conference coaches surveyed, including Boise State's Chris Petersen, consider the five-year plan a no-brainer. "That time will come, in particular in football. It has to," said Nevada coach Chris Ault, who backed Boise State's original proposal as part of the Big Sky. The plan's benefits include: • Allowing freshmen to play as much as they can handle without losing a year of eligibility. They would get a taste of college football — a good motivator for players who might be struggling with the adjustment to college life. "When you're sitting out, you have all these thoughts about how good you are, if you can still play," New Mexico State junior safety Derrick Richardson said, "because you haven't touched the field yet." • Removing the redshirt quandary. Coaches must decide before the season opener which freshmen are ready and which aren't. "Kids develop, and kids don't develop like they should," Petersen said. And sometimes injuries force a freshman to abandon his redshirt mid-year. That's what happened to Boise State safety Marty Tadman in 2004. He came out of his redshirt after five games, cutting his career to 3› seasons. "It would allow us to do the right thing for the kid," Petersen said. However, Tadman worries that the five-year plan might put too many freshmen on the field. "Redshirting is a great opportunity for guys," he said. "They can use it to really mentally make the transition from high school football to college football. Getting into games — they're not ready, most of them." • Adding depth. Football teams get 85 scholarships, but about a quarter of those players might be off-limits every year because they're redshirting. A few more scholarship players are lost to injuries. Some aren't game-ready, or they get into trouble. By allowing true freshmen to fill small roles without losing a season of eligibility, teams could spread the workload among more players and keep their starters healthier, coaches say. • Promoting graduation. Players who compete as true freshmen leave the football program after 3› years. Only a few will earn their degree in that time. However, if they were able to play a fifth season, they probably would stay in the program for another year — enough time to earn a degree. "If we have to force that degree in his pocket on the way out the door, that's the best thing we can do," Idaho coach Robb Akey said. • Saving money. Schools pay for four-year players to attend a fifth year of school if necessary to earn their degrees. That means they get stuck paying for an outgoing four-year player and his incoming replacement at the same time — an overlap that could force a school to fund 100 scholarships instead of 85, Bleymaier said. By allowing the player to compete for a fifth season, a school could save the one-year cost of a scholarship. Detractors point to the traditional college timeline of earning a degree in four years and balk at attaching the plan to football only. Football coaches counter with stats showing even non-athletes take longer than four years to graduate and with the need for more depth in the increasingly physical world of college football. An "overwhelming majority" of coaches favor the five-year plan, said Todd Bell, the director of media relations for the AFCA. "We've always been pushing it," he said. "It seems to make an awful lot of sense on many levels." The idea came out of Boise State in the 1980s after a study of graduation rates showed a major gap between four-year and five-year players, Bleymaier said. "(Four-year players) were on a five-year academic plan," he said. "… They were cut loose and kind of lost." The situation hasn't changed, Bleymaier said. The Boise State football program has placed its players on a 4›-year graduation plan and the median time to earn a degree for a student at Boise State is 4.7 years. "I firmly believed, and I still do, that more kids would graduate (with five-year eligibility)," Bleymaier said. "They're in the system. They have the support. They have the motivation. They're getting the accolades. They're in the spotlight. They're involved." The idea never got far in the 1980s, Bleymaier said. "It really needed to come from a conference other than the Big Sky," he said. The AFCA — and the powerful conferences its coaches represent — could be just the catalyst the idea needs. Bleymaier was deeply involved with the five-year plan for five years. Now he's watching someone else give it a try. "I'd like to see it happen," Bleymaier said. "It does a lot of positive things without really any negatives."
63.249.102.18
Five-year plan for college football players re-emerges
Chadd Cripe
The Idaho Statesman
8/13/07
Message Thread:
« Back to thread