Jerry Karr has taken over as head coach at O’Dea.

SeaTownSports.com has rated the Top 20 high school players in the area.

ESPN.com is reporting Elizabeth Lambert, a defender for the New Mexico women’s soccer team has been suspended indefinitely for rough, unsportsmanlike play during a 1-0 loss to BYU in the Mountain West Conference semifinals.  Unsportsmanlike conduct is a universal penalty that applies to every athlete, every sport, and at every level.

Lobos’ Head Coach Kit Vela announced Friday that Lambert will be prohibited from taking part in practices, games, and conditioning.  “Liz is a quality student-athlete, but in this instance her actions clearly crossed the line of fair play and good sportsmanship,” Vela said.

Video footage of the game shows Lambert, a junior, committing a series of excessively rough plays, including kicking, tackles, a forearm shiver to the back — in response to an elbow to the ribs — and yanking BYU forward Kassidy Shumway to the ground by her hair.

Lambert was assessed a yellow card during the 76th minute, apparently for tripping.

On Friday, Lambert apologized for her actions, saying she was “deeply and wholeheartedly regretful.”

“I let my emotions get the best of me in a heated situation. I take full responsibility for my actions and accept any punishment felt necessary,” Lambert said. “This is in no way indicative of my character or the soccer player that I am. I am sorry to my coaches and teammates for any and all damages I have brought upon them.

The Mountain West said it endorsed New Mexico’s discipline of Lambert, saying her actions violated the conference’s sportsmanship policy. The conference said it would continue an internal review of “the overall dynamic involved in the match” and said it would not comment further.

“Liz’s conduct on the field against BYU was completely inappropriate,” said Paul Krebs, New Mexico’s vice president for athletics. “There is no way to defend her actions.”

BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe, in a news release, said Krebs had contacted him after the incident.

“It’s an unfortunate incident that occurred in the game Thursday afternoon,” Holmoe said. “The University of New Mexico and the Mountain West Conference have reviewed the situation and have acted appropriately … I am pleased with his immediate response to the matter.”

If you haven’t seen the footage yet, the link below emphasizes the seriousness of Lambert’s conduct on the field.

New Mexico player’s rough tactics lead to ban

Posted using ShareThis

–Brian Linklater

Phil Lumpkin has passed away, this according to a story by Mason Kelley in The Seattle Times.  Lumpkin had coached at O’Dea for the past 18 years, going to the state tournament in 15 of those seasons.  Lumpkin also played a little in the NBA, here are his numbers from BasketballReference.com

Federal Way will not have to vacate their championship from last season, as reported here in the Seattle Times as well as in the Tacoma News Tribune.

ESPN.com is reporting the NCAA has approved new rules that will impact basketball recruiting practices by restricting money that is funneled to third parties.  Basically, the NCAA is seeking to limit the access of coaches who are outside the NCAA that run camps and attempt to enlist players.

This ruling will have immediate effect as coaches will no longer be allowed to employ a person associated with a prospective student-athlete at a camp or clinic, make payments to nonprofit organizations that a person associated with a prospect has either a proprietary or financial interest in, or use 1-900 telephone numbers for recruiting purposes.

If any coach violates any of the above rules, they could be suspended from coaching regular-season and NCAA tournament games.

The rest of the package, which includes legislation aimed at stopping so-called package deals, will be sponsored by the board of directors. Member institutions will be solicited for feedback, with a vote on changes expected in April.

“I do think it will pass,” Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe said. “It has the unanimous support of all of the commissioners and as commissioners, we represent what at least the majority of membership is feeling. We wouldn’t support this so strongly if we didn’t feel like it was something our members wanted.

Thus far the proposal has met very little resistance within the NCAA.  The legislation is expected to pass with minor tweaks.  Coaches will no longer be able to hire anyone other than students and staff members from their respective campuses, programs, and departments for camps and clinics.

“There’s been so much concern about the culture of men’s basketball and the unsavory influences. There are so many coaches who want to do the right thing but feel pressured to deal with these outside people. This helps put a stop to that, commented Beebe.”

–Brian Linklater

Espn.com is reporting that coaches are backing a proposal to allow some athletes from professional teams to be recruited by colleges within the NCAA.

Michael Rogers, chair of the NCAA Division I Amateurism Cabinet, told ESPN that coaches associations have lined up behind his group’s recommendation to open college sports to prospects who come up through clubs that include professional athletes, but didn’t receive salaries.

This proposal has grown support because of the increasing arrival of foreign athletes to NCAA college athletic programs.  Current NCAA amateurism guidelines state that an athlete can jeopardize their eligibility by simply playing alongside a teammate who is given more than necessary expenses from that club.

The proposal, introduced in June, is under review by the NCAA constituency. Coaches associations are key stakeholders, and those with tennis, volleyball and football have either signaled support or formally registered no concern. So far, only hockey has balked at the proposal, which will be amended to exempt that sport, Rogers said.

“One athlete professionalizes all of his teammates,” said Rogers, a Baylor law school professor. “There’s a growing consensus that there is an unfair standard. It needs to be changed, and that’s what we’re trying to accomplish this year.”

Of the 490 incoming athletes penalized for amateurism violations last year, 434 were foreign students, according to the NCAA. Punishments range from being forced to sit out games to, more rarely, permanent ineligibility. In 2007, basketball players Lucca Staiger of Iowa State and Fabian Boeke of Washington State were sidelined for a year for playing on a German club with two teammates who received benefits in excess of NCAA limits.

International athletes have long helped NCAA programs chase national championships, from the University of Houston’s Hakeem Olajuwon in basketball in the 1980s to University of Arizona golfer Annika Sorenstam in the 1990s. But with the rise of the Internet as a recruiting tool, their numbers have exploded. There are now about 10,000 foreign athletes in Division I, three times as many as there were a decade ago. A few teams — such as the Baylor women’s tennis team — are made up entirely of foreigners.

The NCAA is also struggling to adequately investigate all foreign prospects. In volleyball, one of the most popular team sports for women globally, many coaches contend that the NCAA has failed to create a level playing field. Instead, they say that by allowing some recruits and rejecting others, despite similar situations, some teams get a leg up in chasing national championships.

“It’s an important issue because there are people that are playing in [NCAA sports] that have professionalized themselves,” said Terry Liskevych, head women’s volleyball coach at Oregon State. “There needs to be one good rule that everybody can live by and is very transparent.”

The impact of such a proposal may be the biggest change to hit the NCAA landscape in recent years.  As this case unfolds, it will be interesting to see how NCAA officials will respond.

–Brian Linklater

One of the most frequently asked questions we’ve received is, “do Ivy League colleges offer athletic scholarships to high school students?”

Currently, Ivy League colleges specifically award financial aid based on financial need rather than athletic or academic ability.  For the most part, Ivy League schools have the highest standards for acceptance and do not give out any financial awards based on anything (athletic ability, grades, etc.) other than financial need.  However, Ivy League coaches are able to aid potential student athletes in another manner.  These coaches are able to help student-athletes gain acceptance with lower academic qualifications.  Such preferential treatment is only given to student-athletes whom the coach is heavily recruiting.  If you are able to gain acceptance into an Ivy League school, they are openly willing to work with your family to make it affordable enough for you attend.  More importantly, the education you will receive from such prestigious universities will more than offset the strenuous application process.  Never rule out an Ivy League college until they have offered their final financial aid package.

–Brian Linklater

Binghamton University recently announced that it has suspended the men’s basketball coaches from any off-campus recruiting activity.

Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

A secondary violation to the NCAA was self-reported by Binghamton.  The report stated that head coach Kevin Broadus and assistant coach Marc Hsu met several recruits at a prep school during a non-contact period.  Binghamton decided that Broadus will not be allowed to recruit off-campus until November and all trips pertaining to the basketball program must be approved by Binghamton’s compliance office.

From a recruiting standpoint, this decision by Binghamton may be detrimental to the future of Binghamton’s men’s basketball program.  Currently, there are only seven eligible scholarship players on the Bearcat’s roster and its top returning scorer, averages 4.4 points.

Earlier this month, the Binghamton announced that six of their top players will be ineligible to play for the Bearcats.  Star player Emanuel “Tiki” Mayben, is one of the six players suspended as he is currently facing drug charges.  An independent investigation into the Binghamton athletic program is currently being conducted by retired New York Chief Judge Judith Kaye.

The university recently extended Broadus’s contract through 2014 and will owe him roughly $1 million in salary.  This is considered a ransom for an athletic department with an annual budget of $10.4 million.  Roy Williams, the coach of current National Champion North Carolina Tar Heels earned roughly $3.7 million in 2008.

–Brian Linklater

There’s no question that players love to watch a big game between two college rivals. Not only do stadiums fill up with passion and pride, but rivalry games also tend to be a lot closer played than most. Rivalry weekends provide an excellent opportunity for universities to show off their programs, and recruits on these official visits they get a glimpse of what a game day would be like.  Although all universities schedule their top prospect visits differently, rivalry weekends can be a powerful tool in the recruiting process.

On Saturday, October 17 there will be a full slate of high profile rivalry games across the country. This weekend’s schedule includes USC at Notre Dame (Bush Push, anyone?), Texas vs. Oklahoma (The Red River Rivalry), and Virginia Tech at Georgia Tech (ACC Coastal Division showdown).  Each and every one of these teams is ranked among the top in the country, and recruits will fill the sideline as coaches hope they are infected by the electric atmosphere.

In the past years of the Charlie Weis era, the Irish have had great success in signing their top prospects by using the big game weekend technique. Notre Dame hosts USC in South Bend, Indiana, every other year, and this is easily the most attractive weekend for recruits to visit.  In years past the Irish have had great success in attracting their top recruits to this game, and out of the class of 2008 they signed standout receiver Michael Floyd. The University of Florida also has a shining example of the big game weekend success. They signed Percy Harvin, now a receiver for the Minnesota Vikings, on the weekend that they played Tennessee.  Harvin described his experience has an “electric atmosphere.”

There is no doubt that these big games help sign some prospects, but all those advantages come at a cost.  For instance, if a recruit is on his official visit during a big weekend, the coaches may have limited time to spend with the recruit. This could be because of increased press obligations, extra preparation with the team, or a larger than normal batch of recruits. So while a recruit might not get the personal touch they go on their official visit on a big game weekend, they will get a glimpse of what they could be performing in front of every weekend.

On this rivalry weekend expect to see the top recruits from all around the country to be making commitments to their choice of school. And we’ll likely see them competing in the same big games a few years down the road.

–Kenny Long

The Florida State academic cheating scandal exemplifies that the “student” always comes before athlete when referring to the NCAA and collegiate athletics.  NCAA documents were released Wednesday because of a news media lawsuit, which allows press access to records in disciplinary cases.  The records were made public in order to fully explain the thinking behind a proposal to remove victories from Florida State coaches and athletes for academic cheating.

This is the first time records in an NCAA disciplinary case will need to be released because the court rulings maintain that certain documents involving state schools are considered to be public records.

Head football coach Bobby Bowden may be the person with the most to lose as there are rumors circulating about his future with the Seminoles.

Florida State, which itself reported the violations to the NCAA, has accepted self-imposed penalties, including loss of scholarships and player suspensions. The school is appealing only the plan to take victories away from coaches and more than 500 athletes in 10 sports.

The university and NCAA staffers also previously agreed 61 athletes implicated in the cheating, mostly on exams for an online music course, would be suspended for 30 percent of a season under an agreement between the university and NCAA staffers. That included about 25 football players who served their suspensions in 2007 and 2008.

Athletes’ names, though, were removed from transcripts and other documents released earlier by the university.

The athletes could have faced complete ineligibility, but received a reduced penalty because Florida State accepted most of the blame for what happened due to failures by faculty members and academic officials and tutors in the athletic department.

Other details in the transcript:

– Former academic adviser Brenda Monk, who resigned after being implicated, said one athlete she was accused of helping cheat had an IQ of 60 and couldn’t read the test questions.

– Florida State president T.K. Wetherell told the committee the university was “embarrassed,” but pointed out the school reported the violations itself and has cooperated with the NCAA. He also argued no coaches, boosters or donors were involved but blamed academics who failed to follow university policy.

– Although several staffers were fired or resigned after the scandal broke, Wetherell said that doesn’t include former athletic director Dave Hart. Wetherell said he told Hart several months before that his contract wouldn’t be renewed, but did not make that public at Hart’s request.

– Florida State tracks how many athletes sign up for classes, which should have tipped officials to a dramatic increase in the music course, but that information never got passed up the chain of command.

–Brian Linklater

A noteworthy compliance story has surfaced this past week involving NCAA All-American and potential NFL Lottery Pick wide receiver Dez Bryant.  Oklahoma State declared Bryant ineligible last week for their game against Texas A&M.  He is expected to go through a follow-up interview with the NCAA sometime this week.

Bryant claims he “panicked” and lied to the NCAA about a meeting with former NFL player Deion Sanders at a Texas athletics center.

In his written apology to the NCAA, obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press following an open records request, Bryant said that he is “very, very sorry” and “made a terrible mistake” when he lied to Marcus M. Wilson, the NCAA’s assistant director of agent, gambling and amateurism activities, in July.

“I was scared because I was thinking, why would the NCAA talk to me unless they thought I had done something wrong, even though I did not think I had,” Bryant writes in his letter. “I worried about the interview and was really nervous during the interview.

“I kept thinking about how football has been my dream for years and how football was going to allow the chance to make a living and help my family. My mom, my son, brother and sister all depend on me and I felt that somehow I had let them down.”

Oklahoma State athletic director for compliance Scott Williams formally requested that the NCAA reinstate Bryant and impose a lighter punishment for “unique circumstance.”  The standard punishment for a violation such as Bryant’s is a 50 percent withholding from, which would force Bryant to miss half of the Cowboys games this season.

In his apology, Bryant writes that he denied meeting Sanders at the Texas field house facility.  Bryant stated that he and Sanders, “jogged up and down the field, but did not go through any drills, and he did not work me out.”

Williams is suggesting for the NCAA to classify the meeting as preferential treatment, or “unique circumstances,” which would be catalogued as a secondary violation.  This would allow Bryant to re-join the team immediately.

“I really love OSU and would like to have an opportunity to finish the season with OSU. … I know I should be punished, I deserve it, but I hope that my punishment is not so bad that I do not get to play football again at OSU.”

This event is something many prospective student-athletes should pay attention to.  Compliance issues and amateurism status is something that should not be taken lightly.  The NCAA offers a 2009-10 Guide for the College-Bound Student-Athlete.  This 24-page document is available in PDF form for free download by clicking here.  JumpForward also offers a “PlayBook” that addresses various compliance issues and discusses the “gray areas” of amateurism.  For high school athletes, securing your amateur certification is an extremely important part of the recruitment process.

–Brian Linklater

This past summer, the NCAA conducted a study of academic-support services for student-athletes at Division I institutions.  The study found encouraging results for potential collegiate student-athletes.

Almost 92 percent of Division I institutions report that spending on academic support for student-athletes remained steady or increased since 2007, even though more than half of those schools cut overall athletics spending in the wake of the national economic downturn.

The study also showed that more institutions reported coaches becoming more supportive of the academic success of their student-athletes, an effect tied directly to the increase in academic standards brought by enhanced progress-toward-degree requirements and other policies established by the Academic Performance Program.

The study found that most schools experienced between a 1 to 20 percent increase in total spending on academic programs over the last two years, with 12 percent reporting even greater increases. At the same time, overall reductions on athletics spending were identified.

Football Bowl Subdivision members reported spending more on academic-support services than their counterparts in the Football Championship Subdivision and Division I programs without football. The median total academic-support budget reported at the FBS level was $655,000, compared with about $150,000 in other subdivisions. Similarly, more FBS institutions reported greater use of academic resources among their student-athletes than those in other subdivisions.

FBS schools also reported that they were more likely to provide a broader array of academic-support services than those in the other subdivisions. Most schools, however, offer assistance with course selection, degree-progress monitoring, class-attendance checks, study-hall facilities, course-specific tutoring and computer labs for student-athletes.

Many institutions reported requiring the use of academic-support services, such as study hall, for incoming freshmen student-athletes. Though recent NCAA data collected through the APP have indicated that many incoming transfer student-athletes are at risk academically, fewer schools are likely to require transfers to take advantage of the academic-support opportunities available to them.

The NCAA research staff plans to more fully analyze the data in the coming months to examine potential links between the level of academic support for student-athletes and changes in the Academic Progress Rate at individual institutions.

This is exciting news for any prospective student-athlete (PSA).   Basically, increased academic spending means either bigger scholarships or more scholarships for PSA’s .  More importantly, the NCAA highlighted how larger “sports oriented” Division I programs are pushing their athletes to take their studies much more seriously.

–Brian Linklater

Larry W. Smith/The New York Times

An out of the ordinary story recently ran in the New York Times this week.  For the first time, the NBA union began tracking the amount of current NBA players who are returning to the college classroom in the offseason.  This year, about 45 players, or 10 percent of the league total spent their summer in the classroom at their respective universities across the country.

Debbie Rothstein Murman, the director for career development for the union, said the number was much higher than in the past, although she does not have earlier numbers.

For elite athletes, who command seven-figure salaries, returning to college is an investment and a hedge against what can be an uncertain future.

A league rule change in 2006 mandates that players be at least one year removed from high school and at least 19 to be drafted. For many players, that meant attending at least one year of college. The rule stopped the influx of players who entered the league directly from high school. But it might have had an inadvertent consequence: some are attempting to finish what they started.

Chris Paul of the New Orleans Hornets and Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and Jeff Green of the Oklahoma City Thunder are high-profile, young, NBA stars who decided to squeeze classroom time into their offseason workouts.

“I had classes with regular students and went to study hall and caught the school bus to the gym,” Durant said. “It was everything I did when I was there before. I’m only two years removed from college and three years removed from high school. Everything came back pretty quick.”

The average annual salary in the N.B.A. is $5.85 million, and players are generally secure in the near term. Their retirement years can be completely different. An estimated 60 percent of N.B.A. players are broke within five years of retiring, and 78 percent of NFL players are bankrupt or under financial stress because of joblessness or divorce within two years, according to a report by Sports Illustrated in March. The magazine also reported that many baseball players struggle financially after retirement.

Half of the N.F.L.’s players have college degrees — a greater percentage than in the N.B.A. or in baseball, because fewer football players declare professional eligibility as early. Nearly 100 players went back to college in the off-season, and the league conducts a management program with universities, including Harvard and Stanford. Players receive up to $15,000 for educational reimbursement.

The best basketball players generally depart college when their stock is highest, which often comes sooner rather than later in their university careers. About 21 percent of current N.B.A. players have undergraduate degrees, Rothstein Murman said. Some may not want to leave college early, but feel the responsibility of helping their families with financial burdens.

“To walk across the stage will be just as important as being drafted,” Durant said. “Maybe even more important because that lasts an entire lifetime.”

–Brian Linklater

University of Minnesota head football coach Tim Brewster received a letter of admonishment from athletic director Joel Maturi after the Minnesota announced three secondary rules violations to the NCAA.  Reported by the Star Tribune, Maturi’s letter to Brewster was dated August 10.

Three text messages from Brewster to prospective student-athletes in fall 2007 violated NCAA rules and resulted in the university’s report. The violations, according to Maturi, were minor.

“We have averaged 30-some secondary violations a year since I’ve been the athletic director here,” Maturi said Friday. “Some schools don’t report everything. We report everything here at the University of Minnesota. This is a violation that came to our attention. We reported it. Coach Brewster has had thousands of text messages. He happened to respond to three of those, to prospects, which is a violation.”

One was to respond to a text message wishing him luck in an upcoming contest, another to respond when a prospective student-athlete sent a text message saying he would be attending another school. Two of the three student-athletes involved ultimately signed national letters of intent to play for the Gophers.

A letter of admonishment is a standard response to a secondary violation, Maturi said.

-Brian Linklater

Last week, huge potential changes came out of the NCAA regarding phone calls to prospective student-athletes.  The Division I Recruiting and Athletics Personnel Issues Cabinet declared support behind a PAC-10 Conference sponsored proposal that will change the landscape of Division I recruiting.  The biggest rule changes are:

• Elimination of cap on phone calls to prospective student-athletes during a sports contact period.
• The increased prohibition regarding the distribution of media guides to recruits.
• Support for Proposal No. 2009-48, which would limit the number of prospective student-athletes in the Football Bowl Subdivision who may sign a National Letter of Intent or an institutional offer of financial aid from the first day of the signing period to 28.

If these rule changes are implemented, they have the potential to radically change the game of recruiting.

–Brian Linklater

The climate of collegiate soccer is transforming in a manner contradictory to all other conventional NCAA athletics.  Thus far, this change has gone unnoticed by the masses of soccer spectators.

Soccer, the most popular sport in the world, is still in its development phases in the United States.  Sports journalists have yet to predict when soccer will engulf mainstream media, sticking to the minds of U.S. sports fans similar to March Madness and the BCS Bowl Series.

It’s difficult to dispute that the sport has been growing.  This past summer, nearly four million viewers tuned in to watch the United States Men’s National Team play Brazil in the FIFA Confederations Cup Final, with many more viewing on Spanish-language TV Networks.

Beneath the professional tournaments, however, a debate is emerging over the future of youth soccer development and the primary focus is at the collegiate level.  Mauricio Cruz, a staff writer for the Harvard Crimson poses the question:

Where does college soccer fit in the landscape of American player development?

Ten years ago, 72 percent of the U.S. Under-20 (U20) roster for the FIFA Youth World Cup concurrently played ball in college. In 2007 the US U20 roster—featuring senior Harvard striker Andre Akpan—only had five players in college; the rest of the team consisted of professionals. The 2009 Youth World Cup is currently underway, and only 33 percent of the U.S. roster is affiliated with a college squad. What’s caused this rapid shift away from college soccer as the primary feeder to our national teams?

The answer is two-fold. First, the structure of college soccer itself has hampered the development of its players. With its arcane rules and limited play time (colleges typically play 20-25 games through the fall and winter, whereas similarly-aged players in Europe and South America play 10-month, full-length seasons), the average American soccer player isn’t receiving the same level of soccer that his counterparts across the world are.

Secondly, the increased competitiveness and viability of Major League Soccer have placed a greater emphasis on American professional clubs to scout the best possible talent. Recently, that has meant signing foreign youth players from overlooked areas like Africa and developing sophisticated youth development academies.

From a spectator and fan perspective, when you’re watching March Madness, you’re watching the best American basketball players.  In the BCS Bowl series, you’re watching future NFL stars.  If you want to watch the best young American soccer players, you may need to turn on an MLS or international match to do so.  This competitive landscape is beginning to hinder the talent of many top-notch NCAA soccer programs.

Is that necessarily a bad thing?  For fans of the collegiate game, the communities that support the teams, and the parents who hope their kids can obtain scholarships, the debate is just beginning.

What is difficult to discern is whether this trend will continue or if it is simply a fad among the American soccer youth.

Placing professional soccer aspirations aside, what does collegiate soccer offer the youth of America and others around the globe?  At the very least, talented soccer players are able to obtain a college degree, which allows them a future after the whistle blows.  This is perhaps the most underappreciated aspect of collegiate soccer programs because European professional academies quickly burn out young athletes and will not hesitate to cast them away if their skill diminishes.

-Brian Linklater

It’s about time that we can confidently say that Twitter is a part of popular culture that isn’t going away anytime soon.  Nearly every company or organization that deals with the public, including athletic departments, are seen to be ‘out of touch’ if they do not have an account.  College coaches that may just be getting used to email as a part of their daily lives are now being thrust into living their lives 140 characters at a time with this relationship-creating tool.  The question is, should student-athletes feel comfortable making connections with colleges coaches via twitter?

The answer is almost always no to initiating on Twitter, though coaches will try to make their best impression.  In fact, it’s surprising that the NCAA allowed Twitter to be used in the recruiting process at all.  The NCAA had the following to say on the topic:

“We view that option on Twitter the same as we view normal e-mails,” Cameron Schuh, Associate Director of Public and Media Relations for the NCAA, toldESPN.  “It’s just you can’t post those (direct messages) on your main page.”

“We view Twitter as a blog.  As long as coaches are on there talking about what they’re doing with their day and how their practice went or things like that – not getting into specific terms, that’s fine.  They can’t talk about a person they’re recruiting, or they can’t use it to talk about their whereabouts on a recruiting trip.”

Those coaching staffs that recognize the value of Twitter are jumping all over the chance to give their program greater visibility and give recruits a more personal look into the life of the head coach.  There is nothing wrong with following a head coach, there is no danger there and you could get some insight into the program (though a coach would obviously only put their best, most-impressive foot forward).  However, as soon as you enter the recruiting process, you should take action to secure your tweets.

Just like the problems with opening your Facebook profile to the recruiting process, you likely are not tweeting information for your friends that you would also like college coaches to have access to.  As soon as you enter the recruiting process,  you should privatize your account so that new followers have to be approved first.  This gives you the control over whether college coaches have access to your account.  Though there may be some that feel their tweets can improve their standing in the process, it’s a very unlikely situation that 140 characters could ever improve a coach’s opinion of you.  The creation of a new account specifically to follow coaches and for them to follow you is the best route for those that insist on relating via Twitter.

Twitter is revolutionizing communication for the instant gratification generation, and the recruiting process is not immune to the site.  Viewing the tool in the same light as Facebook instead of a loophole around the banning of text messages will ensure that you keep your best foot forward.  It’s unlikely that inviting coaches to follow you would help you, but it could definitely hurt you.

-Tom McGraw

An over-looked news topic has been circulating throughout the NCAA this week but it should not be.  Sarah Thomas is the first female referee for major NCAA football games.  Thomas was discovered by Gerald Austin, the coordinator of football officials for Conference USA during a high-pressure high school playoff game almost two years ago.

“She made one tough call after another and nailed every one of them,” Austin said. “There was no reason not to hire her.” Austin immediately invited her to an officials camp.

According to the New York Times’ article, Thomas was the first female official to work a Southwestern Atlantic Conference game this past weekend.  This is the first season she will be officiating an entire schedule of games.

She started as many others did, officiating for youth leagues and studying for tests as she worked her way through middle school and junior varsity games.

So it felt right when she accompanied her older brother, Lea Bailey, to a meeting of the Gulf Coast Football Officials Association in 1996. Thomas was immediately intrigued by the team aspect of an officiating crew and how much she did not know about the rules of football.

Now she is considered to be paving the way for future NCAA female referees in male-dominated sports such as football.

She and her fellow officials say her gender has never been an issue. At Tulane, Thomas scrutinized the line of scrimmage and ran the field in concert with the six other officials. Coach Bob Toledo and his staff shook hands and exchanged pleasantries with her as they did all the crew members.

Thomas has also worked the New Orleans Saints’ training camps, and her name comes up as the most likely contender when the N.F.L. decides to add a female official.

“They have got to look at her,” Austin said. “She’s too good.”

–Brian Linklater

The college recruiting process is one that is continually ever-changing.  If you don’t think so, you just have to look at the box score on recent NCAA Division I football games.  Last weekend, Houston University upset #5 ranked Oklahoma State 45-35.  Two weeks ago, Navy nearly upset #6 Ohio State University at the Horseshoe.  These two universities aren’t considered the ‘cream of the crop’ in collegiate football.  They are recruiting the best players they can get.  After all, that is why coaches recruit every day they can, so they can consistently bring in the top tier of talent available to them, compete, and win (in Houston University’s case).  Ivan Maisel of ESPN has begun to address the intriguing concept of how smaller athletic programs  are leveling the playing field.

(AP Photo/Brody Schmidt)

The coverage of recruiting has never been greater. Yet recruiting itself still consists of guesswork. Experience, intuition and legwork combine to paint a picture of a boy becoming a man. What kind of man will he be? What kind of player?  NCAA rules prevent college coaches from spending a lot of time with prospects. It is a way to level the playing field. That’s not how it used to be.

In his seminal 1966 story about the recruiting of Abilene, Texas, blue-chip senior quarterback Jack Mildren, Dan Jenkins wrote in Sports Illustrated that Oklahoma assistant coach Barry Switzer “was practically camping on the Mildrens’ front lawn.”

Mildren signed with Oklahoma, where he became one of the first great triple-option quarterbacks.

The biggest concern that coaches have is figuring how to get to know a prospect well enough to decide whether to entrust him with their program. They spend little time with prospects, yet the marketplace demands that the coaches make decisions faster.

The late bloomers, in the meantime, become prospects after the top schools have run out of scholarships. Oregon, for one, has thrived upon finding players who went unnoticed in the rush to hand out commitments.

In the old days, the powers that be could sign bloomers early and late. The NCAA scholarship limit bloated to 140 players. Coaches such as Bear Bryant of Alabama and Darrell Royal of Texas signed players thinking, if he can’t play for us, at least he can’t play against us.

Today’s coach couldn’t hoard players even if he wanted to. The scholarship limit is 85. And some coaches have figured out that signing the best 25 players does not a team make.

“The coaches that we hire look at our talent when they come in and say, ‘I’m surprised. It’s not as good as I thought,’”[Paul] Brown [of Texas] said. “I say, ‘Well, you’re going to be surprised on Saturday. They’re going to play better than they are.’ Since we’ve got good kids, they play hard every Saturday. They’re not flat much. We may not play good, but we’re not going to blow games any more because our kids have pride and they are going to play.”

–Brian Linklater

Oklahoma is reporting several secondary NCAA rules violations.  The university describes these violations as “inadvertent” phone calls and text messages by various coaches across several sports.

The documents indicate head football coach Bob Stoops and assistant football coach Jackie Shipp and assistant women’s basketball coach Stacy Hansmeyer made impermissible calls to one prospect each, while head women’s basketball coach Sherri Coale inadvertently sent a prospect a text message.

–Brian Linklater

Kansas coach Bill Self, Image by Danny Johnston/Ap

This summer has been a whirlwind for NCAA Division I basketball coaches and programs.  Coaches, staff, current players, and potential athletes are being picked up and put down in different places all over the country.  SportingNews published an article discussing how players and coaches no longer remain solely committed to one school, which has changed the landscape for college recruiting.

What do Bill Self of Kansas, Bob Huggins of West Virginia, and John Calipari of Kentucky all have in common?

One or more key players on their current rosters were the product of little more than providence.

This summer alone:

• Championship favorite Kansas will likely start two players who signed letters of intent with other schools, then wound up at KU because of coaching changes elsewhere. Sophomore guard Tyshawn Taylor signed at Marquette but chose the Jayhawks after coach Tom Crean moved to Indiana. Incoming wing Xavier Henry signed at Memphis but will play for Self because Calipari exchanged his Tigers apparel for Kentucky gear.

• Kentucky only wound up with McDonald’s All-American center DeMarcus Cousins because of Calipari’s move. Cousins committed to attend Memphis last winter but was free to choose another school following the coaching change.

• Guard Scottie Reynolds will be a Villanova senior this year and already made himself a legend in the program with his driving basket to beat Pitt and advance the Wildcats to the 2009 Final Four. But he wouldn’t even have played at Nova had not Kelvin Sampson left Oklahoma in 2006, leading Reynolds to seek a release from his letter of intent with the Sooners.

• Forward Damion James has scored 1,306 career points for Texas teams that have won five NCAA Tournament games in three years, after initially signing with Sampson and Oklahoma.

• In a much different way, Sampson also played Santa for West Virginia, which wound up with talented forward Devin Ebanks after Sampson was forced to resign at Indiana. Ebanks is a spectacular talent who could be a breakout star as a sophomore. But he’d committed to IU before Huggins had gotten settled at WVU.

The letter of intent now has become so easy to escape there is no real disadvantage for prospects to sign in November. A player can get a guaranteed spot at his first choice, stop all the recruiting calls and hassle. And if a coaching change alters the circumstances in a way he does not like, he merely can request a release and go shopping again, in a buyer’s market.

A half-dozen years ago, all these coaches would have faced dramatically different circumstances this season. It was extremely uncommon then for a player to be released from a letter of intent because the coach he signed to play for was fired — or hired by another program.

Huggins acknowledges, “You almost want to leave a scholarship open to be ready for what happens in the spring.”

One thing is for certain, parody and excitement surrounds this coach-player-university carousel for the upcoming basketball season.  Who will come out on top?  Well, the answer to that question is still up in the air.

–Brian Linklater

September 1, 2009 is a day that passes for many individuals unnoticed, just another ordinary day.  However, for thousands of high school athletes, September 1 is circled in large red Sharpie marker on a calendar.

Yesterday, college coaches across the nation are allowed by NCAA guidelines to return emails to prospective athletes.  What should you expect as an athlete and a student?  First of all, don’t expect a flood of correspondence from hundreds of universities and colleges.  Second, don’t plan on sitting around waiting for these coaches to find you.  As an athlete, you need to increase your correspondence to college coaches two-fold.  Don’t expect to hear back from these coaches immediately, they are just as busy if not more busy than you are.  It may take anywhere from 2-5 emails for one return response.  Dedication and perseverance is key, and JumpForward is here to help.

Getting a response from a coach is a difficult, yet attainable task.  The most important thing to include in an email to a coach is a “call to action.”  A call to action can be most easily described as a request for an individual to do something.  In this case, you want the coach to be able to respond to you in a swift and simple manner.  Even if you only receive one to two sentences from the coach, you are still gaining a response and he is “taking action” in correspondence with you.

Several examples of calls to action are as follows:  Would you be able to give me the contact information of a current player who I can ask questions about University of Wisconsin and the program?  Will you be travelling to camp XYZ this fall?  Do you need any supplemental information (i.e. grades, classes enrolled, SAT/ACT)?  How many players are you looking to recruit for the catcher position?

JumpForward allows athletes to search hundreds of colleges, coaches, and programs and quickly contact those of interest.  Our database also allows coaches to search for your profile and immediately browse your accomplishments, credentials, highlight videos and athletic history.  Click here to create profile.

–Brian Linklater

Recently, Twitter is more popular in the sports world than in Hollywood.  Twitter’s downfalls have reared their ugly head yet again as a high-profile men’s basketball coach will now cease to use the social networking application and website.

Jim Larranaga, George Mason University’s men’s basketball coach tweeted a “tongue-in-cheek,” “sarcastic comment,” in which he mocks a recent piece of NCAA legislation allowing institutions to offer “fruits, nuts and bagels” to student-athletes after practices and workouts.  Larranga sarcastically points out that cream cheese is wrongly scorned from the approved legislation.  “There is nothing I like better than a dry bagel after a workout.  LOL,” he tweeted earlier this month.

Larranaga decided to start twittering when his staff suggested it to him earlier this summer.  “I was coming off hip replacement, going to be home for five weeks, and it seemed like a good way to keep in touch with fans.”

While on the Mike Wise Show, Larranaga had an opportunity to discuss his tweet on a legislation that he admits is “a very good rule.”  Larranaga believes, “I made a comment that has been blown out of proportion and used to fuel some other columns, and I didn’t feel good about that.”

The end result?  “Well, that kind of ends my twittering.  As we reach the end of August now, we’re getting ready to start school, and the focus of my attention is going to be on preparing our George Mason men’s basketball team…for the season.”

–Brian Linklater

Seemed like just yesterday Billy Gillispie was the talk of the College Basketball world.

Now he’s getting pulled over for DUIs.

Gillispie has probably hit the bottle even harder than he was before back in his days at UTEP.  The pressure of the Kentucky program is unreal.  Gillispie was starting to get some talent into that program, but these damn Rupp Arena idiots weren’t patient enough.  Give the man some time!

The biggest downfall for Gillispie had to of been his personality and not suckin the teets of all the Kentucky Hoops boosters.  What is it with these big-time programs and “boosters”.  I’d say keep your money and kiss my ass.  I guess that’s why I’m not a College coach.

What Gillispie should have done was built something special at Texas A&M, rather than take the Kentucky job.  He could have built a Big XII powerhouse without all the scrutinies and pressure of ‘ol Kentucky.

Hopefully Billy can get his life back on track after this.  I’m sure he has taken things hard since what went down in Lexington.  He’s in his 40s and not married, so he probably just mentally beats the hell out of himself.  He shouldn’t though.  The Kentucky hoops fans are some of the biggest idiots around.  Where are you clowns for your football program?