Wreck Ramblin

Hewitt & Evans to help NCAA re. lack of black coaches

[LINK] Mike Knobler, AJC

The people who coach and run college sports are overwhelmingly white and male. All 11 Division I-A conference commissioners are white men. While a quarter of the men playing Division I sports are black, only one of every 14 Division I male head coaches is black. There are more men coaching women than women coaching women.

NCAA president Myles Brand called the lack of black head football coaches "intolerable" and the lack of women and minority athletics directors and conference commissioners "egregious." He has formed a task force to do something about it.

Georgia athletics director Damon Evans and Georgia Tech men's basketball coach Paul Hewitt are among the 40 people charged with tackling the issue, and NCAA vice president Charlotte Westerhaus pledged Sunday that their work won't lead to a report put on a shelf to gather dust.

"It will not be rhetoric. It will not be aspirational. It will have goals that can be countable," said Westerhaus, who is chairing the task force along with former Ohio State athletics director Andy Geiger.

NCAA to take some schollies based on APR report

[LINK] Steve Herman, AP

Football, baseball and men's basketball appear to be the Division I sports in greatest jeopardy of NCAA sanctions when the governing body releases an academic progress report next month.

Sports failing to meet NCAA standards for eligibility and progress toward graduation could lose scholarships for one year under the academic reform package approved by the NCAA two years ago.

Walter Harrison, chairman of the NCAA Committee on Academic Performance, said Sunday about 55 percent of the member colleges and universities have completed the reporting. The remaining 45 percent are still requesting adjustments or waivers, and "we're granting many more than we're denying."

The NCAA last month released its findings on graduation rates, and it reported 76 percent of Division I athletes who entered college in 1995-96 had graduated. The separate academic progress report, expected by late February, will be based on the number of athletes on each team who achieve eligibility and return to campus full time each term.

Colleges will be given yearly assessments. They will have the opportunity to explain unusual circumstances for a low progress rate and to appeal any penalties.

"There seems to be no significant problems in women's sports and nonrevenue sports," Harrison said during the NCAA convention. "Football, men's basketball and baseball seem to have the most penalties, but that should be no surprise."

He said individual schools that face penalties already have been notified, but they would not be identified until the complete progress rate list is finished.

For NCAA efforts to increase the % of black and female coaches, see the continuation

NCAA alters APR accounting

[LINK] USA Today's Jack Carey writes:

A new method for calculating graduation rates will give the NCAA a more accurate picture of how college athletes are performing, according to preliminary data presented Tuesday by the NCAA to the Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics.

As part of the NCAA's academic reform package — the Academic Performance Rate — the new measurement of grad rates will, for the first time, account for athletes who transfer into and out of a school. The federal graduation rate formula used by the NCAA did not count transfer students, which hurt the grad rates of schools that brought in transfers from other institutions or lost transfers to other programs.

Duke climbs out of ESPN's 'Bottom 10'

David Duffey of ESPN ranks the Bottom 10.

Once-powerful Pitt and sometimes semi-powerful Stanford find themselves gettting the dubious distinction.

Glad there was no such list back when Bill Lewis was coach at GT in the early 90s.

LINK

Gator Bowl offers to host Sugar Bowl

Garry Smits of the Morris News Service reports:

The Gator Bowl Association has extended an invitation to the Sugar Bowl to hold its 2006 game at Alltel Stadium, pending approval by the city of Jacksonville and provided it doesn't interfere with the operation of the 2006 Gator Bowl on Monday, Jan. 2.                

Currently, the Sugar Bowl game is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 2, but the game date could be moved.

Gator Bowl volunteer chairman Mike Hartley said another possible option for the Sugar Bowl would be to use LSU's Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge.

                                                                                                                                                        

NCAA tightens spearing rule

According to a USA Today report:

The NCAA previously defined spearing as "the intentional use of the helmet (including the face mask) in an attempt to punish an opponent."

"Intent" has been dropped: The new rule says spearing is the use of the helmet (including the face mask) "to butt or ram an opponent or attempt to punish him. ... No player shall strike a runner with the crown or the top of his helmet in an attempt to punish him."

Officials no longer have to ascertain intent before calling an infraction.

AP preseason poll out

ESPN reports the rankings.

GT didn't make the Top 25, but five ACC teams did:

8 VT
9 Miami
13 FSU
22 BC
25 UVA

GT received the 4th most votes beyond 25, so unofficially is #29, just out of range.

Auburn continues to get less than the respect it demands. Despite going 13-0 last season and Tubs statement that this might be his most talented team ever, the Tigers are ranked only 16th.

ESPN features O'Leary at UCF

ESPN is featuring George O'Leary, who left GT to coach at ND (you know the rest of the story) today.

Despite an 0-11 season last year, George expresses optimism for the future:

"With a campus stadium coming in 2007, there's no question I think it's going to be a great situation for us because everything else is in place,'' O'Leary said. "We're getting the right athletes in that can help us win, and I think if we can get through this season where the only goal they have is to get to a bowl game … if we do things right, I think we have a chance.

Gotta give the man credit for putting the past behind him and concentrating on the job at hand.

Reggie Ball not on Davey O'Brien watchlist

The Davey O'Brien Foundation announced its watchlist yesterday, and Reggie Ball is not one of the 33.

Three ACC QBs (from BC, CU, and VT) did make the list.

But, the winner will be based on on-field performance. If RB has a breakout year, and throws mostly to those wearing jerseys of the same color as his own, he has a chance.

You probably recall Joe Hamilton won the award in 1999 (and just missed winning the Heisman). Here's what the Foundation says about "Litlle Joe:"

Joe Hamilton finished his career as the most prolific offensive player in Georgia Tech and Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) history. He enjoyed one of the best seasons in ACC annals in leading the Yellow Jackets to an 8-4 record and their third straight bowl game. Hamilton was second in the nation in passing efficiency with a rating of 175.0, the sixth-best season rating in NCAA history. In addition, he was second nationally in total offense with 344.9 yards per game while directing a unit that led the nation in total offense and second in scoring. Tech’s second-leading rusher, his 734 yards rushing is the most in NCAA Division I-A history by a 3,000–yard passer. Hamilton was drafted and has played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for three seasons.

Joe's height restricted his success in the pros, even though he was a master at finding receivers over a line he couldn't see across in college. Wes Durham has selected him as color man for the GT broadcasts on CSS this fall.