- With all of the talk about scholarship reform and of power conferences moving towards creating a separate division the news that the Pac-12 has passed a measure that would lead to significant reforms in scholarships is certainly noteworthy. Beginning with next season, all athletes receiving scholarships will be guaranteed four-year scholarship, be able to return to complete their degree if they do not graduate in four years, increased medical support, removing many of the restrictions on intra-conference transfers, and increased representation in conference governance. The conference also stated that it intends to provide cost of attendance stipends, which are expected to range between $2,000 and $5,000 per athlete. While we will need to see this in action to fully embrace it as reality, it appears to be a significant step towards scholarship reform and might lead other major conferences to follow suit.
- We are less than three weeks away from the college basketball season starting, but Central Connecticut State might have suffered a big blow with the news that Kyle Vinales had been suspended indefinitely following his arrest on Friday for disorderly conduct and third-degree assault. According to reports, Vinales is accused of hitting his girlfriend in the head as he was exiting her car slightly before midnight. Vinales was the team’s leading scorer last season at 17.3 points per game, which was actually a career low. While we normally brush off these indefinite suspensions the fact that Vinales is not due in court until December 5 could indicate that he could be sitting for at least the first three weeks of the season.
- At this point we are not sure how much further we can go with this recruiting announcement culture. On Monday night, Skal Labisserie, a five-star recruit in the class of 2015, announced that he would be attending Reach Your Dream Prep, a school that does not even exist yet, for his senior year. Labisserie’s story is a little more complex than committing to a non-existent school this late in the academic year. He will actually be attending Memphis’ Lausanne Collegiate School, but he was declared ineligible by the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association. Now Labisserie and his legal guardian are trying to circumvent the system. While this might work to get him to play high school basketball we are not sure that it will fly with the NCAA.
- One of the things we have been looking forward to this season is how John Calipari would implement his idea of creating “platoons” for his deep Kentucky roster. On Monday, Calipari revealed his first draft of the platoons prior to the team’s annual Blue-White scrimmage with one group consisting of he Harrison twins, Willie Cauley-Stein, Trey Lyles, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Derek Willis and the other made up of Tyler Ulis, Devin Booker, Alex Poythress, Marcus Lee, Dakari Johnson, and Dominique Hawkins. At this stage it appears that the former is well ahead of the latter as that group won the scrimmage 94-66. Although these groups intuitively make sense as the starting and second lines we would expect them to be dynamic as Calipari tinkers with them to make them more effective.
- Every year the NCAA’s report on the graduation rates of student-athletes are picked apart by many analysts eager to criticize the organization. This year is no different especially with several schools dealing with very public academic scandals. The headline numbers in the NCAA’s latest release show that student-athlete graduation rates have increased from 82% graduating in six years to 84% doing so (full searchable database here). The men’s college basketball numbers are less impressive with just 74% graduating, which is actually up by one percent from last year and a record for the sport. As critics point out these numbers just scratch the surface as some of these athletes who graduate are just kept eligible so they can produce for the university and sometimes are able to graduate without getting an education. Now an argument can be made that the diploma itself has some value as a signal mechanism that goes beyond just an education.