ODD’S N ENDS

Stopped by the Bentley Colleges vs. UMass Lowell baseball game on March 24th. I can write a whole story about recruiting based on this game and the two schools. First off, Bentley has a beautiful baseball facility that was built in 2002. The field measures 340 down the line and 410 to center, hefty numbers for a small D2 college in New England. Bentley claims the alleys are 375, but they look more like 475. In 2001, prior to the field being build, Bentley broke the Division 2 record for most home runs in a season with 98 home runs in 41 games. In 2002 at the new field they hit 55 home runs but part of that was due to the fact that a few talented players graduated. In 2003 Bentley only hit 6 home runs. Why the drastic change? Well, in 2003 the Northeast Ten Conference switched to wooden bats. Did I mention the field is 340 down the line and the wind blows in for every game? So what does all this mean? Well, a few things. One, ask yourself if you want to play college baseball for 4 years hitting with wood? Some players love it, for others, it’s a challenge. I weighed a 155 pounds in college and wasn’t particularly strong, so hitting with wood for me might not have been that enjoyable. In fact, my sophomore year we used wood composite bats in the fall and it was torture at the time for not only me but everyone. Two, how is this going to affect your ability to not only get recruited, but to compete at that level if you have no experience hitting with wood. You may be an accomplished high school hitter, but hitting with a wood bat can be a pretty humbling experience. So, if you are interested in playing baseball at any of the 16 Northeast Ten Conference schools that use wood bats, you would be well served by finding a way to work wood bats into your hitting practice during high school, and, it might be good to make a separate recruiting video for any of these schools where your hitting is done with wood! As far as UMass Lowell’s field goes, well it doesn’t get any better. They play at Lelacheur Park, home of the Lowell Spinners, a minor league team for the Boston Red Sox. This stadium is also relatively new (built in 98) and would be an amazing place to be able to play college baseball at for four years!

Back to the game. Playing baseball in New England takes a thick soul. After a spring trip that might include a stop in Florida, teams return to New England where it might be 60 degrees or, like in yesterday’s game, there might be a 5 minute delay in the game because the snow flurries were so thick, the pitcher couldn’t see the ball coming off the batters bat. So after you ask yourself if you could play in this weather for fours years, you need to ask yourself if you could sit on the bench for one or two years before before the coach thinks you are ready to play in 32 degree weather. But, if you remember why you are at school – EDUCATION – playing in cold weather will be an afterthought. Let’s look at the Bentley roster now. There are only 5 state represented on the roster – Connecticut (1), Massachusetts (17), New Hampshire (1), Rhode Island (1), and New York (5). Bentley is a private school and while they offer majors other than business, they are predominantly known as a business school. Bentley also costs $45,000 a year with room and board, so right away they are going to attract and/or recruit a certain type of student. The school is somewhat challenging to get into because of it’s business focus (and because every private school in New England is impossible to get into) and receives roughly 7,000 applications a year with about a 36% acceptance rate and roughly 75% of their admitted class is in the top 25% of their high school class. Like many private New England college athletic programs, Bentley doesn’t have to venture far from campus to recruit potential players. So if you want to be recruited by Bentley, you need to be a very good student, should probably want to major in business, have your finances in order to the point where you might have to pay $40,000 for college unless you can get some financial aid or grants, and live with in proximity to where the coaching staff can evaluate you in some capacity. Oh, and be able to hit with wood bats!

Let’s take a look at the UMass Lowell roster. There are also 5 states represented – Vermont (1) New Hampshire (4) New York (1), Miami Florida (1) not sure that player enjoyed the snow at the game? And Massachusetts (24). UMass Lowell is a state school. When allocating athletic scholarship money, coaches will tend to recruit high school athletes form their home state because they can stretch their scholarship money to more recruits. Tuition at UMass Lowell is roughly $10,00 per year for in-state students and about $23,000 for out-of-state students not factoring in room-and-board for either figure! Don’t be fooled by the $1,454 tuition fee that UMass Lowell says they charge as there is an additional $9,000 (for in-state students) of what is eloquently called “Operating Fee’s.” Operating fees are a fancy name that state schools use for tuition in an attempt to get to smile when they tell families that tuition at their school is only $1,454 per year!

Both UMass Lowell and Bentley may have a few scholarships to offer, but they may only have a few scholarships to offer. State schools in Massachusetts provide little athletic money in the form of scholarships for sports, especially sports that generate no money for the school which is pretty much every sport! That money is being divided up amongst several players. If you are UMass Lowell, there is probably enough players to recruit in Massachusetts alone to field a competitive team and being able to offer a player even $3,000 dollars to come to your school can cover a third of his tuition. Offering an out-of-state player $3,0000 will leave him with a $20,000 tuition bill that needs to be paid somehow. While the Bentley roster and the UMass Lowell roster have roughly the same number of players from Massachusetts, my guess would be that finances are of less concern for the players interested in attending Bentley. In UMass Lowell’s case, coach Harring likes to see players play in person and very few coaches have the time or money to travel the country to recruit when they can recruit in their own backyard! As far as admission statistics go, I gave up trying to find them for UMass Lowell which was a little frustrating. In 2007 they received 4,500 applications and accepted about 70% of those students.

State Schools - In Division I, 66 percent of colleges (out of 335 colleges) are public institutions. 34 percent are private colleges. Getting recruited by a public college may be much different than for a private college. A public college will tend to recruit more high school athletes that live in their state. There are a few reasons for this. Many state colleges will not be fully funded athletically, meaning they will not have the full allotment of athletic scholarships that the NCAA says they can offer. This is simply about finances, and many state colleges are subsidized by taxpayer money and those colleges are not going to give away what little money they have to high school recruits, especially those that play sports that generate little or no money. When a coach has less scholarship money at a State school to allocate to recruits, it’s easier to recruit high school athletes that live in your state simply because tuition will be much less for an in-state student. A private college which might cost $35,000 more per year than a public college might have more scholarship money to use and might have a coaching staff that is funded better. A better funded coaching staff and more money might mean a given private college can expand their recruiting reach further from their home state and even across the country or globe! A private school also might target high school athletes coming from families who have a higher income, because you cannot recruit a player that simply cannot afford to pay for their tuition. On the other hand, you might find many private schools recruiting very successful academic students from lower earning families and providing those athletes with more institutional aid. While it might be fantastic to want to play Soccer at a school in the University of California system, you need to know that the coaches at those colleges have not only an unlimited supply of local soccer talent in their home state, but they can stretch their limited recruiting dollars further by recruiting players that have to pay less tuition to attend their home state University.

Frank Martin, Kansas State head basketball coach had a great quote recently. He said “the great thing about life is that it’s not always easy but it’s fair, we all got 24 hours a day and what we do with those 24 hours determines how we are rewarded!”

Arkansas is reviewing a report suggesting coach John Pelphrey had contact with a pair of 2012 recruits. The report includes a picture of Pelphrey with Sylvan Hills (Ark.) High standout Archie Goodwin and teammate Trey Smith at a high school tournament last December. NCAA rules say coaches cannot have off-campus contact with a prospect until the July 1 following the prospect's junior year in high school.

There was an article recently about a former college basketball coach who was replaced recently with several years left on his contract. In an attempt to describe what a good coach this coach was, one of his former assistants said the following. “He won games, he graduated his players, and in 22 years, you can count on one hand the number of players who have gotten arrested or gotten into trouble.” I think the goal of any college coach should to have ZERO players arrested.

I’m less concerned that Oregon paid a recruiting service $25,000 for a recruiting package that included video of player filmed in about 15 states. I am more concerned that they paid $3,745 to Badger Sports Elite, which runs several 7-on-7 camps. When a college starts paying a camp for who knows what, that is more of a red flag for me!

The State of Massachusetts will mandate in 2016 that all high school graduates that wish to enter State colleges will be required to complete 4 years of math in high school. Currently only 3 years is required.

NEWS ON INDIVIDUAL COLLEGES

Harvard University and Princeton University are bringing back early action to their admission program. The two schools set precedents a few years ago when they became two of the highest level colleges to remove early action citing the fact that it was unfair against lower income applicants who didn’t have the opportunities to research and/or visit schools at the same level of other high school students. Apparently the schools now feel not having an early action application program is hurting the schools ability to attract top academic high school students who are applying early to other elite colleges. The changes go into effect for the class of 2016. While admission is non-binding through the new early action program, high school students will not be allowed to apply early action or early decision to any other colleges if they choose to apply early to Harvard or Princeton.

Northeastern University hockey coach is back from a six game suspension following several self-reported recruiting violations, among them several improper phone calls and text messages. Text messaging if you didn’t know is banned by the NCAA for the purposes of recruitment. The confusion in this case the coach said, stemmed from the fact that texting and additional phone calls are apparently allowed to recruits after they have signed a National Letter of Intent.

Reinhardt University (Georgia) will add football to the University's intercollegiate athletics program. Reinhardt currently sponsors and offers athletic aid in 16 sports programs, including cheerleading, and football would be the 17th program. We will offer more than 100 football scholarships and these athletes will join with the 240 scholarship student-athletes already competing in 16 intercollegiate sports on campus. Game 1 takes place September 2013. Reinhardt University is a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) and the Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) in all sports except for men's and women's lacrosse. New fields and a dorm are also scheduled to accommodate the 100 additional athletes that the new football program will bring to the school.

UNC Greensboro is eliminating its wrestling program. Thirty-five wrestlers and two full-time coaches will be directly affected by the decision of which 23 players are currently receiving athletic scholarship money. The summer wrestling camp at the college has also been canceled. Title 9 compliance was one factor in the decision.

The University of Nebraska-Omaha is dropping football and wrestling as it readies itself for a move from Division 2 to Division 1. This news comes about a week after the wrestling team won the Division 2 National Championship which was their third straight and sixth in eight years!

Beginning Fall of 2011 the University of Massachusetts will offer students who transfer from Massachusetts community colleges with a minimum 2.5 grade-point average priority course registration and housing, scholarships to cover hefty student fees. UMass apparently has a policy no one knows about that guarantees admission to any Massachusetts community college graduate who ears a 2.5 GPA. And apparently they will waive tuition for community college graduates with a 3.0 GPA....Don’t get too excited, you still need to come up with 10K in housing and most State Colleges have more fees than Bank of America that are not included in the actual published tuition price!