Double standards

College athletes should enjoy same freedom as their coaches

Free the slaves!

OK, that may be a bit dramatic. But it got your attention, which some college athletes seem unable to do unless they lie, cheat or steal. (There was no shortage of those actions during the recent college football and basketball seasons as St. Bonaventure, Georgia, Arkansas and several other schools fell on their swords after admitting to having stomped on numerous NCAA rules.) College recruits and athletes, their parents and advisors have long lobbied for the right to switch schools after a head coach leaves for another job. And yet, year after year, as coaches pursue opportunities with bigger and better and richer programs, groups of young athletes throughout the nation are left shocked, teary-eyed, and with few options -- other than to wait and see whom will be dragged in to pick up the pieces.

This is not to say that coaches should not pursue career growth (as do the rest of us). In a sports utopia, the word loyalty would engender more than snickers when it is uttered. But in reality, most coaches believe in the adage that they're hired to be fired someday anyway, so they have to get while the getting's good.

Dozens of coaches in recent months, in sports ranging from football and basketball to ice hockey and swimming, have been enticed by new challenges at schools such as UCLA, Georgia and, of course, North Carolina, where Roy Williams returns as a conquering native son to take over a storied basketball program that has lost its way. In their wake, numerous young men and women are in limbo, unsure of their future under coaches who never recruited them and for whom they did not choose to play.

Under NCAA rules, if a student transfers to another school (whether to follow a coach or simply to play for a different coach of his choosing) he must sit out at least one season. A recruit who has signed a letter of intent can be subject to an even harsher penalty: If the school does not release the signee, the player must sit out two years should he choose not to attend a school where the coach who came into his home and persuaded him to commit to the program is suddenly gone. (If the school releases him, the one-year rule applies; both penalties can be eliminated if the player wins an appeal to the letter-of-intent steering committee.)

Critics of these penalties claim young athletes should be restricted from moving on a whim. Agreed. They also say that recruits ultimately decide to attend a school, not to play for a particular coach. Maybe in that nonexistent sports utopia, but not in a world where coaches -- not professors or administrators -- travel thousands of miles to grovel at the feet of young athletes and their parents. These kids, in most instances, are swayed by the words and personalities of the men and women who hold their fate in their hands and thus should be allowed to change their minds when the coaches in whom they put their faith depart.

The week, Williams inadvertently (or not?) ignited a firestorm when, during an interview on ESPN, he declared that the young men he recruited should have a "small window of opportunity" to change their minds and attend another school (North Carolina?) without penalty. The comment put a few noses out of joint in Lawrence, where the athletic program is teetering with no athletic director (Al Bohl was fired April 9 in what seemed to be a vain attempt to entice Williams, who reportedly loathed the AD, to stay), no basketball coach and a weak football program. The Jayhawks desperately want to hold onto a prized 7-foot recruit who signed with Kansas after pondering Tar Heel blue. Said Williams: "When you're talking about a youngster like David Padgett, who narrowed his decision down to Kansas and North Carolina, and his dad said he wanted to play for you -- man, that's hard."

Padgett's father, Pete, has made no promises. He told the Associated Press that his son could change his mind. "We're taking a step back to see who gets hired at Kansas," he said. "If David feels like it's somebody he would like to play for, then I would think he would want to come to KU. If not, we're going to pursue the possibility of his release."

Good for him. Padgett and the dozens of other young athletes and recruits still recovering from the shock of the departure of their coach should have the same opportunities to pursue their dreams as the men and women who left them behind.

Roy S. Johnson is an assistant managing editor for Sports Illustrated. His "Pass the Word" column appears on SI.com every Friday. Catch Johnson on CNN Headline news every Thursday at 3:40 p.m. ET.

 

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