I saw this article in yesterday's Plain Dealer. It seems that this 16-year old rule in question only potentionally "hurts" players at a university on the quarter system. Note that this is an AFCA rule, not an NCAA rule. Is it time for OSU and the other quarter system universities to ask that this rule be looked at or not?
Classes leaving Buckeyes left out
Sunday, May 07, 2006Doug Lesmerises
Plain Dealer Reporter
Columbus- Ohio State is a football factory. For the last 16 years, an NFL rule has forced Buckeyes bound for the pros to show up late for work.
An agreement originally intended to prevent pro teams from forcing players to drop out of school after the NFL draft serves now to set back rookies from nine Division I universities that don't hold graduation until June.
The rule, enforced by the NFL and created with the encouragement of the American Football Coaches Association in 1990, limits players to one minicamp with his NFL team while school is still in session. Most colleges, which hold commencement by the middle of May, aren't affected because school's out by the second round of minicamps.
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<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript"> <!-- if (parseFloat(navigator.appVersion) == 0) { document.write('<IFRAME WIDTH=468 HEIGHT=60 MARGINWIDTH=0 MARGINHEIGHT=0 HSPACE=0 VSPACE=0 FRAMEBORDER=0 SCROLLING=no BORDERCOLOR="#000000" SRC="http://ads.cleveland.com/RealMedia/ads/adstream_sx.ads/www.cleveland.com/xml/story/s2/s2osf/@StoryAd"></IFRAME>'); } --></script> <noscript> </noscript> Not so for colleges on the quarter system that don't hold spring exams until June. No school has more players affected than Ohio State, which had 35 players in the NFL at the start of last season and is sending 14 more to pro camps this year, nine as drafted players and five more as free agents.
While players like first-round picks A.J. Hawk of Green Bay and Santonio Holmes with Pittsburgh may fall a bit behind, the players hurt most by missing 10 to 15 early practices are the free agents hoping to catch a coach's eye.
"Santonio Holmes is going to be a Pittsburgh Steeler no matter what," said agent Jeff Chilcoat. "For guys more on the fringe, you're several weeks behind someone else at that same position. I believe if you have two guys even up, and one guy has an extra three or four weeks in the system, that's an advantage."
Chilcoat was talking about the effect on one of his clients, defensive tackle Marcus Green, who signed with the New York Giants. Defensive end/linebacker Mike Kudla, who signed as a free agent with the Steelers, faces the same battle.
"I'll have my playbook and I'll have a chance to learn things, but I won't be able to work on a one-on-one basis," said Kudla, who is allowed to attend the Steelers' first camp next weekend, then nothing else until OSU exams end on June 8.
Kudla, who spends the time working out on campus, isn't complaining. It's a Buckeye fact of life. "Every guy goes through it," Kudla said. "It's part of the process."
Fifth-year players are exempt from the rule since their class already graduated. So, OSU free agents Ryan Hamby with the Cincinnati Bengals and Josh Huston with the Chicago Bears won't miss anything.
Though sometimes assumed to be an NCAA mandate, the NCAA has no connection to the agreement. It came about through the powerful AFCA when college football coaches grew tired of NFL teams prying players away for sometimes monthlong camps the moment they were drafted.
"It was a horrible amount of lost time in the classroom," said AFCA Executive Director Grant Teaff. "The youngsters would go to four or five minicamps, and they were flunking out left and right."
The limit on minicamps was the best way to change that. Now, the NCAA's Academic Progress Rate penalizes colleges for players who don't graduate while in bad academic standing.
"The truth of the matter is, the AFCA was concerned about this long before the NCAA stepped into it in any way with the APR concept," Teaff said.
But now that there's a different incentive for staying in school, maybe it's time for this 16-year-old rule to fade away. The few players and colleges affected could use their own judgment to work out missed class time.
The NFL's not inclined to abolish the rule. And neither is Teaff.
"We're very comfortable with the rule," he said. "But if Ohio State and 10 other institutions said we need to look at this, I'm sure we would."
Classes leaving Buckeyes left out
Sunday, May 07, 2006Doug Lesmerises
Plain Dealer Reporter
Columbus- Ohio State is a football factory. For the last 16 years, an NFL rule has forced Buckeyes bound for the pros to show up late for work.
An agreement originally intended to prevent pro teams from forcing players to drop out of school after the NFL draft serves now to set back rookies from nine Division I universities that don't hold graduation until June.
The rule, enforced by the NFL and created with the encouragement of the American Football Coaches Association in 1990, limits players to one minicamp with his NFL team while school is still in session. Most colleges, which hold commencement by the middle of May, aren't affected because school's out by the second round of minicamps.
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<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript"> <!-- if (parseFloat(navigator.appVersion) == 0) { document.write('<IFRAME WIDTH=468 HEIGHT=60 MARGINWIDTH=0 MARGINHEIGHT=0 HSPACE=0 VSPACE=0 FRAMEBORDER=0 SCROLLING=no BORDERCOLOR="#000000" SRC="http://ads.cleveland.com/RealMedia/ads/adstream_sx.ads/www.cleveland.com/xml/story/s2/s2osf/@StoryAd"></IFRAME>'); } --></script> <noscript> </noscript> Not so for colleges on the quarter system that don't hold spring exams until June. No school has more players affected than Ohio State, which had 35 players in the NFL at the start of last season and is sending 14 more to pro camps this year, nine as drafted players and five more as free agents.
While players like first-round picks A.J. Hawk of Green Bay and Santonio Holmes with Pittsburgh may fall a bit behind, the players hurt most by missing 10 to 15 early practices are the free agents hoping to catch a coach's eye.
"Santonio Holmes is going to be a Pittsburgh Steeler no matter what," said agent Jeff Chilcoat. "For guys more on the fringe, you're several weeks behind someone else at that same position. I believe if you have two guys even up, and one guy has an extra three or four weeks in the system, that's an advantage."
Chilcoat was talking about the effect on one of his clients, defensive tackle Marcus Green, who signed with the New York Giants. Defensive end/linebacker Mike Kudla, who signed as a free agent with the Steelers, faces the same battle.
"I'll have my playbook and I'll have a chance to learn things, but I won't be able to work on a one-on-one basis," said Kudla, who is allowed to attend the Steelers' first camp next weekend, then nothing else until OSU exams end on June 8.
Kudla, who spends the time working out on campus, isn't complaining. It's a Buckeye fact of life. "Every guy goes through it," Kudla said. "It's part of the process."
Fifth-year players are exempt from the rule since their class already graduated. So, OSU free agents Ryan Hamby with the Cincinnati Bengals and Josh Huston with the Chicago Bears won't miss anything.
Though sometimes assumed to be an NCAA mandate, the NCAA has no connection to the agreement. It came about through the powerful AFCA when college football coaches grew tired of NFL teams prying players away for sometimes monthlong camps the moment they were drafted.
"It was a horrible amount of lost time in the classroom," said AFCA Executive Director Grant Teaff. "The youngsters would go to four or five minicamps, and they were flunking out left and right."
The limit on minicamps was the best way to change that. Now, the NCAA's Academic Progress Rate penalizes colleges for players who don't graduate while in bad academic standing.
"The truth of the matter is, the AFCA was concerned about this long before the NCAA stepped into it in any way with the APR concept," Teaff said.
But now that there's a different incentive for staying in school, maybe it's time for this 16-year-old rule to fade away. The few players and colleges affected could use their own judgment to work out missed class time.
The NFL's not inclined to abolish the rule. And neither is Teaff.
"We're very comfortable with the rule," he said. "But if Ohio State and 10 other institutions said we need to look at this, I'm sure we would."