Thinking of Don Quixote

October 10, 2017

The athletic transfer problem is not confined to high schools alone. Recently, the National Collegiate Athletic Association has had a work group studying the NCAA transfer rule for Division I institutions.

The problem has been of particular concern in Division I men’s basketball where more than 20 percent of scholarship players changed schools between last season and this.

The work group appeared to have narrowed its study to two options: Make every transfer student ineligible for one year; OR, Allow every transfer student immediate eligibility. And the second option seemed to have had the early momentum.

But last Wednesday, the work group announced that the proposal to grant immediate eligibility to transfer students who meet certain academic standards will not advance during the current NCAA legislative cycle. Two days later the report was corrected: there's still a chance for change by 2018-19.

Major college conference commissioners and NCAA leadership have surveyed the landscape. They see athletes arriving on their college campuses from an environment where, if they weren’t happy with a team, they changed teams.

Apparently, the non-school, travel team attitude is bigger than the NCAA may want to battle.

Yet here we are, thinking of how to wage war on athletic transfers in high schools.

Mountaintop Experience

May 15, 2018

Thinking that I’m younger than my almost 70 years, many people assume that I have another job lined up after my retirement in August. My response has been that if I needed or wanted to work full time, I would not leave the employment of the Michigan High School Athletic Association. It’s the best job – at least for me – in America.

Strong staff, supportive board, comfortable conditions, good benefits and – most of all – great mission. I’ve been at the top of the mountain; why would I ever go anywhere else?

And speaking of mountains ...

I depart for Peru next week to hike the Inca Trail. It’s not a long trek – 31 miles over four days – but there’s thousands of feet of up and down to deal with at very high altitude.

For a brief time I’ll be trading one mountaintop experience – serving the MHSAA – for another – hiking to Machu Picchu.