OT: D1

[IUP24]

Not just D1 related, but lot of reporting that the college basketball transfer portal window will shrink to just 30 days starting April 1, 2024. I think that's good news. The portal has gotten out of hand in basketball. The manner in which it is used was never what it was intended to be used for.

[Fightingscot82]

Dior Johnson taking an indefinite leave of absence from Pitt. Sounds like someone isn't eligible or got into some trouble.

[IUP24]

Not a leave of absence. He was kicked out of school. The official statement said he was "no longer enrolled."

The non-public information which has been circulating is that there were "character reformation" steps that were assigned that were not met. Therefore, the university removed him from their student body. Was not a strong arm move by the new chancellor. He was assigned things a year ago that he failed to complete.

[Fightingscot82]

Not a leave of absence. He was kicked out of school. The official statement said he was "no longer enrolled."

The non-public information which has been circulating is that there were "character reformation" steps that were assigned that were not met. Therefore, the university removed him from their student body. Was not a strong arm move by the new chancellor. He was assigned things a year ago that he failed to complete.

Probably disciplinary sanctions from the Title IX violation he had last year that he failed to complete. Completely anecdotal, but I hope Heather Lyke can fix the string of Pitt male athletes committing acts of violence toward women. It seems like there is at least one a year that we hear of only because there are criminal charges. We never hear of the ones where the victim decides to not press charges.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Probably disciplinary sanctions from the Title IX violation he had last year that he failed to complete. Completely anecdotal, but I hope Heather Lyke can fix the string of Pitt male athletes committing acts of violence toward women. It seems like there is at least one a year that we hear of only because there are criminal charges. We never hear of the ones where the victim decides to not press charges.

For them to punt a former 5-star ... this kid must be a real treat (i.e. moron).

[IUP24]

Probably disciplinary sanctions from the Title IX violation he had last year that he failed to complete. Completely anecdotal, but I hope Heather Lyke can fix the string of Pitt male athletes committing acts of violence toward women. It seems like there is at least one a year that we hear of only because there are criminal charges. We never hear of the ones where the victim decides to not press charges.

I certainly don't condone acts of violence toward women. I'm not sure where you are getting a trend of that occurring though, and I think it's unfair to blanket that without referencing specific events. There was this Dior Johnson situation. There was also Dayon Hayes in 2022. I'll be honest though, I can't place my finger on much else. I follow Pitt extremely close, and I'm trying hard to think of a trend of domestic violence situations. I can't think of really anything else.

Capel has had a string of some legal items, but the Dior Johnson situation was the first that had anything to do with violence toward women (if there's something I'm forgetting, I'll happily be proven wrong). Narduzzi has had less legal issues within his program than Capel in the time that their tenures have overlapped. Narduzzi has run a pretty clean program. He kicked Rori Blair off the team right before the (I think) 2018 because of a legal issue involving him hitting a woman, and he was a returning starter and potential captain for that team.

I'll be honest... I'm trying really hard to create a trend. But I'm not sure that it's there. I believe that those are the only 3 incidents. Narduzzi has done a pretty good job at brining in pretty decent human beings into the program. Are there the isolated issues? Absolutely. But I struggle to create the trend, specifically as it pertains to violence against women. Capel has had some bad apples, certainly. But only one has had a thing to do with violence against women. But some of his guys have gotten into the legal docket for some extremely dumb things for sure.

Again though, I'll happily look at the situations you believe are out there. Because I'll get on board with what you're saying 100% if there's a string of those events and I'm just forgetting them. You may be just using recency bias here. The Dior Johnson and Dayon Hayes events were separated by just a few months in 2022. There was Rori Blair years ago. But I believe that's the list.

[IUP24]

For them to punt a former 5-star ... this kid must be a real treat (i.e. moron).

He was. If there were things he was required to do that he didn't, that's on him 100%.

There was also a ton of belief that he had been passed up on the depth chart by either of the two freshman they brought in. And from that, there were other rumors within some of the Pitt circles that he wasn't extremely happy and may have ended up leaving on his own anyways. Losing him this close to the season hurts their guard depth obviously, and he was rightfully a talented player as a former 5-star, but I'm not necessarily sure how much of a "loss" he was if you catch my drift. Sometimes it may be better to just cut bait from individuals like that if they don't put in the work after you give them another opportunity.

[IUP24]

I'm told that Dior Johnson was voted out by the Board of Directors. They were not comfortable with him being on campus having shown very little contrition, while also not holding up his end of the bargain related to university required rehabilitation steps.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

I'm told that Dior Johnson was voted out by the Board of Directors. They were not comfortable with him being on campus having shown very little contrition, while also not holding up his end of the bargain related to university required rehabilitation steps.

Slippery Rock has likely already sent the limo.

[Ship69]

Slippery Rock has likely already sent the limo.

I've recently watched a couple of seasons of "Last Chance U" on Netflix featuring junior colleges who recruit the kids dropped from D1 programs. Some of these players carry unbelievable baggage, often somewhat attributable to terrible childhoods. Football is virtually all they have, and they have dreams of the NFL that the vast majority of them will never attain. As depicted in the series, there are some teachers who care enough to help them with the academics, but school is largely a joke to many of them as they just want to get out of JC and hook on with a D1 program. And the academic bar was set very low for them. Some had several "Fs" relatively late in the season and by taking "quizzes" were able to pull up their grades. You don't do that at a school that has any sort of academic rigor.

The coaches at East Mississippi and Independendence, Kansas, in the series were sometimes stark raving nuts, but perhaps you have to be a little crazy to coach several dozen of these kids at a time. I don't think I'd have wanted a son of mine to play for either of them, and you'd better win if you use such an abrasive style of coaching. It was particularly instructive at Independence where in the first year of the series they won their first conference championship in 40 years and their first bowl win ever, making Coach Brown the hero of "Dream U." Then a 2-8 year and total crapfest the next year led to Brown being axed. It was a great display of both the win at all costs mentality and the blatant hypocrisy of many fan bases.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

I've recently watched a couple of seasons of "Last Chance U" on Netflix featuring junior colleges who recruit the kids dropped from D1 programs. Some of these players carry unbelievable baggage, often somewhat attributable to terrible childhoods. Football is virtually all they have, and they have dreams of the NFL that the vast majority of them will never attain. As depicted in the series, there are some teachers who care enough to help them with the academics, but school is largely a joke to many of them as they just want to get out of JC and hook on with a D1 program. And the academic bar was set very low for them. Some had several "Fs" relatively late in the season and by taking "quizzes" were able to pull up their grades. You don't do that at a school that has any sort of academic rigor.

The coaches at East Mississippi and Independendence, Kansas, in the series were sometimes stark raving nuts, but perhaps you have to be a little crazy to coach several dozen of these kids at a time. I don't think I'd have wanted a son of mine to play for either of them, and you'd better win if you use such an abrasive style of coaching. It was particularly instructive at Independence where in the first year of the series they won their first conference championship in 40 years and their first bowl win ever, making Coach Brown the hero of "Dream U." Then a 2-8 year and total crapfest the next year led to Brown being axed. It was a great display of both the win at all costs mentality and the blatant hypocrisy of many fan bases.

"We ain't come (here) to play school."

Cardale Jones
Ohio State

[IUPbigINDIANS]

I've recently watched a couple of seasons of "Last Chance U" on Netflix featuring junior colleges who recruit the kids dropped from D1 programs. Some of these players carry unbelievable baggage, often somewhat attributable to terrible childhoods. Football is virtually all they have, and they have dreams of the NFL that the vast majority of them will never attain. As depicted in the series, there are some teachers who care enough to help them with the academics, but school is largely a joke to many of them as they just want to get out of JC and hook on with a D1 program. And the academic bar was set very low for them. Some had several "Fs" relatively late in the season and by taking "quizzes" were able to pull up their grades. You don't do that at a school that has any sort of academic rigor.

The coaches at East Mississippi and Independendence, Kansas, in the series were sometimes stark raving nuts, but perhaps you have to be a little crazy to coach several dozen of these kids at a time. I don't think I'd have wanted a son of mine to play for either of them, and you'd better win if you use such an abrasive style of coaching. It was particularly instructive at Independence where in the first year of the series they won their first conference championship in 40 years and their first bowl win ever, making Coach Brown the hero of "Dream U." Then a 2-8 year and total crapfest the next year led to Brown being axed. It was a great display of both the win at all costs mentality and the blatant hypocrisy of many fan bases.

The vast majority of major programs (hell, even in the PSAC) can rig up class schedules so just about anybody can stay eligible. There are many football and basketball-friendly professors, etc. Athletes get heavily persuaded on which professors/classes to take. IUP's had several 'friendly' professors over the years.

Cal (PA) had a class called something like Issues in Athletics that was taught by the AD (3-credit class). That gimme 'A' goes a long way toward getting that lofty 1.8 GPA (or whatever) to stay eligible.

Point is most of these athletic-centric schools have similar courses.

Brian Kelly yapped about Notre Dame's academic admissions for years, saying they were far too strict for him to build a national contender. Not to mention, all freshmen at Notre Dame must take calculus.

[Ship69]

The vast majority of major programs (hell, even in the PSAC) can rig up class schedules so just about anybody can stay eligible. There are many football and basketball-friendly professors, etc. Athletes get heavily persuaded on which professors/classes to take. IUP's had several 'friendly' professors over the years.

Cal (PA) had a class called something like Issues in Athletics that was taught by the AD (3-credit class). That gimme 'A' goes a long way toward getting that lofty 1.8 GPA (or whatever) to stay eligible.

Point is most of these athletic-centric schools have similar courses.

Brian Kelly yapped about Notre Dame's academic admissions for years, saying they were far too strict for him to build a national contender. Not to mention, all freshmen at Notre Dame must take calculus.

When you see a large group of athletes in a particular major at a school, that's usually an indication that they've found a place to park the weaker students. It is, of course, unfair to paint all athletes with a broad brush as many are smart kids. But I think it's a hoot that affirmative action is supposedly being shut down when you obviously are still going to bend the rules for athletes and legacy students.

Notre Dame does probably have higher standards than some football factories, but their athletes still get a significant break. I've heard a lot of reports that Duke rachets down the standards quite a bit for basketball. The two schools that probably make the least concessions are Stanford and Northwestern. I've always heard at Northwestern that basically 75 percent of Ohio State's recruits wouldn't even get much of a look from the NU admissions office, and I know they've backed off from some kids Notre Dame has recruited. Now, of course, NU is really sunk with a hazing scandal, the addition of USC, UCLA, Oregon, and Washington to the B1G, and the move to end divisions.

I think college ball is moving to super leagues. It's all based on money, as shown by the B1G's decision not to pick up Stanford and Cal. My brother, a Penn State alum, who has made significant contributions to the school and currently has four season football tickets, has about had it with all the fund-raising appeals on top of what he's already paying. He likes the current team, but said he might be done after a couple of more years. I contribute a fraction to Ship of what he does to PSU and get free passes to all Raider football and basketball games for the season.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

When you see a large group of athletes in a particular major at a school, that's usually an indication that they've found a place to park the weaker students. It is, of course, unfair to paint all athletes with a broad brush as many are smart kids. But I think it's a hoot that affirmative action is supposedly being shut down when you obviously are still going to bend the rules for athletes and legacy students.

Notre Dame does probably have higher standards than some football factories, but their athletes still get a significant break. I've heard a lot of reports that Duke rachets down the standards quite a bit for basketball. The two schools that probably make the least concessions are Stanford and Northwestern. I've always heard at Northwestern that basically 75 percent of Ohio State's recruits wouldn't even get much of a look from the NU admissions office, and I know they've backed off from some kids Notre Dame has recruited. Now, of course, NU is really sunk with a hazing scandal, the addition of USC, UCLA, Oregon, and Washington to the B1G, and the move to end divisions.

I think college ball is moving to super leagues. It's all based on money, as shown by the B1G's decision not to pick up Stanford and Cal. My brother, a Penn State alum, who has made significant contributions to the school and currently has four season football tickets, has about had it with all the fund-raising appeals on top of what he's already paying. He likes the current team, but said he might be done after a couple of more years. I contribute a fraction to Ship of what he does to PSU and get free passes to all Raider football and basketball games for the season.

I hear you. What I give to Joe and Tort wouldn't even get me a 'thank you' at PSU.

I pretty much converted fully to D2 years ago. I had Pitt football and basketball tickets for years and years (including the run of the Oakland Zoo) but just grew tired of driving down there all the time, the traffic, etc. I enjoy going to the IUP games and being home a couple minutes later. When Pitt hoops was really booming, they'd play a ton of national tv games that sometimes wouldn't start until 9 p.m. (Big Monday, etc.). I'm glad I did it ... The Pete may have been the craziest venue in the country there for a 4-5 year run.

[Fightingscot82]

The academic elite schools have a lower standard for athletes, even Harvard and the service academies. Usually it's a a couple standard deviations from the usual standard. I've seen one B1G school and another SEC school both with high standards that use a rubric that uses SAT and GPA to determine yes/no/ask for permission. They can also bank on an instant support system from the team plus the now standard D1 academic support personnel in place exclusively for athletes.