Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Columnist Ron Kantowski: Academic reform looks sure to fail

Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at [email protected] or (702) 259-4088.

One can only hope the NCAA presidents didn't hurt themselves while patting each other on the back for firing a warning shot in the futile attempt to reform college sports.

The other six people who put down their crossword puzzle are still trying to figure out this Academic Progress Rate and what it all means.

For those who didn't major in math at MIT, let me give it a shot, with an assist from the calculus majors at the Associated Press:

The APR is a new system that in theory will encourage student-athletes to satisfy the part of the description before the hyphen. The formula is based on a 925-point scale, which is confusing in its own right. Why couldn't they just use 1-10, which any Bo Derek fan can understand?

After the compasses and protractors are applied and Pythagoras consulted, each school will receive a score between 0 and 1,000. Penalties may be assessed to programs that drop below 925, which, we're told, is the equivalent of a 50-percent graduation rate.

Putting the math aside, the APR is based on players remaining academically eligible and ultimately graduating. Programs can lose points when players transfer, drop out, quit going to class or challenge Carmelo Anthony to a game of 1-on-1 on the next level (turn pro).

Players receive one point for each semester they stay academically eligible and another point for staying in school. A perfect score for a basketball team is 52. Which is a weird number for being perfect.

Once all the points for each school are added, they are then divided by the maximum possible total to get a percentage, which is then converted to a 1,000-point scale with the stipulation that no program below 925 can lose more than 10 percent of its total scholarships. Even if John "Bluto" Blutarski is playing point guard.

And, oh yes. Some teams that fall below the not-so-magic number of 925 will not be sanctioned because of a statistical adjustment that will help eliminate anomalies for teams with fewer athletes. Other programs can apply for a waiver, although nobody seems to know what conditions might warrant one.

And here you thought the NFL's method for rating its quarterbacks was convoluted.

In that schools won't begin forfeiting one gift until after the 2004-05 data is crunched, schools will have plenty of time to drive a truck through the loopholes in the system that will surely develop. About the worst that a first, second or even third-time offender can expect is loss of a scholarship or two.

Stricter penalties, such as postseason bans for continued lack of academic progress, may be handed down beginning in 2008. By then, the APR will probably have been ruled unconstitutional or a waste of time, like Prop 48 and virtually every other academic reform that has come and gone with great fanfare but little effect.

According to the figures announced Monday, the Fresno State men's basketball team received one of the worst scores with a 611. Now there's a shocker.

While I can't be entirely certain, I think a 611 roughly translates to an F.

Given the events of the past week, you have to assume that somewhere Tim "Dr. Hook" McCracken is sporting a gap-toothed smile.

Fortunately, McCracken was only a fictional character from the farcical hockey movie "Slapshot" who specialized in putting bounties on the heads of selected Charlestown Chiefs.

Somebody needs to tell Steve Shannon and John Chaney that it was only a movie.

Last week, Shannon, the coach of the Motor City Mechanics, was suspended by the United Hockey League for the rest of the season for offering his players $200 to "take out" Kevin Kerr of the Flint Generals.

Which makes the UHL, whatever it may be, much more progressive than the NCAA.

The college game's ruling dictators have merely stood back and watched as Temple coach John Chaney modestly sanctioned himself after sending in a bench warmer he described as a "goon" to high stick any Saint Joseph's player who dared to set what Chaney thought were illegal screens. The result was a broken arm for St. Joe's senior John Bryant.

Whereas the hockey officials said it's not automatic that Shannon will be reinstated next season, other than Chaney's profuse apologies, nobody in an ivory tower is saying much of anything about his future.

It's hard to see how he could have one after this.

If that Bernie Kerik guy is still looking for a job, I know a place that could use a little homeland security.

I spent my Sunday afternoon sitting in the stands at Wilson Stadium, where UNLV and just as many Cal State Fullerton fans, who made the short trip from Disneyland, loudly insulted each other for four innings. Thankfully, it got a little quieter from the fifth inning after the Titans broke open what had been a scoreless game.

While Sunday's name-calling never turned to sticks and stones, a guy who was working on his tan told me Saturday's crowd was even more unruly and wondered why UNLV didn't have more/any security at the game, anticipating that Fullerton would bring a lot of supporters.

Well, I got to talk to the campus cops soon enough. That would have been after the game, when I had to report my laptop computer being stolen, a big hole in the middle of the dashboard where my stereo used to be and a vinyl top that had been slashed to vinyl ribbons.

And this was even before my column appeared in print.

UNLV is lucky I don't pay to get in. Had this happened to a season-ticket holder or a scholarship donor because the university was either too stingy or shortsighted to have somebody patrol a jammed-packed parking lot, you'd have to wonder if he'd be so generous the next time.

Let's hope Mike Hamrick's first two major hires as UNLV athletic director turn out better than the last two he made in his previous job at East Carolina.

Last fall, John Thompson, the former University of Florida defensive coordinator whom Hamrick tabbed to rebuild the Pirates' program, resigned under pressure after just two seasons. Last week, it was announced that Bill Herrion, the basketball coach Hamrick hired six years ago, had finally worn out his welcome after compiling a 69-96 record.

Like all things that eventually go bad, it's easy to judge them as being such in retrospect. And on paper, Hamrick's hirings of basketball coach Lon Kruger and football coach Mike Sanford look pretty solid.

If only the games were played on paper, we'd be all set.

I had to laugh at the logic environmental groups are using to encourage NASCAR to get the lead out.

"By permitting the continued use of lead, your organization may be putting millions of spectators and nearby residents at unnecessary risk of suffering serious health effects," Clean Air Watch said in a letter to NASCAR chairman Brian France about stock car racing's continued use of lead-based gasoline.

While I can't speak for the nearby residents, I don't think the millions of stock car fans who pump mass quantities of alcohol directly into their blood streams while chain-smoking Winstons and munching on pork rinds every Sunday afternoon are going to be too concerned about inhaling a few parts per million of tainted Sunoco.

Once again, NASCAR trotted out a couple of celebrities to give the command to start engines and wave the green flag at the start of Sunday's Auto Club 500 at California Speedway.

That guy with the gigantic, bald head exhorting the gentlemen and Tony Stewart to flip their toggle switches wasn't Barry Bonds but Magic Johnson, who appeared to have a couple of Goodyear Eagles where his waistline used to be.

And who was that waving the green flag like a Girlie Man at the start of the race? Surely, it couldn't have been manly California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Remember those campaign photos of Al Gore throwing around a football in the manner of a Girl Scout? Well, Gore looked like Bronko Nagurski compared to Ah-nold's effort in starting the race.

That cease-fire I declared on reporting on anything related to the embarrassing attempt to revive the old ABA is officially off, now that the Nashville Rhythm, one of the league's best teams, has decided to decline a playoff berth.

That's right. Decline the playoffs. A team that went 21-10 during the regular season apparently considers the postseason no more significant than an offsides penalty.

"We've lost several key players and felt we were not ready for the playoffs," the team owners said in a statement. "We decided to open a spot in the playoffs for a more competitive team."

Too bad for us Cubs fans that the regular baseball season doesn't work that way.

This was just another wacky episode in the situation comedy known as the Rhythm. Last May, the owners hired a female coach who had never been one, former Vanderbilt star Ashley McElhiney, only to have her quit last month after an on-court shouting match with Sally Anthony, the team's female co-owner.

McElhiney was reinstated after promising to return Anthony's curling iron, or whatever it was that caused their dispute.

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