[TRANSCRIPT]
Let's talk about athletes today
There's so much going on in the very, very immediate NCAA conversations and congressional conversations that I need some time to sit and read and think about what's going to happen and talk to some people in the college world.
Because since students at Dartmouth were allowed to unionize and we've had the naming rights process come into place on behalf of athletes, we now have a movement and an initiative, which could completely eliminate amateur statuses for college students. If in fact, individuals start getting paid as employees of the school as employees in general there's a lot to come, there's a lot coming down the pike. But I think it's going to probably take 18 to 24 months, maybe even longer before anything really becomes solid because it's got to go through the NCAA Board of Advisors, it's got to go through all of the athletic directors, and it may even have to go through Congress.
And who knows who else? I think it's better to talk about the reality of what we deal with now and how it might happen versus what happens. So
Let's talk right now to the parents and students who are rising high school seniors. Because they're trying to make a decision about where do I want to go to school?
Do I want to choose my school based on my sport? Or do I want to choose my school based on academics? Or what about the parents who are running around, spending a lot of money on club sports, thinking that will all pay off for them, in an athletic scholarship?
Yeah. I think one of the, one of the eye-opening things that every family, every parent who is hoping that scholarship money will come through for athletics, and we can even throw in, dancing and theater from that, those specialty categories, I call it athletics and talent, specialty categories, is the, NCAA listings and charts that talk about how many students go on to the pros, go on to college.
so much. through athletics. It's very eye opening because very few do, right? So some true realities are that scholarship money at colleges is factored based on the program and how many scholarships they have available within those programs. So the difference between football and rowing could be 30 scholarships, then there are some programs that are not scholarship eligible because the college has deemed itself, whether it be a division one, two or three school.
The particular program may not be scholarship eligible at all schools. Yes, athletics is an important part of the students life. So when I work with students, I validate that whether it's athletics or dance, or now eSports which is the new term for gamers. It's important as part of being balanced. I always make the analogy, why do dads play golf in leagues?
And why do they join soccer teams after they, get into their 20s? Because you need an outlet. So athletics are important. They're a major outlet for students in high school. They're in a huge development and character building for young individuals, but they're not always going to produce the free ride.
that we as parents hope for.
It is extremely difficult to be an athlete in a college and also be a student. The demand is huge. I just talked to a student the other day who went to college last year as a freshman to play golf on a half scholarship.
Because of the demand of his coach on his time, To practice, to go to meets on the weekends, that means you leave on Friday and come home on Monday. He had to withdraw because his academics tanked.
And the emotional rollercoaster that this
kid is on is very sad, right? The bottom line is, yes, we want our kids to be playing sports and doing things in high school, but we want to be realistic.
That they may not materialize. So what are some of the factors? The factors are academics to go to division one or two, you have to have a certain GPA and a test score and an SAT or an ACT test score to qualify. And then you're competing for a position on a team. And then within that you're competing for the scholarship money that is going to be based on how many players, how many scholarships, did we give one student a free ride or do we take 12 scholarships and divide it by 24?
And that is all in the hands of the coach. And they can take money away during the season. If a student gets hurt, they can take money away at the end of the season. If the student hasn't performed and there's somebody else in line, that's in high school, that's coming along. So it's very volatile from the standpoint of not only the money, but the student and the emotional roller coaster it puts on people.
Division I and Division II are the only two where actual money is awarded. There's no athletic scholarships in Division III. Now a school may have a student who they really want on campus and the coach really wants them to be on campus. to play on their team, but they are disallowed from promising any scholarship money because it comes through the admissions for Division III.
And I think because of the college scandal that occurred in the last five years, athletic and admissions people are working very closely to make sure That it doesn't ever happen again.
Good.
So more and more schools in the admissions department now have an associate director or an assistant director who is responsible for the athletic side of the house and works in tandem.
A coach cannot promise money.
Okay. And they do.
I want you on my team. I guarantee you a scholarship apply today. Okay. The other factor is you got to get accepted to the school. Number one. No matter how much you want to play on their particular team. So there's so much that goes into it that parents really have to stop the train and develop a specific plan in addition to the, as part of the college planning.
So they incorporate the conversations. There are rules in which when colleges can talk to students, there are rules when they can invite them on campus. NCAA has some good information out there.
So where does a parent start? What do they got to do first?
I think a parent needs to be honest with themselves as we've talked before. And I always talk about being honest with themselves and with their student as what are we talking about from the standpoint of potential, right? So if I have a student who is really doing well as an athlete and they haven't been really talked to or communicated with by a division one or division school.
The first thing to do is to register with the NCAA student athlete eligibility center. And there they're placing the information about the student into a massive system.
The college's athletic directors college coaches go into and look at where prospects might be. So you put in your track and field stats as a hurdler. You put in your baseball stats as a pitcher, you put in your swimming, anything there is related to your sport and your accomplishments. So you start there.
And then, if there is an opportunity for the student who's athletic, their academic profile meets the division standards, then you look at the timing in which students can contact you. The coaches and the first thing to do is to email the coach with an introductory email just like you would do the admissions department and find out where the coaches are sending staff, so that I can be seen, a showcase an event, a regional program where I might be performing or I might be involved in the sport. So coaches are going to those places and looking for individuals. And then it's a matter of communicating with the coaches to find out where I might fit in the process and behind the scenes as a family. What I generally recommend is going in and looking at the team's roster to see how many students are at what academic level, what grade level within that college.
If it's a team and there's 12 seniors, there's 12 slots that will roll over next year unless those kids are five year red shirts. If the team has 12 freshmen, it's going to be a little harder to get on because, we've got a smaller force. Other things is to look and see what distribution of scholarship money is
You can't really go in and find out how the coach pairs it up or separates it, but you can go in and look at in the common data. Stats, how many scholarships that school has for a sport. Okay, so those are the first few things is get some information, get some background, be realistic about the student and their potential to play, how good they were as a little leaguer, how good they are, in Babe Ruth.
Legion ball or whatever it is and be realistic from the standpoint of the student going. There are always clubs, there are all these intramural programs that students can get involved in. The other is talk to students who have already gone before. and played college sports. So I'm hoping to get a group of students together to talk about their first year experience, but I want to get a couple student athletes in there too to talk about it, but it's good.
So if within the senior class that went last year, now they're going to be there are going to be sophomores in college. I highly encourage students to contact those kids and say, what was it like? What didn't you anticipate that you had to deal with? I had to get up at 5:30 in the morning to do weight training.
I had to go to mandatory study halls for my academics. I had to ask faculty member to be excused from tests because I had to go to practice because the coach told me, if I don't go to practice, you're not going to play.
You got to come to class, but you got to come to practice. Which are you going to choose? And unfortunately, many students choose practice and it's only going to hurt them because if you don't keep your GPA
up, what's going to happen? You're coming home. You're coming home.
Okay. A really important thing.
My oldest son went to college and played football. He was contacted by his coach. You're going to be my starting. God, you're going to get to play as a freshman was a division three school, he shows up, and there's 100 other kids are going to be on the line, playing in the same position. Okay. The son went to college to play golf, and it got to the point where his.
His handicap went from 2 to 12, and he gave it up, stayed at school because that was the place to be. So the other factor is, what happens if it no longer becomes the love of your life? What happens if the sport is no longer fun, and you're busting your butt, and your academics are suffering? Like anything, we want to have extended activities, we want to have extracurricular, we want to continue to be good about what we're doing.
But I always say Pick the school for its academics, regardless of whether it's athletics, dance, performing arts, because if you get hurt, if you're not playing anymore and it's affecting you mentally, then it's going to affect you academically. And you want to be able to stay and graduate in four years and get that education that school wants to offer.
Student athletes, yes, but it's academics first, it's athletics and talent second, because that could go away in a heartbeat.
Yeah, I was thinking as you were talking that when you say that could go away in a heartbeat. If that coach takes that scholarship money away for whatever reason, or you get injured or all of the variables that you threw out, that could totally change the whole financial plan that the family has for college.
And so then parents need to, go back and look at the previous videos that we've made about the, paying for college, because.
Yeah, the worst case scenario is that the athletics or the talent no longer exist. And if that was a financial incentive that got us there, then if we can't afford the school, then the students going to have to leave.
If we can't afford the school, which we should factor it in without the athletics, then we stay and we continue.
Yeah, let's stop there for a second. Let's talk about why that might be important for a student. Why should we factor that in at the beginning?
You know me, I'm all about factoring into the ability to pay right up front.
Okay. But if a student, if that work isn't done, then the student is faced with. Either not finishing or having to transfer.
Oh yeah, 100%. If we're going based on the academics or the talent. And again, there's nothing wrong with that, but we have to be, we have to be realistic and what it's doing.
If it affects our ability to stay there from an academic standpoint. Then we're going to have to leave, probably going to miss a semester. If we have to leave after our first year, my timing standpoint. The ability to get into another school in September of the next of the coming year.
Okay, outside of community college. may be difficult. So now we're looking at a January enrollment or a full year later. If it happens, okay, and it's happening to 20 percent of the population or more, not just because of athletics, but academics and financial, I highly encourage students to immediately get involved in community college so they can get themselves back on the track.
And there are so many great programs and there's so many abilities for students to re transfer back into another program that they want. That it should be looked at as a very positive, necessary change for positive.
Yes. Yes.
But if, if we have to, we need to, we do that transfer, we get a year's under our belt, maybe we do an associate's degree at community college and transfer back in as a junior.
And no, we're not necessarily playing the sport anymore. But, we're still watching it on TV or we're playing it part time. Okay. But the financial implications, if I'm, I, my youngest son had a friend at a particular school, and he got hurt, and he couldn't play the way it affected him mentally.
His mental health was so devastated. Yeah. The coach said, okay, we'll keep you on the team. You can be the manager.
Your smile tells the emotional rollercoaster that starts right there. It goes from being a full time player gets injured. The coach wants to use his scholarship for the next year to help someone else to be recruited. But we'll keep you on the team. You can be the manager and watch everybody else get in the uniform and play every day.
No. Unfortunately, the individual suffered mentally to the point where he, it affected his ability to work with his other friends to continue his friendships with the people he had met in school. He became what I would personally call a mean SOB, and he then had to leave. I'm being harsh probably I'm being very stern about athletics and talent, but as a parent we cannot look at as the parent panacea to pay the cost of college.
very much. If those things can happen, and maybe they don't, I'd have to look at the stats as to how many students start play a sport, never get hurt, never have to leave. If it ends up being my kid, my, my student, then who cares how many are successful, because we want our children to be successful in a lot of ways.
Okay. Yes, sports are great. But the reality is, it's not going to pay the bill for everybody, it's not going to be the free ride for anybody for a lot of the things we talked about. But if we're fortunate to get some money that way and things change our financial plan still has to be based on how does Tom stay in college, where we are, and we keep paying the bill, because the college education is superior.
I don't know if that answers your question.
It does. I just want to say amen. That was fabulous. It's fabulous advice I hope people are listening.
Yeah, I've talked before, I have two daughters. Both of them were dancers in high school. They were extremely strong students. They went to good colleges, but they didn't go to college to dance.
My oldest, We said to her, you know what, if you really want to be a premier ballerina, go to New York and give it a whack, give it a try. And I'm Neville. I'm the guy. Don't look in the rear view mirror and say shoulda, coulda, okay, be realist. And no, but she danced in college, in a audition based program.
And just most recently at the age of 40, she finally finished dancing in a off Broadway type company while working. My other daughter went too, okay. And they danced because they kept that going because you need that to continue to be a whole person for your mental well being. The boys played sports until they realized it wasn't their thing.
And
better if these students have a lifelong sport, like something that they can keep doing after college or after high school or something like dancing or tennis or golf or swimming, you can just do lifelong because we need outlets. Yes.
Everybody does. It's all about balance.
Yeah. Yeah. My youngest son, Matt, he's a great golfer. I love watching him play because I just watch his swing and humorously we'll go to play and we'll get teamed up with two other individuals and he will say to them, if my father's walking and not swinging the club, he's still having fun. Okay.
Cause I'm not going to hit the ball five times to get to the green. I'm going to meet them on the green and putt up, we need these outlets. So it's important to support our students from an athletic standpoint. It's important to support them from a dance, but let's not become the wrong parent because if we're the ones yelling and screaming from the stands at refs, or, a 15 year old who's a soccer ref, or, a lacrosse ref, because our kids are, doing their thing and we expect them to be doing better.
That's not good health for anybody. Let's be realistic that it can get us into college, and it can help us with our well being and our mental well being, and maybe a little bit of the financial. But if there's 12 scholarships for a hundred individuals, you can still play, but you may not get a scholarship.
And then that happens And your scholarship may not cover the full cost of attendance.
You may not get one at all. You can be accepted onto the football team, but you're not a scholarship student. And that's fine because you're on the team. And that happens at division one, it happens at division two, and it's always the same at division three.
And I think the other factor is if you are a little shy or skittish about going into a competitive arena and college athletes, then join a club, play into murals, and when the coach comes or the assistant coach comes knocking on the door and taps you on the shoulder, because they do that, they will go watch the club team.
They'll go watch the intramural team, and they'll see do we have talent already on campus, have a conversation with the coach, and begin to negotiate not only what the terms of becoming a player means, what the requirements are, and the financial commitment. And a lot of that is changing, or some of the things I've been reading about the new proposals for individuals who are paid, if they are going to be paid on college campuses as athletes.
what some of that may change. Okay.
Some of it has to do with right now at certain divisions, certain levels, students and athletes have to attend mandatory study halls. And I've been reading—I think if I'm reading it right—that they're going to enforce it even sterner that individuals need to have one-on-one assistance as need be.
I've also read that, some coaches. can dictate or try to dictate in the way they work with players on what courses they take to ensure that they can get the GPA they need. Now that, to me, isn't really right, okay?
Because they're not an academic advisor.
No more, an academic advisor than I am, okay? A subject matter expert, but not in a particular major in all the cases.
On a positive, the pros of being an athlete or talent on campus are huge:
• it's good for your mental well-being
• it's good for your personal continued professional development
• it’s good character building
• athletes are more accountable
• athletes have better time management skills
• athletes have better study skills overall
But athletics may not be the financial panacea that we as parents think it's going to be. The cons are:
• extreme time commitment
• demands on the athlete’s time (from the time to keep training, to keep up with various activities. You’ve got to be in the pool two hours in the morning, two hours in the afternoon. When do you have time to visit with your friends? When do you have time to be social?)
• the mental well-being of athletes as students
Okay, so I think the big con is, or the big watch for, the mental well-being of our students and how it may change once they go off to college and play sports or dance or something else. As a parent, I would want to be more hypersensitive about that [mental well-being] than how many home runs they hit or dance routines they're in.
Okay, it's how is our student functioning. Parents weekend when we go and they're playing a fall sport or they're in a spring or winter sport. What's the demand on your time. Are you skipping classes, or sports, if the answer is yes. And the answer is not going to come out of the student's mouth.
It's going to be a nonverbal. It's going to be a shrug of the shoulders, or it's going to be an eyebrow change, or it's going to be a facial expression. Then that's where you might want to stop and at least explore that a little bit more, because it's only going to get worse. If the answer is I'm skipping classes, or weight training, or practice, or whatever the case may be.
Okay. Now, there's a whole group of individuals that I know if they listen to this, it's going to be. Nah, he doesn't know what he's talking about. That could be true. Okay. But our job is to try to at least put that information out there. I'm going to be positively disruptive.
It's just, let's be very careful. And the same can be said on, if it's just a student going to school from an academic standpoint, if we see them at parents weekend, they come home on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and we're picking them up at the end of the year, those little questions that we pepper them with.
It's all about what's their body language, not what their verbal is, okay? Because you can say, yes, everything is happy, and you could be suffering. And as parents, that's the important thing we want to do. We want to be very cautious of how things are, okay? So I'll go back to, if you want to be an athlete on campus, talk to a student that's already been doing it and find out realistically.
Don't take it from Tom. Don't take it from Christine. Don't take it from parents or anybody else, your high school coach or what. Talk to a student that's already on campus and ask them a demand on your time, the ability to attend classes. How is it affecting you academically? How is it affecting you emotionally?
How is it affecting you with your friends or trying to meet people? Now, flip side, you go to practice early. You get to go to school early if you're playing a fall sports. It's a great way to start meeting new friends. So there's a lot of pros and cons. And let's be conscious of both sides of the aisle.
All right. Good advice, that.
Thank you.
And you need to get to something.
All right. So I'll see you in — we'll be back in two weeks.
Thanks for the opportunity.
Thanks, Tom.
Keep that smile up.
Okay! Bye.
Bye.