What's wrong with College Football?
Let's start with SMU.
You all know SMU. It is the only school in NCAA history to be given the 'death penalty.'
It was a harsh penalty but one that was probably deserved for a program that was cheating continually and didn't seem to want to change its ways.
That was then, this is now.
I will admit, I have rooted for SMU to return to respectability for years, but after reading what the Mustangs have recently done to a recruit, I am having second thoughts.
Every year recruits orally commit to a program only to later be told, no, we are not going to hold a scholarship for you. It is never right when that is done, but players do the same thing, so let bygones be bygones.
No, what SMU has done just takes the cake. Ralston Dews, a 6-1, 335-pound lineman from Tyler Lee, Tex., was excited about playing college football for SMU. Now he might not have the option to play college football anywhere because most programs are already full.
Dews verbally committed to SMU back in September while Phil Bennett was the head coach.
Bennett was fired and in the interim time-frame before a new coach was hired, Athletic Director Steve Orsini sent a form letter out to all recruits stating that when a new head coach was hired he would not be bound by Bennett's recruits.
He sent this information in a FORM letter BEFORE a new coach was hired.
It took SMU 71 days to hire a new coach, in January, just a short time before national signing day is upon us.
Dews never heard anything from SMU after that form letter indicating that his scholarship would be revoked.
It took his father CALLING SMU to find out that he would no longer have a scholarship waiting for him. He only discovered this pivotal information in the past week.
What is wrong with a college football program is when it changes its mind on a recruit after offering him a scholarship, and more importantly fails to even give him the common courtesy of a phone call that he will no longer have a place in their program.
I am sorry SMU; you just lost one college football fan who was rooting for you to succeed.
9 comments Last one added about 1 year ago — Leave a Comment
Anonymous about 1 year ago
yeah, well SMU isn't running a charity pal........
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Rusi Patel about 1 year ago
You missed the point. It's not that they revoked his scholarship. It's that they didn't bother to TELL HIM.
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Jeff Galloway about 1 year ago
i agree with the writer here. Revolking scholarships is one thing; besides, June Jones' system needs smaller linemen and this guys seems like he's huge. But now the kid is left needing a school to play for with only 3 weeks until signing day. He needed to be able to open his recruitment the day Bennett was fired; or at least as soon Jones was hired.
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Dr P about 1 year ago
Somebody tell the kid to go to Hawaii!
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SMU Alum about 1 year ago
You don't know college sports very well. Try checking out what Oklahoma State has done to 6 or 7 recruits. Read up a little before your next bitch session.
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Byron Harrison about 1 year ago
Ummmm...first of all, TEAMS are told players are committed right up until signing day, only to pull a fast one and sign with another all the time. Secondly, even you stated right there in your very own words that SMU issued a letter (form letter or not) to all the recruits explaining the new coach wouldn't be bound to the offer. It's the truth...the new coaches AREN'T bound. Do most honor the word given and continue on with the offer? Yes. Do they have to? No. This form letter was an advanced warning that maybe the recruit should start looking at other avenues of opportunity, JUST IN CASE. If he and his father had been smart, and he was actually being recruited by any other schools, he would have at the very LEAST started sending out his tapes and/or calling those other schools who had been pursuing him.
I see this as a simple case of a player and his family being stupid and resting on their haunches and not being more proactive. This really falls on the family more than the kid, because let's face it...most teens aren't very proactive and they tend to just wait for things to happen. Either way, the kid's in the shape he's in because of his own inactivity...not the fault of SMU and its officials.
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T.X. Fitzgerald about 1 year ago
I agree with Bryon except the "aren't very proactive" comment because I find generalizations over simply and take away from legitiment points, but I digress.
I read the same Dallas Morning News article, and while I feel empathy for the kid's situation, but it's not Orsini's or Jones' fault that Bennett did not recruit to the new standard or scheme demanded. Rusi, by the logic expressed in your article corporations should not be allowed to revalauate previous negotations after a merger ... Verbal commitments and scholarships are merely components of an agreement or contract. I agree backing out of an preliminary agreement stinks for at least one party involved, but because of NCAA rules the binding agreement cannot be reached until National Siging Day (Feb 6th, 2008).
Rusi, I don't think its right or fair to blame Orsini or Jones. I think your issue should be with the lack of an early sign period. If implemented many of these "last minute" revocations/rejections would be avioded. (see generally Omar Hunter, Ryan Perrilloux, Lorenzo Booker, and almost Mitch Mustain). Allowing for waiver in the event of head coaching change or some other detrimental reliance.
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Rusi Patel about 1 year ago
It's amazing that Byron and T.X. don't get my point still.
It's not that the school backed out of the agreement. That happens all the time.
It's that they didn't tell the kid that they were backing out of the agreement. They just let him assume that he was going to sign with them. The only reason he found out that they had backed out of the agreement was that his father called the school.
The date of the signing period is perfectly fine. It's that SMU here missed the ball and didn't notify the kid that they weren't going to take him anymore.
I am sorry Byron, but the University should tell the kid that he no longer has a scholarship, not wait for the kid to find out on his own. It's not a "pro-active" thing. It's called doing the right thing. If their game plans have changed and they don't need his skills anymore, fine, but let him know, don't let him go on believing that he is going to have a spot on the team.
I hope I cleared up my point to both of you.
Thanks for posting.
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Anonymous about 1 year ago
How about Florida reneging a scholarship offer without a coaching change? Or how about Art Briles revoking a scholarship offer as soon as he took the job at Baylor? Or how about Mike Gundy who offered, and then rescinded the scholarship offer to Victor Jones, who by the way committed to SMU this week. Are we going to stop being fans for all of these college football teams as well?
Regardless of whether it is right or wrong, this is the landscape of college football these days. If you don't like it, then push for an early signing period in football so this may be avoided. Fact is, Dews was a completely marginal Division 1A football prospect that Bennett horribly overreached to offer months before he had to, and it is both Dews fault and his football coaches fault for not establishing a contingency plan for Dews.
It stinks that it happened, but SMU, the same as Baylor, Florida, and Arkansas isn't running some charity drive for players who just hope and dream to play college football. This just reeks of "well it's poor old SMU so they should never have done that to the kid." Nuh uh, this is college football, and while SMU is partially to blame for not making it immediately and absolutely clear to Dews that he did not have an offer, Dews was warned over TWO months in advance and he took absolutely no steps to protect himself. You can't whine and complain and have it both ways. And if you have trouble seeing that, chances are you aren't the most well versed college football fan.
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