Jim Delany's Plan for Freshman Ineligibility Would Be Crippling Blow for Big Ten
"What is he thinking?"
No Big Ten coach has come out and said that—at least not verbatim—when it's come to commissioner Jim Delany's fascination with freshman ineligibility. But it wouldn't be surprising if Urban Meyer, Jim Harbaugh, Mark Dantonio, James Franklin and Company were each thinking it at this very moment.
And for good reason.
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For whatever reason, the Big Ten commissioner has put himself front and center in a seemingly needless quest to make freshmen across the country uniformly ineligible in their first seasons on campus.
Delany's latest endorsement came on Tuesday when the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame highlighted his 12-page plan for freshman ineligibility that was titled “Education First, Athletics Second: The Time for a National Discussion is Upon Us."
“If we cannot defend—through an examination of actions and results as opposed to words—that education is the paramount factor in our decision-making process (rivaled only by the health and safety of our student-athletes), then the enterprise stands as a house of cards,” Delany wrote, per FootballFoundation.org. “Accordingly, the more educationally sound the collegiate experience, the more sustainable intercollegiate athletics becomes.”
While that may be true—and the legitimacy of the claim that freshman ineligibility would improve academics is still very much up for debate—Delany's decision to put his conference at the forefront of the issue could become a potential problem on the recruiting trail for the Big Ten's members.
In fact, in basketball, it's already happened.
"It’s been a nightmare," Ohio State basketball coach Thad Matta said in February. "We’re getting crushed in this thing."
Matta's comments on the subject came on the heels of Aaron Kasinitz and Ellie Silverman's initial report on DiamondbackOnline.com that Delany was hoping to start a "national discussion" on the subject. While the hope was to make all freshmen in college athletics ineligible, the idea was linked to only the Big Ten, leading to misinformation being presented to prospects, as Matta explained.
"I’ve been dealing with that the last couple days trying to explain if it does happen—which it’s not going to— but if it does, it’s not just the Big Ten, it will be across college basketball," Matta said. "It’s not going to happen, but why they linked the Big Ten to it, I don’t know."
With all due respect to Matta, it's not too difficult to figure that out.
While Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott, Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby and ACC commissioner John Swofford have each expressed interest in at least exploring the idea of making freshmen ineligible, it's been Delany who's been leading the charge, seemingly with the intent of making it happen.
And if that's enough to allow teams from other leagues to negatively recruit against the Big Ten in basketball, what's going to stop the same from happening in football, where the conference possesses a larger array of relentless recruiters?
Matta's football counterpart at Ohio State, Meyer, has been mum on the topic, but given his preference for freshmen to play right away in Columbus, it's a safe assumption he'd prefer for eligibility rules to remain the way they're currently constructed.
Dantonio, however, spoke out against freshman ineligibility during a February appearance on the Big Ten Network.
"If you're ready to play, if you're the best player, you should play," Dantonio said, per BTN's Sean Merriman.
Harbaugh, meanwhile, declined to talk about the subject back in February but would benefit greatly from adding as many freshmen to his roster as he can in the next few years as he attempts to rebuild Michigan with a higher caliber of recruit. The same could be said at Penn State with Franklin, who is also yet to go on record with comments about the topic.
But while the Big Ten coaches have been careful not to speak out against their commissioner, the SEC has opposed Delany's stance, with commissioner Mike Slive issuing a statement saying as much to The Associated Press (via ESPN).
"To put a blanket over these student-athletes with a year on the bench doesn't address those individual needs to incentivize academic progress," Slive wrote. "Many students do come to college prepared both academically and athletically ready to compete in the classroom and in competition, and to penalize those students with a universal policy may create unintended consequences not beneficial to many student-athletes."
Without the agreement of all of the Power Five conferences, it's unlikely freshman ineligibility would be pushed through, especially considering NCAA President Mark Emmert is among those who have questioned its viability. That's what makes Delany's attachment to the topic so baffling, as he has created an unnecessary recruiting tool for opponents in the form of an idea that likely won't ever come fruition.
And all for what? To start a discussion?
If the Big Ten coaches won't say it, I will.
What are you thinking?
Ben Axelrod is Bleacher Report's Big Ten Lead Writer. You can follow him on Twitter @BenAxelrod. Unless noted otherwise, all quotes were obtained firsthand. All statistics courtesy of CFBStats.com. Recruiting rankings courtesy of 247Sports.
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