THE PROSPECTOR, December 2008 

THE PROSPECTOR 

November Training School 

            Our November school was one of the best attended we have ever had! 

            Here is a list of those who came and their hometown:

            *J. Scott Weaver – Plainfield, Ind.  

            *Kevin Millington – Terre Haute, Ind.  

            *Lance Walsh – Terre Haute, Ind.  

            *Bruce Roselli – Terre Haute, Ind.

            *Bret Shambaugh – Indianapolis, Ind.  

            *Jonathan Coffield – Maryville, Tenn.  

            *Ron Gilbert – Harriston, Ontario  

            *Joel Jacobson – Bloomington, Minn.  

            *Larry Hackett – Bloomington, Minn.  

            *Cory Wilson – Kenosha, Wisc.  

            *Matt Friesner – Lancaster, Ohio  

            *Dan and Casey Jay – Poland, Ohio  

            *Kevin Spence – Medina, Ohio  

            *Nick Turchan – University Heights, Ohio  

            Congratulations and thanks to all of those who attended! 

Office Holiday Schedule 

            A reminder that the CPOA Corporate Office will be closed December 25 and December 26 in observance of the Christmas holiday and January 1 and January 2 for New Year’s. 

            Our office will be open into the early afternoon on both Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, but we will close before 5:00 P.M. on both of those days.  We will re-open for regular hours on Monday December 29^th and January 5^th. 

            In order for profiles to count for December for quota and commissions purposes, we must receive them in the office either by mail or courier by 12:00 P.M. Eastern Standard Time on Wednesday December 31.  Anything that arrives after noon that day will be posted in January.

FAFSAs Filed in January 

            Families whose FAFSA will be filed by CPOA next month will have the opportunity for final review of the form they have sent to us. 

            Each December, we mail a copy of the FAFSA the family has sent us to let them know we will file the form next month and give them an opportunity to review the numbers they have reported.  They may also change or add the names of colleges or universities where they wish to have the FAFSA sent. 

            This review works well for us.  Parents seem relieved to have a final chance for review and a reminder that we will take care of the FAFSA for them.  We are benefited because we do not need to make many corrections later. 

            If you have Super Service or Ultra clients entitled to FAFSA filing and want to know where they stand in the process, e-mail tstarr@hughes.net or call Tom.

Certification By Phone 

            The NCAA Eligibility Center (nee: Clearinghouse) is offering member institutions a new service.  Division I and II schools may now request preliminary certification of student-athletes by phone. 

            The student must be on an active institutional request list, meaning at least one school has already requested certification for him or her, must be planning to enroll no earlier than fall of 2009, must have already paid the registration fee, must have already completed the amateurism questionnaire, provided official test scores, and have an academic record on file through grade 11. 

            The Eligibility Center says there has been significant demand for phone certification so member schools can get an early read on prospects who may need extra preparation to earn their eligibility.  Theoretically, phone certification should allow more time for potential problems to be solved.

Baseball Star Challenges NCAA Rule 

A top baseball prospect is suing the NCAA over the issue of agents and advisers and the role they are permitted to play in an athlete’s negotiations with pro teams. 

First, let’s make clear this is not connected to CPOA or any marketing service.  Our relationship with clients is defined much differently by the NCAA than an agent’s.  We seldom advise enrolled student-athletes, except on matters of transferring, on the level that an agent does.  But, this litigation is important to watch because part of it concerns the advice or counsel given to NCAA athletes.  It’s a reminder that we must always be careful how we represent ourselves or risk impacting the eligibility of an athlete. 

Some background on this case:  Hours before a Regional baseball game this Spring, Oklahoma State pitcher Andrew Oliver was declared ineligible by the NCAA because he allegedly violated a rule intended to preserve amateurism in college athletics.  As a high school senior, he allowed his adviser to be present at a meeting with the Minnesota Twins, who had selected Oliver in the 17th round of baseball’s amateur draft.

Under NCAA rules, amateur players are permitted to select “advisers” who can guide them through the negotiation process, but the advisers may not communicate directly with professional teams. 

Oliver is suing the NCAA, arguing that the restriction on agents is illegal.  In August, a judge granted Oliver a temporary restraining order restoring his college eligibility, and a trial is scheduled for this month. 

“This idea that you can restrain somebody’s right to counsel is preposterous,” said Richard Johnson, Oliver’s lawyer, who is based in Cleveland.  The suit also argues that he was improperly interviewed without a lawyer present, and Johnson said Oliver was treated more harshly by the university than the circumstances warranted because its baseball team was still facing NCAA sanctions as a result of an unrelated violation in 2006. 

The case is being closely followed by agents, team executives and college baseball coaches around the country, many of whom say that Oliver, now a 20-year-old junior, was caught violating a rule routinely ignored by players, agents, schools and the NCAA since agents began advising amateurs in the 1980s.  “Virtually every player has an agent — call them a lawyer, call them an adviser, there’s no difference,” said one executive for a major league team, who asked not to be identified. 

Unlike in the National Football League and the National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball drafts high school and college players while the NCAA tournament is under way, in early June — and before their eligibility has expired.  The NCAA views athletes’ use of agents, whether the agents are compensated or not, as a sign that they are leaving the amateur world. 

Is there selective enforcement of the rule?  Officials for the NCAA do not release data on how often baseball players are punished for violating the no-agent rule, but news accounts report only a handful of cases in the past decade. 

NCAA officials have declined to comment on either the Oliver case or the no-agent rule, citing the pending lawsuit. 

Both Student Aid and College Costs Increase 

College prices rose only slightly faster than inflation in 2008, but that may say more about the steeper prices for everything in the American economy than it does about college costs. 

Tuition and fees rose 4.5 percent to 6.5 percent for various types of institutions, similar to previous years, but a 5.6-percent increase in the Consumer Price Index means that actual tuition growth was less than 1 percent in constant dollars. 

And while more student aid is available than ever before, the trend is toward more loans.  

"Trends in College Pricing 2008" and "Trends in Student Aid 2008," were released last month by the College Board. 

In 2007-8, the most recent year for which student-aid data are available, both total grant aid per student and total federal loans per student grew about 5.5 percent after inflation.  Undergraduates received an average of $8,896 in financial aid, including $4,656 in grants and $3,650 in federal loans. 

Even though grants are rising, they do not make up the difference between growing college costs and family incomes. 

After two years of holding steady at 5.2 million, the number of Pell Grant recipients grew to 5.4 million in 2007-8. 

The volume of private loans shrank by $173-million, or about 1 percent, to $19.1-billion in 2007-8.  That decline reversed years of double-digit growth and is probably the result of increased borrowing in the federal system, said Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAid, a Web site with student-aid information.  A 2006 change allowed students to take out more federal loans in their first two years of college. 

According to the College Board's Annual Survey of Colleges, about 60 percent of college graduates have debt from their undergraduate studies.  For those students, the average total debt is $22,700. 

The average cost of college kept pace with inflation for the 2008-9 year.  Increases in tuition and fees typically outpace inflation, but the Consumer Price Index rose more than usual this year. 

In-state tuition and fees at public four-year institutions increased 6.4 percent from the 2007-8 year, and there was a 5.2-percent increase for out-of-state students.  In dollar amounts, in-state tuition and fees rose by $394, to $6,585, while out-of-state tuition and fees grew by $866, to $17,452. 

Private four-year institutions saw a tuition increase of 5.9 percent, with the average cost of tuition and fees at $25,143, a $1,398 increase.  Public two-year institutions saw an increase of 4.7 percent in tuition and fees, averaging $2,402, $108 more than last year. 

"Trends in College Pricing" tracks changes over a 30-year period.  From 1977-78 to 2007-8, tuition and fees grew by an average of $1,300 in inflation-adjusted dollars at public two-year colleges, by about $4,000 at public four-year institutions, and by about $15,000 at private four-year colleges.  Over the same period, average family income rose by only about $463 for the poorest 20 percent of families, $11,275 for the middle 20 percent, and $146,650 for the wealthiest 5 percent.

Sports Sponsorships 

            University of North Carolina-Charlotte is taking the major step of starting up a football program.  The 49ers will take the field in 2013, if they can raise $45.3 million to pay for the program.  They will compete in the Football Championship Subdivision, the old NCAA I-AA. 

            Iona College, NCAA Division I, is taking the opposite approach.  The school has announced they are disbanding the football program effective immediately, citing a “lack of equitable opponents in Division I FCS” as the main factor in the decision.  The New Rochelle, NY school will redistribute resources among the remaining 21 varsity teams.

            Cal State Fullerton, NCAA Division I in Fullerton, Calif., is bringing back men’s and women’s golf for the 2009-10 school year.  It’s been more than 20 years since the Titans had either a men’s or women’s team. 

            Limestone College, NCAA Division II in Gaffney, SC, is adding two sports.  Women’s field hockey will take the field in the fall of 2009.  The Lady Saints will have the distinction of being the southernmost field hockey team in the USA and only the third in Division II south of Pennsylvania!  The school is also adding men’s volleyball as a varsity sport to begin in the spring of 2010.

Baseball Prospect signs with Division I School

  -end-