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Discussion Topic: Darrion Caldwell Situation
Hank Kornblut added to this discussion on May 3, 2008
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NC State's exciting 149 pounder, Darrion Caldwell, has expressed a desire to leave the school. Evidently, he wants to attend his home state school, Rutgers. Caldwell, 5th in the nation last March, wants a release. His coach, Carter Jordan, doesn't want him to leave and does not plan to give him one. Caldwell just finished his soph season. He has two years of eligibility remaining and has never redshirted.
I'm curious as to what people think.
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Discussion Topic: Darrion Caldwell Situation
Mark Niemann added to this discussion on May 3, 2008
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Tough call, but I say you have to bend over backwards to make the kid realize the great things at the certain university (not a tough sell at all for the Buckeyes!!!) but if he has made up his mind that he wants to leave, what would be the motivation to keep him and who wins in the end?
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Discussion Topic: Darrion Caldwell Situation
Pat Costilow added to this discussion on May 3, 2008
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In both this and the Brands/VTech situations, I dislike the decisions to not grant releases. It hurts the kids, and makes the program look bad. If I was a recruit, it would make me think less of the program. It does nothing to benefit any student-athletes. Nobody wins.
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Discussion Topic: Darrion Caldwell Situation
Ethan Moore added to this discussion on May 3, 2008
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It is easy to dismiss the coach or the school as being poor sports in these types of situations, but you have to understand where the coaches are coming from when they are hesitant to grant the release.
In this situation, the NC State coach has most likely spent a great deal of his time working with the super talent Caldwell over the past couple of years, and now he is asked to just give away that time investment. That's a tough situation to put anyone in.
A similar situation is currently going on at Northern Illinois, where Duke Burke wants a release and Coach Grant has pushed back. In that situation, if I understand the articles correctly, Burke and his parents cited academic reasons for wanting the transfer. However, when Grant said he would release him to a D2 or D3 school (in other words, saying that if academics were the main motivator, than this should be an adequate solution...), the Burke family pushed back. Again, a tough situation for the program. What if Burke transfers to Central Michigan and wins the MAC next year? Would that have been a good decision to release him?
In the Brands situation, Virginia Tech invested a great deal of resources in the athletes and received notihng in return. Essentially, VT was the training facility for the future Iowa national championship team. While I disagreed with the decision of the administration to NOT grant the release, I certainly understand how it would be tough to make that type of investment and get ZERO in return.
As with everything in life, there are two sides to every situation. It is important to look at these situations from the viewpoint of the school/coaching staff/program as well as from the viewpoint of the individual athlete.
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Discussion Topic: Darrion Caldwell Situation
Tony Bradberry added to this discussion on May 3, 2008
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Scholarships are one year renewable contracts. He held up his end of the contract and was a good student athlete, representing his school well. he should have the choice of what he wants to do.
If a coach can decide to give a kid a full ride one year and give him nothing the next, a kid should be able to decide to go some place one year and leave the next.
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Discussion Topic: Darrion Caldwell Situation
Josh Lowe added to this discussion on May 3, 2008
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The release/non-release only effects if Caldwell can wrestle this year at a Division I school. Since this is an equivalency sport as opposed to a headcount sport (ie- football or basketball), he could wrestle immediately with a release.
No release means he has to "sit" a year, and since he did not use a redshirt, he still will have two years left (five to complete four is the DI rule) to compete.
I don't know the truth in this situation, so I'll keep out of that story - there are always three sides: side A, side B, and the happy medium truth.
The only thing I'm going to tough on is the football thing: If he's claiming the football thing, I can't see how that works though - football season goes through December if you're on a winning team. Also, as a kid that probably maxes around 170, what worth is he going to have as a DI-A football player?
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Discussion Topic: Darrion Caldwell Situation
Hank Kornblut added to this discussion on May 3, 2008
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Josh: My personal opinion is the football thing is a red herring. My sense of it is he wants to wrestle at home where it's easier for his family to see him. I also think there's a lot of excitement building in NJ over Rutgers wrestling. Perhaps he got caught up in it?
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Discussion Topic: Darrion Caldwell Situation
Bill Splete added to this discussion on May 4, 2008
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Every time I hear anyone mention the financial loss or time invested in a student athlete as the reason for not releasing him/her. It, at that point, is not about the future of the young person and is now about a university. These young men and women are given much with a scholarship, but much is asked in return. Universities don't guarentee scholarships or the coaching staff to stay. In fact why aren't athletes given the same rights as coaches, Tom Brands didn't have to sit out a year! Instead of signing letters of intent, let's use legal binding agreements that benefit both parties. And does not allow coaches and administrators the ability to decide a students future.
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Discussion Topic: Darrion Caldwell Situation
Ken Ramsey Sr. added to this discussion on May 4, 2008
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Quote from Bill Splete's post:
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"Every time I hear anyone mention the financial loss or time invested in a student athlete as the reason for not releasing him/her. It, at that point, is not about the future of the young person and is now about a university. These young men and women are given much with a scholarship, but much is asked in return. Universities don't guarentee scholarships or the coaching staff to stay. In fact why aren't athletes given the same rights as coaches, Tom Brands didn't have to sit out a year! Instead of signing letters of intent, let's use legal binding agreements that benefit both parties. And does not allow coaches and administrators the ability to decide a students future."
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Bill:
I agree with you, many times the coaching staffs, when recruiting, put on a face that is not representative how they truly operate. Why should a student be stuck in a situation that he does not fit into? I do agree that they should have to sit out a year (a transfer redshirt), but that they should not lose a year of eligibility. All wrestlers should be given the chance to transfer if a coaching change is made, except to a coach who changes jobs by choice (ie Brands as example), he should not be able to pick up any of his recruits from the school he is leaving. The wrestlers can change schools, just can't follow the coach.
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Discussion Topic: Darrion Caldwell Situation
Brady Hiatt added to this discussion on May 4, 2008
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These rules concerning transfering were put in place for a certain reason -- to deal with problems or potential problems in the major sports. Could you imagine all the transfering, recruiting by one school of athletes representing another school, if these weren't in place? These may not be common place in wrestling, but in football and basketball, I would imagine the incidents would be pretty common.
My personal feeling on it is this, if the coach leaves, the athletes should be allowed to leave if they've competed for the school (VT -- I don't see a problem with them not granting the release since it was the COACH that recruited them that bolted for a greener pasture AND they hadn't represented a single time in competition -- I believe VT said to compete one year and then they'd release them). When I signed my scholarship, I knew EXACTLY what that meant and what it would cost if I decided I wanted to go to another college -- and if I didn't know, then it would be my own dumb fault.
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Discussion Topic: Darrion Caldwell Situation
Brady Hiatt added to this discussion on May 4, 2008
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Tony -- I think you'd be VERY hard pressed to find an instance where an athlete had a full ride (or some scholarship on year) and then was giving nothing the next year -- unless they'd broken team rules.
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Discussion Topic: Darrion Caldwell Situation
Tony Bradberry added to this discussion on May 4, 2008
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The amount is not the point, but the fact that each year coachs can do whatever they want when they "renew" your scholarship. The athletes have no control over what happens they can't renegoiate, but the coachs can make a decision to change your scholarshp something you may have not agreed to when you signed.
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Discussion Topic: Darrion Caldwell Situation
Brady Hiatt added to this discussion on May 4, 2008
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You are correct Tony in that a coach could do that...but I still think you'd be pretty hard pressed to find this happening on any regular basis.
I believe that more kids are released from their school than those that have their $ reduced.
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Discussion Topic: Darrion Caldwell Situation
Roe Fox added to this discussion on May 5, 2008
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I am guessing with people as talented as Caldwell there are other issues, too. For instance, I imagine he got a lot to go to what clearly isn't a top tier school. This was probably in place of another recruit (ot two) who they may have had with all or part of the money. After thinking 149-157 was set for four years, it is back to the drawing board. I would never want a disgruntled athlete on my team but I also don't want to throw away team points in a weight class until we get someone in.
All these athletes know the rules going in. Tony makes some good points but until either the rules are changed or they are enforced uniformly, this issue will continue.
However, I'd be hard pressed to support any coach who cuts a scholarship if the athlete is making the effort.
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