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OPPORTUNITY

AVENUE TO

P.D.SWANSON@ATT.NET @PAULDSWANSON

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AVENUE TO OPPORTUNITY The Avenue to Opportunity model offers a template with structural components that create advantageous design pathways to educational opportunity for non-qualifying high school student-athletes on the road to a four-year degree. This model has been presented to the NCAA Committee, the NABC Board of Directors, the NJCAA Basketball Coaches Association, The California Community College Athletic Association, The Black Coaches Association, The American Football Coaches Association, The Womens National Basketball Coaches Association, The Council of Great City Schools, The National High School Athletic Association, as well as other academic organizations, coaches, administrators and media personnel for their review. Listed below are specific advantages of this model for each special interest group regarding the issue of two-year college transfers to four-year institutions.

TEN ADVANTAGES OF THIS MODEL

1. THE STUDENT-ATHLETEThis model will offer non-qualifying high school student-athletes many of whom are minorities facing significant social and educational disadvantagesan opportunity to remedy academic deficiencies in order to successfully complete their degrees at a four-year institution. Additionally, the model offers academic incentives, provides realistic timetables for introduction to more rigorous core classes, and includes a safety net for those student-athletes who need more intensive remediation. 2. THE FOUR-YEAR COLLEGEWith regard to both athletics and academics, this model will help two-year colleges offer a larger, better-prepared talent pool from which four-year schools may draw. Two-year colleges are structured to provide non-qualifying high school studentathletes with fundamental academic remediation programs that four-year colleges are not designed to offer. This model will provide a structured liberal arts core curriculum that will help prepare each transfer student-athlete to be successful at the four-year level. The studentathletes will arrive at the four-year institutions with transferable college credit and a time frame that will allow them the opportunity to graduate and help the four-year college meet their APR requirements. (Note: The curriculum suggested in the Avenue to Opportunity model is at least as strong as that of most of the current freshman division one mens basketball and football players in the country and in many cases stronger.) 3. THE TWO-YEAR COLLEGEThis model will allow two-year colleges to remediate and educate non-qualifying high school student-athletes in a reasonable time frame and help more of the student-athletes move on to four-year institutions better prepared for success. The core curriculum suggested in this model for two-year college student-athletes will be stronger and more consistent across the country and will help change the negative stigma unfairly surrounding two-year college student-athletes. This will make the two-year college studentathlete more attractive to four-year colleges and universities. It will even allow four-year colleges, who currently do not recruit two-year college transfers because of academics, access to this expanded talent pool. Moreover, this model would allow two-year colleges to continue to graduate student-athletes with AA degrees and receive state funding. 4. FOUR-YEAR ATHLETIC PROGRAMSThis model will expand the recruiting talent pool for four-year colleges. It will encourage four-year college coaches to promote two-year colleges as the first option for non-qualifying high school student-athletes, rather than prep schools or academies. In turn, student-athletes would enter four-year athletic programs better prepared to graduate, thus helping athletic programs meet the NCAAs APR requirements. The transfer student-athletes will come with transfer hours and have more eligibility remaining, making them more valuable as recruits. 5. TWO-YEAR ATHLETIC PROGRAMSThis model will help two-year college coaches motivate non-qualifying student/athletes to remediate and work hard academically by providing

incentives for early entry to four-year schools. The Avenue to Opportunity model also provides a realistic time frame to complete the increased core academic course requirements. Two-year college coaches will not be forced to scramble late in the spring and summer sessions to find ways to graduate the student-athlete on schedule. Four-year colleges will not be forced to stop recruiting a prospective two-year college student-athlete due to uncertainties regarding that student-athletes ability to graduate. In turn, this will encourage more of the top non-qualifying student-athletes to select two-year colleges, thereby raising the level of play at the two-year college level.

6. THE NCAA This model will allow the NCAA to utilize the two-year college system as the premiere developmental level for non-qualifying high school student-athletes. The structured core curriculum will make evaluating the eligibility of each student-athlete quicker and easier. The two-year colleges are under state control and many times are under the same Board of Regents as the four-year colleges, so there is institutional control. Many of the questions regarding illegal funding will be solved and there will be another professional barrier between the student-athletes and the many questionable outside parties that are currently involved in the recruiting process. This model will also offer the NCAA a politically correct and structured avenue to deal with the increased number of high school student-athletes who may not immediately meet the newly increased 2016 academic standards or qualify to transfer to a division-two four-year college as a transfer student. 7. THE NJCAA & CALIFORNIA COMMUNITY COLLEGE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATIONThis model will increase the overall talent level at two-year colleges. It will make these organizations more relevant to the overall development process for non-qualifying high school studentathletes nationally. By representing and overseeing two-year colleges who are producing more student-athletes who are able to move on to four-year institutions and be successful both athletically and academically, both organizations will receive more national attention and interest from the media, college sports fans, and the general public. This will increase the importance and value of these organizations and the intercollegiate sports programs they oversee as an integral part of the overall educational process. 8. HIGH SCHOOL COACHES, GUIDANCE COUNSELORS, AND ADMINISTRATORSBy providing specific information about two-year college options, this model will allow high school coaches, guidance counselors, and administrators to better help and advise non-qualifying student-athletes and their parents with regard to the next step in their educational development. This model will serve as a road map to academic recovery for the student-athlete and his or her family in dealing with the disappointment of not meeting the initial academic requirements necessary for accepting an athletic scholarship from a four-year institution. It will provide a second chance and an avenue to opportunity for non-qualifying student-athletes to compete at the four-year level and receive a four-year degree. 9. THE GAMEThis model will help ensure the continued improvement in the many different intercollegiate team sports by providing more qualified individual fundamental skill development and instruction to the student-athletes. Over the last decade, basic skill development and fundamental instruction has taken a back seat to AAU game competition in the spring and summer. Many of the adults involved in coaching these teams have limited backgrounds in the game and lack the experience necessary to be effective teachers of fundamental skills and techniques. They play a lot of games with little or no consequence and spend very little time in structured practices. Moreover, many non-qualifying student-athletes who are non-qualifiers began their education in elementary schools at the earliest possible age due to their parents inability to afford child-care. This, along with the lack of fundamental skills, is one of the key factors affecting the increasingly high transfer rate at four-year colleges, as well as many of the social issues that all coaches must deal with. The athleticism displayed on the fields of competition has increased dramatically, but the fundamental skill levels, in almost every team sport, have deteriorated significantly. Economics have forced school districts to cut middle

school and high school athletic programs and coaches. As a result, many student-athletes are graduating from high school at 16 or 17 years of age. When combined with stressful socioeconomic backgrounds, this immaturity and fundamental weakness, athletically and educationally, leads many student-athletes to feel frustrated at the four-year level, which may lead to transfers or other institutional problems. Spending time attending a two-year college would benefit many young student-athletes by giving them time to mature while receiving qualified fundamental skill instruction in his or her sport in a real college environment.

10. COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGEThe Avenue to Opportunity model will not give any one group an increased advantage that doesnt already exist. Student-athletes who do not qualify out of high school can already attend a prep school. These student-athletes are going to be older just as if they chose a two-year college under the Avenue to Opportunity model. The Avenue to Opportunity model provides the rules and structure necessary for preventing the stockpiling of athletes at any one institution. With the increased academic core requirements and remediation designed into the model, more four-year colleges should be able to recruit from two-year colleges. If every four-year college has equal opportunity to recruit from two-year colleges, no single institution should reap a competitive advantage. There also should not be a concern about competitive advantage for the two-year colleges. Most of the best players currently participating in two-year colleges are division-one transfers with only one year of eligibility, or are prep school transfers who did not qualify. This model again provides protection from stockpiling players.

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