[Husker] Husker: Other side of the coin

[Nick Chevance]

On Wed, Feb 4, 2009 at 10:44 AM, rczeranko at juno.com <rczeranko at juno.com> wrote:
> I do believe that with Tom Osborne as the AD, any rescinding of offers is above board.
>
> Rob Czeranko

I think Skyler and Rob have it correctly.  And I need to apologize to
the list for making the statement that recruiting is not about being
honorable.  Despite my rather long posts, I didn't get around to
saying what I meant by that.  What was meant was that the action of
the University in recruiting young men and women to come to play
sports in return for a free or reduced cost education basically
becomes a business decision, and not one of honor.  There are ethical
and honorable standards to uphold to be sure; you don't make offers of
scholarships unless you believe the student has a real chance at
performing well, and you don't put students on scholarship and keep
them there unless they do perform well.  And you don't pull
scholarship offers without good reason.  As far as offering a
scholarship to a student and then it becomes apparent the student will
not perform well, it is also honorable to withdraw that offer.
Because the Athletic Dept has a fiduciary responsibility to the
University to give free or reduced cost education to students who can
perform well both in athletics and in school, and a responsibility to
make sure that student does well in both arenas.  If it fails to do
so, it fails the University and the student.

As an aside, that's why I hate this one-year-in-college-before-the-NBA
rule.  That is nothing about education, its all about money.  And its
crap.  But that's a whole 'nother issue.

I think Rod hit on an issue that bothers me.  Why is it felt that the
Huskers are somehow acting dishonorably by rescinding a scholarship
offer?  That despite the legality of the move (it is legal), we have
some overarching responsibility to a potential student when we make an
offer before signing day.  Does the student have any responsibility in
this matter, or is it always and only on the University?  Is there
never a time when a scholarship can be pulled, despite the actions (or
inactions) of the student?  From everything I've heard and read about
this one particular situation, the student may not have lived up to
his responsibilities and was dropped by the University because of it.
I see that as responsible behavior on the part of the University -
honorable behavior, if you will.  Sure, the potential student may have
missed out on certain other opportunities, but then he had certain
responsibilities to maintain too.

Today is the day we can (hopefully) put all this bickering and
disagreement behind us, drink the new batch of Kool-Aid, and get on
board the Big Red Express.  The letters of intent will be whizzing in
on fax machines everywhere, and we'll finally know what's what.
Whoo-hooo!

Nick
-- 
"If a million people believe a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing."
Anatole France