<p>which ones, the ones with legal histories, or the ones without legal histories?
Either can get into trouble. </p>
<p>I do understand what you are saying though. If you recruit a high risk student based on their past, put support system in place to assure success.</p>
<p>I am good friends with a Div. I football coach and have heard countless recruiting stories over the years. The sad fact is that a lot of these talented athletes come from less than stellar family situations. A good percentage of recruits are “high risk” at pretty much any Div. I football school. I agree that there should be better ways to support those students (the stipend is an interesting idea), but it’s not just UA that’s recruiting these kids. They are at every good football school in the country. And unfortunately incidents like this can and do happen.</p>
<p>I also agree that UA’s handling of the situation will be key. I do wonder about the timeline with the gun charge. I guess we will have to see how it all plays out.</p>
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<p>as one tweeter put it “The history of indefinite suspensions under Saban at UA is bleak on redemption. Very few if any have ended a UA career in good standing.”</p>
<p>Not to worry, I’m sure Jerry Jones will be there soon to sign them up for next season to play for the Cowboys. UGH! He seems to like the really bad boys. I think he thought the team name was Badboys when he bought them, not Cowboys. </p>
<p>Either way, I hope UA kicks them out ASAP!</p>
<p>These acts are horrible and these kids need to go now since they admitted guilt. With regards to recruiting, this is something I follow very closely and trust me when I tell you that all kids are looked over with a fine tooth comb. The big time D1 programs have the resources to do any checks they need to. They know exactly what type of kids they are recruiting and if they have any baggage that comes along with talent. The ones that do have “baggage” are always known to the coaches and the recruiting experts and some coaches back off and some don’t regardless their rap sheets. I’m not sure about these kids in question but believe me the staff knew everything they needed to know about them before they offered them a 100k scholarship. Not only do they do background checks but they also do in home visits and interview the kids, families and their high-schools coaches and teachers so they exactly what they are getting from a character standpoint. They do their due diligence and then make a decision whether or not offer the kid scholarship. Remember all kids not just athletes are asked on their application if they have ever been convicted of a crime. Imagine to what degree the football program checks other than just that one question. Regarding stipends, that is just out of control IMHO. These kids are pampered unlike any other kid on campus. From the food they eat to the academic support they receive everything is 1st class and top notch. Should Alabama or any other school provide stipends to the poor kids who are not on athletic scholarship? Yes these kids help drive money to the school but they are given such an amazing opportunity with the support and scholarships they receive that a $250 stipend is miniscule compared to what they are getting. Besides, if a kid is prone to commit robbery and do drugs $250 or any other amount will not be enough and to satisfy their desires and they will still commit crimes. The key in all of this and the most a school can do is make sure that the recruiting priorities are to recruit solid law abiding kids with good moral character as major factor on offering them a scholarship. If that’s the case and they do everything they can to ensure they are getting that profile type kid then in my opinion that have done what is required in order to run a clean program.</p>
<p>driving down university blvd with gun in the car is illegal if you dont have a licence</p>
<p>I’m not sure this is true. I don’t think you need a concealed carry permit/license when transporting your gun “to and from” a pistol range, etc. In such a case, the weapon may need to be in a case and not within grabbing distance of the driver??? However, it sounds like you need one if you’re going to just keep one in the car or on your person.</p>
<p>*TUSCALOOSA – The following is a statement from University of Alabama Head Football Coach Nick Saban:</p>
<p>“The young men charged are indefinitely suspended as we continue to gather information and talk to the appropriate people. The University and football program have strict guidelines regarding issues of this magnitude. This behavior is unacceptable for any student-athlete at the University of Alabama and not representative of our football program.”*</p>
<p>Not a surprising response. One thing Saban knows is that if you hold kids responsible for their actions (and kick them out or give a harsh consequence), it means that the rest of your team takes notice. </p>
<p>Some of you may not know, but Bama sent home two players shortly before the BCS game because they broke curfew. I’m sure that was a huge warning to the rest of the team to behave if they wanted to stay in Miami and be there for the game.</p>
<p>If any of you have seen a video of Saban’s very large office, you may have seen that his desk has buttons on it that open and close the office door. Can you visualize each one of these felons getting called in to face Saban, with him sitting at his desk, pressing buttons that close the door behind you after you entered. You’d fear that while standing before him another button would get pressed and you’d drop into a fiery Crimson hell.</p>
<p>mom2 - I just spit out my water!! Too funny!</p>
<p>If college was truly about getting an education, sports would not be part of it and students attending college would be there to study and not as a means to be recruited for professional sports. When sports and football become the sole focus of many college experiences, maybe it’s time for a change. I know this will never happen, but how much does sports programs drain from other college expenses? Don’t try to sell me on how much sports adds to college or how much money “sports” bring to colleges, because I just think it has become very distorted and ill-guided. Pro sports teams, should start their own training programs focusing on athleticism and sportsmanship and let colleges be for students who want to study and learn. I am sure there are many responsible athletes, who study and play sports, but students should be at college for mainly for education. Things are out of balance.</p>
<p>Marybee…UA football is 100% self sufficient. They give money to the school for academic scholarships, they do take money from the school for anything. </p>
<p>I realize that is not true in all schools.</p>
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<p>" . . . now that they’ve admitted guilt"? What if they hadn’t admitted anything - just been arrested and charged with robbery? Then is it okay for them to go back to living in the dorms as if nothing’s happened?</p>
<p>I don’t have the slightest concern about the eventual outcome here . . . it seems exceedingly unlikely that any of the three students charged with robbery will be finishing college at UA. My concern is the safety of the other students on campus after a student - any student - is arrested, charged with a serious felony, and released on bail. And this is a concern that’s not limited in any way to UA.</p>
<p>Clearly someone dropped the ball here following Williams’s first arrest. Whoever needed to know about the arrest did not know . . . so no action was taken. But how should a school - any school - respond in a situation like this?</p>
<p>As far as I’m concerned, any student charged with a serious or violent felony should not be permitted back on campus. Period. End of discussion. The student should be escorted to his or her dorm by school security personnel to retrieve personal belongings, and then he or she should be barred from campus pending the outcome of the criminal proceedings. Given the potential risk to other students, I don’t see how a school could do otherwise.</p>
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<p>Change will happen when we stop valuing our professional athletes more than we value the persons who educate our children.</p>
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<p>I think the point the other poster was trying to make (and I am not trying to speak for anyone else) is that there is a difference between someone who has been charged with a crime and someone who has admitted that crime. Innocent until proven guilty. What if it was your child who had been accused of something? Would you be o.k. with him being removed immediately from campus?</p>
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<p>No, of course not. But I’d understand that the safety of the other students would have to take precedence. I mean, really, what if it was my kid’s roommate who was charged with the felony? Sorry, but the safety of the campus community has to come first.</p>
<p>A school faces the same situation when a teacher is charged with molesting a student. No way does that teacher stay in the classroom pending trial - it just wouldn’t happen. If and when there’s an acquittal, then the teacher would have a right to reinstatement, but not prior.</p>
<p>When sports and football become the sole focus of many college experiences, maybe it’s time for a change.</p>
<p>Who said that “sports and football” became the sole focus? What does that have to do with this? </p>
<p>These students made these horrific choices. They wanted money and decided to get it in a criminal way. Their sport didn’t teach them or encourage them to behave this way.</p>
<p>Your point has no place in this situation. If Bama and Saban were intent on keeping these students on the team, then your claim would have merit. Since that’s not the case, what are you talking about???</p>
<p>I am aware that University of Alabama has made significant strides academically, but even so, when you have a school where the football team is more important than anything else, and where you admit kids to a college merely because they are good football players, such things are bound to happen.</p>
<p>Such “hired guns” often have no real interest in even attending college.</p>
<p>I have always believed that openings on the football team should only be filled with students who meet the traditional academic standards of that school. I think the chances of such incidents would decrease drastically if only “real” students played on the team.</p>
<p>Now that’s a novel idea, fielding a college football team with actual real students. </p>
<p>Down here in Florida, the University of Miami had similar problems rather recently.</p>
<p>I am an avid college football fan, but things have gotten out of control, paying coaches millions of dollars, and firing coaches for only having an 8-4 record.</p>
<p>Most of these kids will never make the pros, and provide almost free labor to the school, which makes millions off of the games.</p>
<p>Imagine if an NFL team only had to pay their players $25,000-$50,000 a year, the cost of the scholarship.</p>
<p>What we have now, especially in the SEC, is an NFL development league masquerading as a college league.</p>
<p>Of course, that being said, the students on the University of Florida football team all have 4.0 gpa’s, and would never engage in such conduct…</p>
<p>I am aware that University of Alabama has made significant strides academically, but even so, when you have a school where the football team is more important than anything else, and where you admit kids to a college merely because they are good football players, such things are bound to happen.</p>
<p>Ahhh…florida dad…I knew it was only a matter of time before you would weigh in on this thread. </p>
<p>Your premise is false. Alabama is not a school where “the football team is more important than anything else.” </p>
<p>As an atty, I’d think you could come up with something better than that.</p>
<p>I think I hear an ambulance, where are your Nikes?</p>
<p>Mom2:</p>
<p>I think the Penn State incidents indicate that at many colleges, football is indeed more important than anything else. I suspect that many top football programs would have reacted in the same manner, and covered things up.</p>
<p>I think that it is pretty well self evident that the football teams at many colleges have become more important than the academics at the college. To deny that is putting your head in the sand. I suspect I am not the only person posting on this thread that would agree with that statement.</p>
<p>What exactly is the purpose of admitting someone who can barely read, to a state’s flagship university, if football is not the most important thing???</p>
<p>The University of Alabama football team is essentially a business, little different than an NFL team, except with the brilliant business concept that you don’t even have to pay your players. </p>
<p>Perhaps UA could use this opportunity to review their recruiting practices, and tighten things up. If YOUR kid had been attacked, or raped, by these “students”, perhaps you would be singing a different tune. The program at the University of Miami has suffered because of similar incidents. They have tightened things up. </p>
<p>As for being an ambulance chaser, fyi, I do wills and trusts. So I don’t need good running shoes, like Nikes, as you suggest.</p>
<p>i actually think floridadad makes some excellent points… i have always thought that any school (not just UA or auburn here in this state) should have the same standards for football players as they have for any other student…and for a subsidized education…there should be standards expected academically not just athletically. i have no idea what the stats are for football recruits, and they may be excellent, or they may not be…but education should be the first priority of the school and of the students. when you hear “roll tide” or “war eagle” because you are wearing a UA or AU t-shirt…they arent yelling that out for the academic reputation…they are yelling it out for the football reputation imo. Again though i think it applies to all schools regardless of this incident… sadly this could happen at any school and with any student not just football players…so my point are directed at floridadad comments re academics</p>