Scholarship guarantees aren’t new phenomenon
1. He or she becomes ineligible. 2. The athlete gives false information in an application, letter of intent or financial aid agreement.
3. A serious issue that results in significant discipline of the athlete.
4. The athlete decides to leave the program.
5. He or she violates part of the financial aid agreement or a stated university or program rule or policy.
“So those rules don’t change,” Fredrick said. “And when you say you get a four-year scholarship, that doesn’t mean you get a four-year scholarship no matter what. So it doesn’t really change it that much.”
UNLV men’s soccer coach Rich Ryerson said he guarantees a fouryear scholarship when recruiting players.
“We want them to finish at UNLV if they start here,” Ryerson said. “We’ve cut players and honored our scholarship agreement. We’ve sacrificed scholarship money to keep our word about scholarships.”
Though not all Rebels coaches guarantee four-year scholarships, they also do what they can to keep recruited athletes on campus for that long.
“For someone who leaves women’s basketball, you have to do something that’s really bad,” women’s basketball coach Kathy Olivier said. “Otherwise, we recruited you. We’re going to keep you. We’re going to make sure you get your degree. We look bad if you don’t finish here.
“We’re going to get you through. If you’re not as good as I thought you were, then we’re not developing you enough and made a mistake, so I’m going to live with this mistake, and let’s make sure you’re representing in a different kind of way.”
Coaches, though, have some gray area as far as releasing players from scholarships. They can drastically reduce playing time or make life unpleasant in other ways to force athletes to look elsewhere without actually taking away the scholarships. This is known colloquially as “running off” a player.
“I don’t think any coach in America would ever take a scholarship away from a kid,” football coach Tony Sanchez said. “Those kids have to go out and earn it, too. There are a lot of guys that come in and don’t realize you’re getting a $30,000 free education.
”You’ve got to work, you’ve got to show up every day, you’ve got to lift weights. You’ve got to do a great job in the academic environment.” Contact Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal. com or 702-387-2914. Follow on Twitter: @ markanderson65.