CULLOWHEE–Last year, Raleigh high school basketball star Kelsey Evans signed a national letter of intent to play womens basketball for dynamic coach Kellie Harper at Western Carolina.
But when Harper left for a job at NC State in late spring, Evans, who is very good, but presumably not good enough to play at State, decided to go to school closer to home, at Elon.
Here’s the catch, though: Western hasn’t released Evans from her letter of intent. And Evans, interestingly, has sued the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
The implications for the NCAA could be far-reaching, because it is under growing pressure to reconcile its lofty ideals of student athleticism with the high-dollar, often tawdry realities of college athletics.
The impact at Western could be substantial … Both the Raleigh and Asheville daily newspapers have taken Western to task for making things difficult for this young athlete. Keith Jarrett, the senior sportswriter at the Asheville Citizen-Times, was apoplectic yesterday, winding up his opinion piece with a rhetorical question that shouldn’t have made it past any editor who’d ever even met a lawyer.
The impact at Western could be substantial, too. Both the Raleigh and Asheville daily newspapers have taken Western to task for making things difficult for this young athlete. Keith Jarrett, the senior sportswriter at the Asheville Citizen-Times, was apoplectic yesterday, winding up his opinion piece with a rhetorical question that shouldn’t have made it past any editor who’d ever even met a lawyer.
My first take on the subject was this: why on earth would WCU risk the bad publicity of playing tug-of-war with a kid who was obviously never going to attend Western Carolina? It wouldn’t be good for the young woman (who should be the priority) and certainly nothing good could come of it for the school. I wrote as much.
Well, nothing good will come of it for the school, that’s for sure, but the story is a little more nuanced than it might seem.
Here’s a simplified version: when a scholarship student-athlete wants to leave one college for another, that athlete must petition his or her current school for a release. When a student is enrolled, this is a relatively straightforward process. The athlete petitions the athletics department for a release, and if the department says no, she makes her case to a school committee, and ultimately a final decision is reached. It’s been implied by other sources that these releases are most often a formality, but apparently not so.
Complications, one of them being that a transfer to a rival school is a no-no, can interfere.
Things are a little more murky when a student — like Evans — signs a national letter of intent, but has a change of heart before she enrolls. She’s free to go to school wherever she chooses, of course, but unless WCU gives her a release, and if she goes to another NCAA Div. 1 school, she has to wait a year to play basketball. And she loses a year of eligibility. This is a NCAA rule.
Evans, her attorney and her parents are taking exception to this rule, saying, in essence, that if coach Kellie Harper can break her contract, Evans should have the right to do the same. Evans’ lawyer says the rules are geared to protect college athletics departments, not kids. This point of law is where the NCAA has its work cut out for it.
Meanwhile, WCU Athletics Director Chip Smith would argue that a lot of time and money is spent recruiting players, and that the letter of intent is a contract, reserving the student a place on the team and a desk in the classroom.
Evans asked to be released from her obligation to Western because the coach she wanted to play for was gone. But she wants to play for Elon — in fact is already enrolled there — and the Phoenix are in the Southern Conference along with WCU.
That’s why Western said no.
Newspaper coverage has implied that Western more or less forced the frustrated Evans family to sue. It is possible, though, that after the initial “no”, the family’s contact with the university has been minimal — the appeals process for non-enrolled students is through the NCAA, not the school. This being the case, it is clear that the newspapers are taking the student’s family’s word that Western is being difficult.
Maybe, maybe not. WCU isn’t talking, playing once again its familiar role of an ostrich in the media headlights.
But if it is true that the Evans asked only once, the suggestion that WCU is going out of its way to make things difficult for Evans is a trumped-up charge. In fact, if it is true, and if Evans and her parents expected to be automatically released from their agreement no questions asked, then we’re left to wonder whether they were taking their obligation a little too lightly.
| More reading … |
Here are some earlier excerpts from the Raleigh News and Observer:
Kelsey Evans filed a lawsuit Wednesday in Wake County Superior Court asking for her letter of intent to be thrown out because she signed it as a minor and it was not approved by a Superior Court judge. Without that approval, North Carolina law allows the minor to back out of certain contracts upon turning 18, as Evans did in May.
The intent of the statute is to protect precocious performers — actors, singers, dancers — from unscrupulous parents and talent agents. But it also applies to agreements to “render services as a participant or player in a sport.”
Evans’ lawyer:
“It would seem to me, looking at the letter of intent and the manner in which the NCAA works, it’s pretty clear the emphasis of the NCAA in the letter-of-intent system is to protect colleges and not the kids. That’s why we have laws in North Carolina to protect minors, and we intend to take full advantage of those laws.”
News and Observer staff writer Luke Dedock:
Evans’ legal argument aside, there is a bigger issue in play here. A letter of intent is an agreement between a player and a school, not a player and a coach. But given the mobility and role of college coaches today, holding that line seems a little predatory. It’s hard to pretend that players are choosing schools only for that school at the same time coaches are being paid seven-figure salaries to convince those same players to attend.
Evans’ mom:
“It has been extremely hard for me to believe that someone would hold back a 17-year-old girl from pursuing what she feels is in her best interest and her future,” Lisa Evans said. “It’s extremely hard to grasp and believe. I could never have imagined it would be this long a process.”
Read the story at the N&O here.
Read the Asheville Citizen-Times piece here. |
