On Campus: The Power Of Autonomy

At last week’s NCAA Convention in San Antonio, the Power Five conferences passed a small, but significant piece of legislation that allows high school players to use an agent during contract negotiations with the major league team that drafted them.

The rule change was passed as a part of the process the power conferences have to autonomously adopt legislation. The committee that votes on those proposals is composed of representatives of the 65 schools in the five conferences and 15 student-athletes (three from each conference). Among those student-athletes, several were very familiar with baseball’s draft process. Among the student representatives were Clemson righthander Patrick Andrews, Mississippi righthander Brady Bramlett and Texas Tech outfielder Anthony Lyons, as well as Tennessee basketball star Diamond DeShields, whose older brother Delino was the eighth overall pick in the 2010 draft out of Woodward Academy (College Park, Ga.).

The rule change easily passed, 75-2 with three abstentions. Bramlett said he believed the proposal was an appropriate change.

“Whenever you have 17- or 18-year-olds dealing with six- or seven-figure numbers, they have zero experience in that realm,” Bramlett said. “So I think it’s great that they can hire someone to guide them along in that process without having it affect eligibility.”

Lyons agreed that the new rule was a positive change, and said he believes the same accommodation should be made for college players who have eligibility remaining when they are drafted.

“If you are being drafted you should be able to have the decision to have some assistance beyond your family, coaches or faculty of the school or anybody,” he said. “I think you should be able to have someone who is experienced in game so you can better your future.”

The vote allowing high school draftees to hire agents was just one issue on a busy convention schedule for both Bramlett and Lyons. The Power Five’s largest debate centered on the issue of time demands for student-athletes. The players were hoping to find a way to provide more balance in their lives, but instead the group decided to further study the issue and then vote on possible changes at next year’s convention.

While this was Bramlett’s first year representing the Southeastern Conference, Lyons was attending his second NCAA Convention as a student representative for the Big 12 Conference. Last year was the first of the Power Five autonomy and having been through that process once, he said he was better prepared for what to expect this year.

“This time it was more going there for business,” Lyons said. “We knew what we wanted to do and what we needed to say and how important our role was in persuading or supporting the issues.”

Outside the Power Five debates, Bramlett also had duties at the convention as the incoming co-chair of the National Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. While he was in San Antonio, Bramlett spoke with NCAA leaders such as president Mark Emmert and executive vice president Oliver Luck.

“At first it was overwhelming and intimidating,” Bramlett said. “But now I know these people and their goals are the same as ours. To see how committed and how genuine they are, I feel like they’re father figures and mother figures to me. Now it’s as if they’re mentors instead of the commissioner of the SEC or the compliance director of the ACC or anything like that.”

When Bramlett went to college he began on the pre-med path. But he has changed his mind and now hopes to get into athletic administration once his baseball career ends. Lyons is majoring in accounting and hopes to attend law school once his playing career ends.

For now, however, both Bramlett and Lyons are looking forward to the coming season and enjoying the opportunity to participate in the NCAA’s legislative process.

“I just want to say how enjoyable it is, how grateful I am as a student-athlete to represent my university and my conference at a convention,” Lyons said. “We’re hoping to do big things through autonomy.”

NEWS AND NOTES

Atlantic Coast Conference: During the fall, the NCAA partnered with Helper Helper, an app that helps users organize community service projects, to create a three-month competition to see which colleges, teams and athletes could log the most hours. Louisville was the top-ranked team overall, logging an average of 62 hours per player. Manhattan lacrosse topped the women’s rankings with 33 hours per player. The top five baseball teams by total hours were Louisville, Northern Illinois, Florida International, Gonzaga and Marist. Louisville outfielder Colin Lyman was recognized as one of the 10 most outstanding student-athletes for his service. Part of the Cardinals’ service was done during their trip to the Dominican Republic, which you can read more about here.

Big 12 Conference: Much of the talk coming from San Antonio at last week’s NCAA Convention centered on a vote changing the requirements for conferences to stage a football championship game. The new rule allows for a conference with less than 12 members to hold a championship game as long as it plays a full round-robin regular season schedule, as the Big 12 does. Previously, conferences were required to have at least 12 members to have a championship game. The Big 12 is the only Power 5 conference with less than 12 members and many have speculated having a championship game would help its teams in the eyes of the College Football Playoff selection committee. But the rule change will likely end the chatter about Big 12 expansion, at least for now.

Big Ten Conference: Longtime Minnesota volunteer assistant coach Herb Isakson died last weekend at the age of 88. Isakson was a member of the Gophers coaching staff from 1964-1997, a tenure that began with their national championship team. Minnesota retired his number (No. 5) in 1998 shortly after his retirement.

Pacific-12 Conference: Junior righthander Grant Dyer will be moving from the bullpen to the weekend rotation for UCLA. Dyer went 4-2, 1.83 with 65 strikeouts in 59 innings as the Bruins setup man last season, but will now be asked to lead a retooled rotation. James Kaprielian, UCLA’s Friday night starter the last two years before being drafted in the first round by the Yankees, praised Dyer on Twitter, writing “That guy shoves.”

Southeastern Conference: Lamar announced last week it would hire Louisiana State assistant coach Will Davis to replace longtime coach Jim Gilligan, who is retiring at the end of the season. At the time it had not been decided whether Davis would spend the spring with LSU or Lamar, but those details were worked out over the course of the week and Davis will join the Lamar staff this season. Replacing Davis on the LSU staff as a volunteer assistant coach will be former Tigers reliever Nolan Cain, who has been coordinator of baseball operations since Sept. 2013 … South Carolina freshman D.J. Neal will not play baseball this spring and will instead focus on football. Neal played in nine games this fall as a wide receiver, catching eight passes for 104 yards. He was a talented outfielder at Stephenson High (Stone Mountain, Ga.) and was drafted in the 32nd round by the Braves in June. But he joins Texas Tech quarterback Patrick Mahomes as two-sport players deciding to give up baseball this spring. South Carolina will still have the services of quarterback/outfielder Brandon McIlwain, who decided to enroll in college a semester early.

Other conferences: The NCAA announced Wednesday that the Division I Board of Directors approved a one-year pilot program that allows for beer and wine sales at the College World Series and Women’s College World Series. Alcohol sales in premium seating areas at both events has been allowed since 2013, but this will bring beer and wine (but not liquor) to the concession stands at TD Ameritrade Park … McNeese State was anticipating senior Billy Sommers to once again fill the designated hitter spot this spring, as he had the last two seasons. Instead, Sommers is foregoing his senior season to join the United States Secret Service, the school announced Tuesday. He was selected from a pool of 75,000 applicants and passed through the vetting process during the fall. He will begin 30 weeks of training in March. Sommers hit .276/.313/.421 with four home runs in 47 games last season … Cal State Fullerton coach Rick Vanderhook played on the Titans 1984 national championship team and was an assistant coach on two more title-winning teams, but now has another national champion in the family. Autumn Vanderhook, his daughter, was a part of the Fullerton dance team that won its 15th Universal Dance Association Division I jazz national championship Sunday.