Friday, August 31, 2007

A roadblock for Eli Holman?

I've written before about freshman big man Eli Holman's circuitous route to Bloomington. Early in the summer, there was much speculation about Holman's eligibility or lack thereof. During this month's recruit barnstorming tour, Holman nonchalantly mentioned that he is eligible, echoing a report from early July from one of his high school coaches, Leonard Coleman. Now, nearly two months later, we learn that Holman has not accompanied the team to the Bahamas because he "has not been fully processed through the NCAA Eligibility Center." How can that be? To be clear, I am not criticizing IU or Holman. What I want to know is how this apparent staffing issue can happen to the rolling-in-cash NCAA, an organization with palatial downtown headquarters, an organization that somehow scrounges up enough cash to pay something approaching a million dollars a year to that charlatan ninny who used the most painful episode in IU's basketball history to advance his own career. How can they not find a way to let each NCAA student athlete know whether he or she is eligible before the fall semester starts? If, as all reports indicate, Holman has sufficient grades and test scores to be eligible, it is inexcusable that Holman will be denied this opportunity to develop his game. Even if he or some other person in his position is not eligible, shouldn't the athlete know that before he starts taking classes and the eligibility clock begins rolling? The NCAA is for the athletes, of course. So, how about it, Myles? Why is this acceptable?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The hold-up was not the NCAA. Holman failed his Graduation Requirement Exit Exam. Indiana got him a tutor and he retook the exam mid-summer. The state of California takes multiple months to process this exam, after which the NCAA does their assesment for eligibility. Just wanted to make sure you knew what was going on.