Zach Randolph gets a waiver from the NCAA

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Academically Ineligible Recruit Gets Rare Waiver From NCAA
By Josh Barr
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, July 15, 2000; Page D01 

Zach Randolph enjoyed one of the finest seasons a high school basketball 
player could have last year. A senior at Marion (Ind.) High, Randolph led his 
team to a state championship, then earned most valuable player honors in 
three all-star games, including the prestigious McDonald's all-American game. 
Several college recruiting analysts ranked Randolph, a 6-foot-9, 270-pound 
forward, the
nation's top prospect. 

But the biggest victory of Randolph's season might have come last week when 
the NCAA approved a waiver filed on his behalf by Michigan State that will 
allow him to play at the school this fall even though Randolph has not met 
the NCAA's minimum academic standards--a sliding scale of grade-point average 
in 13 core courses and a score on the Scholastic Assessment Test--for incoming
freshmen to be athletically eligible.

Exactly why Randolph was eligible for a waiver is unclear. In a telephone 
interview this week, Randolph said he did not know why Michigan State, the 
defending national champion, filed the appeal on his behalf.

All Randolph knows is that he is happy because he said he came up "10 or 20 
points" shy of the SAT score he needed to meet NCAA standards but will not 
have to sit out a season of competition like others who lack the necessary 
score.

"My college coach handled" the application, Randolph said. "I just went along 
and did what I had to do."

Judy Van Horn, Michigan State's assistant athletic director for compliance 
services, declined to comment on Randolph's case except to say: "We're real 
pleased with the outcome."

Randolph's high school coach, Moe Smedley, said that he thought the NCAA 
might have been swayed by Randolph's decision to go to college instead of 
becoming an instant millionaire by entering the NBA draft, where he would 
have been a high pick.
NCAA officials declined to comment specifically on Randolph's case, citing 
student-privacy laws. However, there is some sentiment that it might not be 
such a bad thing if an exception were made for Randolph for that reason.

"If we're attempting to get kids to stay in school, if that is one of the 
things as a group we are lobbying to do, here is a kid with pro potential and 
he is going to school," Georgetown men's basketball coach Craig Esherick 
said. "If it causes us to round up 20 points to give him the ability to 
qualify, I don't have a problem with that."
However, that has not been the NCAA's standard operating procedure. Several 
high-profile players recently have barely missed the qualifying SAT score. 
One of the most notable was Indiana basketball recruit George Leach, who last 
year came up 10 points short and whose repeated waiver requests were denied.
Still, the waiver process remains an unfamiliar one to many, including 
Smedley.
"I didn't even know they could do that," said Smedley, who would not say why 
the waiver was requested.

Although this is the second time in two seasons that Michigan State has 
successfully filed a waiver for one of its men's basketball recruits, many 
others in college athletics are unaware or unfamiliar with the process.

"They don't advertise this," Maryland Coach Gary Williams said. "You haven't 
seen many cases of a big-time basketball player until this kid."

Said a source in the college basketball industry: "That's a landmark 
decision. . . . It begs the fundamental question: Is this the beginning of a 
kindler, gentler NCAA?"
NCAA officials said that the waiver process is not a new one, although 
requests have risen steadily over the past five years. In the organization's 
top level of competition, Division I, 937 requests were filed last year; 507 
were approved, 254 denied, 60 were granted partial-qualifier status--meaning 
the student could not play as a freshman--and the remaining 116 were either 
withdrawn or the file was not complete enough to process. The NCAA does not
keep statistics for waivers granted to athletes by sport.

The NCAA is deliberately vague when it comes to addressing reasons for 
requesting a waiver. Separate NCAA subcommittees consider appeals regarding 
core-course curriculum, grade-point average, students with learning 
disabilities, transcript discrepancies, foreign students and home-schooled 
students.

Most requests are in the areas of core-course curriculum (252 of 345 approved 
in 1999-2000), learning disabilities (110 of 247) and grade-point average (56 
of 169). Randolph said he does not have a learning disability. However, some 
circumstances in his life may have influenced the NCAA.
Randolph, who turns 19 on Sunday, has been arrested three times in the last 
five years. Most recently, he pleaded guilty to two counts of receiving 
stolen property (a gun stolen by a friend) and served most of a 30-day 
sentence in February 1999 before being released.
Randolph says he has changed. He said his grade-point average is high enough 
to meet NCAA eligibility requirements. And he said he spent many extra hours 
preparing for the SAT, working with his high school counselor and a classmate 
who scored a perfect 1,600 on the test.

Whether that qualifies for a waiver is unclear. Reasons for granting a waiver 
"can run the whole gamut from a student being in a car accident and being 
confined to their house and having to take courses through direct tutoring 
from the school to someone who had poor advice or had a death in the family," 
said Bob Oliver, NCAA director of membership services.

Esherick, a graduate of Georgetown's law school, said he understood such a 
decision could set a dangerous precedent for an organization that regulates 
the eligibility of thousands of athletes every year. But he said that might 
not be a bad thing.

"The NCAA does need to be more flexible," Esherick said. "And I think this is 
an example of them being flexible."

Staff writer Mark Asher contributed to this report.