[ UH FOOTBALL ]
UH hopes
to clear up
eligibility issuesChang's suspension leads
the university to seek
new ways to monitor academics
The University of Hawaii athletic administration hopes to avoid future problems stemming from certification of its football players and other athletes for postseason competition.
This time the Warriors lost their most high-profile player, junior starting quarterback Tim Chang, to a one-game suspension because he wasn't cleared academically to play in the Hawaii Bowl last Dec. 25. Chang participated without having passed six credits in the fall semester, a Western Athletic Conference requirement. UH announced Thursday that the NCAA suspended Chang for the Warriors' season-opening game next Saturday against Appalachian State.
Actually, none of the UH players were certified for the Hawaii Bowl, because school officials said grades were posted Dec. 23, which did not allow enough time to collect the marks and find out if anyone was ineligible.
Fresno State and Boise State, WAC schools that also played in bowl games, complied with the rule and Fresno State held out some players who did not meet the six-credit minimum.
UH, which did not request a waiver from the rule, was fined $5,000 by the WAC for not certifying its players.
A similar situation could arise this year, since the Warriors will likely play in the Hawaii Bowl if they win enough games to be eligible for postseason.
Associate athletic director Tom Sadler said UH is working on maintaining better oversight of its athletes' academic progress.
"We're taking a more aggressive approach with our tracking," Sadler said. "And there is a new computer system, called the Banner System, which we're hoping will get us over the hump on this so we can comply."
UH knew of Chang's situation in January and reported it to the WAC, but Sadler said the school did not officially "solicit reinstatement" for Chang until earlier this month.
Last spring, the WAC's athletic directors voted to recommend rescinding the "six-credit rule," but the conference schools' presidents voted to keep the rule.
After that, UH knew Chang would probably be penalized.
"We knew whenever we submitted a request for reinstatement that this was going to be a possibility," Sadler said. "It could've been August, it could've been July, it could've been June. And we pretty much knew there was going to be a one-for-one, meaning he was going to have to sit out for the one game he participated in. We knew this was coming at some point. It's just awkward 10 days before the game.
"If we expedite things it looks a little differently, but the bottom line is the outcome was always going to be the same," Sadler said.
UH coach June Jones and Chang said they were surprised to learn of the suspension.
"He was declared ineligible for whatever day the bowl game was on because the grades weren't in, and we had no way of getting the grades," Jones said. "He had an incomplete. He ended up getting a B. Physically, there's no way we could've known (going into the game)."
Chang declined to discuss specifics about the class or the rest of his fall 2002 semester academic load. He did say it was a history class (his major), and confirmed he received a B after completing the coursework.
Chang said yesterday his cumulative grade-point average is "somewhere between 2.0 and 2.5" after he achieved a 3.07 GPA last spring to make the football team's scholar-athlete list.
Jones said the suspension isn't fair, but Chang said it's his own fault.
"When you're a student-athlete, they tell you not to take as many credits during the semester of your sport. You have to remember about all your demands of travel, practice and games. It's hard, but as athletes we have to be able to handle it," Chang said. "I should have put a little more responsibility into it. I take full blame. I know I have potential (in the classroom), as long as I apply myself."
Sadler said the athletic department will look closer at how it advises student-athletes regarding incomplete grades.
"I think this situation is obviously giving us a lot of knowledge of the way we should do things," he said. "The incomplete scenario is one of them. Live and learn."
Jones said he welcomes better in-semester tracking systems of athletes' academic progress.
"I hope so. They weren't in place last year. It's nobody's fault. It's just the way it was. Like everything here, it seems to take longer than what it takes in other places and we didn't have a computer system that could give us the grades by the time we played the ballgame," Jones said. "There was no way we could've done anything else. It was not play the game, or play everybody."
Since Jones' arrival as UH coach in December 1998, the overall football team GPA has improved from 2.46 to 2.70. The coach has a provision in his current contract linked to the players' academic performance; he receives a $10,000 bonus if the average of first-year players is 2.7 or higher, and is eligible for another $10,000 bonus for other team academic goals not specified in the contract.
