Jay Rob fair statement and valid points. As for Rudley’s response to Myers plea and discussing our datasets, I have no idea. Very good question though. Honestly, I would have loved to be in that room to hear the discussion. However, again, trust me when I say that when that vote occurred Rudley and Charles already knew that we were next. Therefore, he knew that we were going to be held accountable to the outcome of the vote as well, and rightfully so. This is key and what I think people are failing to realize here.
So where were the complaints within our own closed doors before the ban? It's seems to me that Rudley's trying to cry "foul" now that his school is under the gun. Before their punishment, he didn't seem to care at all....at least not publicly via his vote.
I was fairly new to the board when this happened, but here is the question I have always had about the APR “ban vote†debate – If the SWAC Presidents would have voted to allow JSU and SU to participate in the SWAC Championship that year, what would that have said to the larger population about our academic priorities? Yes most, if not all, of our APR issues are related to a disparity in resources. Yes I recognize that at the time of the vote TSU’s APR was worse than JSUs. However, since the 2011 vote occurred prior to the LRI discussion actually gained some weight/legitimacy, a vote to allow teams that were “perceived†to be progressing unsatisfactorily participate in conference championships would have been a slap in the face to the NCAA and a number of outside entities would have tried to crucify the SWAC. Do you not agree?
Or the vote against the ban could've been a loud response to the NCAA about the glaring disparities between the have's and have not's. As far as slapping the NCAA in the face, it wouldn't have been because they never banned us in the first place. They had no "dog" in that hunt.
As far as slapping the NCAA in the face again, we do that every year when we reject the playoffs, so it wouldn't have been the first time.
I am not saying that I agreed with JSU and SU being banned at the time, but in hindsight I think it was actually a strategic move (at least I am hoping our COP were thinking in that manner) Sometimes you have to pick your battles and think long-term, rather than right now. If the SWAC COP would have voted to allow JSU and SU to be eligible in 2011, I seriously doubt the NCAA would have even listened to any LRI claims and waved it off because in their eyes we would have misplaced our priorities and essentially circumvented their rules concerning APR and post-season bans (even though the SWAC Championship game does not fall under their domain). From the supposed leeway that the initial discussions from this committee have produced (additional funding from the NCAA to help with academic resources, different APR scoring rubrics for LRI institutions), I do not think that would have occurred for any of our institutions, if that vote had gone differently.
So to please the NCAA, we had to sacrifice a few of our own? I believe JSU's President cited several reasons why the ban was unfair. Seems to me that she was courageously ahead of the curve long before others came on board.
Seems to me that the NCAA took note of our plea long before choosing Rudley. JSU and a couple other HBCU's stood in the gap and proposed to the NCAA valid reasons as to why the APR sanctions weren't fair. THAT is what got their attention.
The NCAA looked at the number of HBCU's being affected by APR bans and took a second look at their rulings and decided to come up with this team after being educated by HBCU leaders.
I would loved to have heard Rudley come out publicly years ago than come out now, only
after his school has been affected. That alone would've been more than enough for me.