As many of you know, my wife olefire: alum) is employed by USM.:huh: She is the event coordinator for the USM foundation, and there are some perks that go along with that job. One of these (the best one IMHO) is that she plans all the foundation tailgates for home games, and has access to the president's suite, as well as the field for the home games. For this reason, she also has access to those such as the AD, and in particular today, the Asst. AD. They were in a meeting today, and toward the end of the meeting, she asked him about DeAndre. She had heard already that he was fully qualified, and wanted to verify. Turns out he is. She then asked if there were differences in qualifications for, say, LSU...than there are for USM...where athletes are concerned. The Asst. AD told her no, that the qualifications were no different...and that the schools are the ones that determine the qualification requirements. He said that the conferences have MINIMUM requirements, but ultimately, the school itself sets its own qualifications...as long as it's above the minimum. I told her I don't think that's true...but didn't wanna take it so far that counseling or even LEGAL counsel would come into play.:shock: In other words, I didn't wanna ask "Then why the hell would DeAndre Brown choose to play at USM when he could've played for LSU???".:wave: Do any of you recruiting gurus know the ins and outs of qualiying in this case?
The NCAA sets the minimum requirements, conferences then set their own minimums which can be the same or higher than the NCAA's. Then schools can set even harder requirements if they wish. I guess if you went to the SEC and Conference USA websites you could likely find them somewhere.
What kinda answer is that? I was expecting someone to actually find the specific answer for me!:lol: What I REALLY wanna know...but can't speak about to Ol' Missy...is why in the hell would Deandre Brown CHOOSE to play at USM over LSU??? I cannot fathom this.:nope:
Who am I to argue with the Ass't Athletic Director of USM, but the way I see it if I don't do it then who else will. I believe the requirements for the SEC are higher than for the NCAA and it has to do with a certain Math class. SEC requires it and the NCAA doesn't. It's hard to get specifics for individual recruits because of privacy rules but back when Phil Loadholt committed to LSU and then decommitted and signed with Oklahoma I remember reading somewhere that he lacked a Math class required by the SEC. I remember this because it kinda ticked me off. The flavor of talk on deAndre Brown on this forum was that he had some qualification issues which is why he didn't sign with LSU. I also remember that Oklahoma tried to get in the loop which made me think this was another Loadholt type case and maybe why deAndre Brown signed with USM and not another SEC school. All this was kinda comfirmed in a roundabout way when Jerrell Powe applied to the SEC Commissioner to be admitted to Ole Miss. Mike Slive wouldn't have been in the loop if this had been a NCAA or Ole Miss issue.
The whispers are that Brown was able to get qualified in part because he chose USM. Meaning, if he had chosen LSU, he may not have gotten the "help" he got upon committing to USM. All of this is speculation/conjecture/yellow journalism, however.
Well, I do know that Noel Devine had offers from a lot of teams, and chose WVU...due to qualifications being different in the Big Least. Same with Mike Ford...committed to Bama, but wound up at South Florida. But according to the Asst AD, USM and LSU specifically have the same requirements. Maybe so. Either way, as I said, her job comes with some perks. I too get to reap the benefits of those perks. I can go to any home USM game I want to attend. I don't have a problem watching DB owning CUSA the next couple of years...but next year, he's gotta come to Tiger Stadium one Saturday. Mr. Peterson is gonna have his hands full, but so will DeAndre have his hands full with Patrick, and God help him if he tries to go across the middle where CJ will live.:shock:
I doubt that they are the exact same, but they are not very different. As Potted Plant stated, speculation is that the help was in other ways.
Sour grapes or disbelief that a player could choose a USM over several high profile programs. People need to get over it instead of spreading rumor and innuendo.
I don't mind rumor and innuendo, but if it's gonna be spread, spread it all. Don't tease, people!:cuss:
Maybe he liked the coaching staff, maybe he wanted to be close to home. Maybe as a kid he was a huge USM fan and wanted to be part of making a difference there. Maybe just Maybe he wanted to be a big fish in a small sea... It is concievable that an 18 year old kid found something he likes there and wanted to be part of...
