simple wrote:
UTenn wanted the scholarship money back, for whatever reason, and that is their prerogative.
As a side note it takes a trained eye of all one week (if that ) of practice to know if the kid is worth their freshman scholarship. YOu can see the body and the movement and it is the unforgiving SEC. YOu know if the kid is going to be a full scholarship type kid almost immediately. You darn near need to be an Olympian to be a big point sprint scorer in the SEC. That kind of talent is noticable on DAY 1.
If she cut them in the summer before arriving the same people would be just as pissed because "they weren't given a chance and passed up other opportunities."
If she said nothing, and they were perfect angels but ran slow, and she cut them at the end of the year, the parents would still be pissed. "they did nothing wrong."
It appears the goal is to get the money back for January by making them want to leave ASAP.
The mistake was not letting them practice with the team, but it appears it was a calculated risk in an attempt to get them to leave in December.
There may be slower kids kept on the team, but they are likely on smaller scholarships and much deeper into their degree program.
If the kid MIGHT finish 8th as a freshman in an outdoor only event and is on a full scholarship, that is a bad signing. you only get 18 scholarships, and if you are only scoring 1 point per scholarship then you will lose your job quickly.
The staff chould have called them in and said this "The previous administration gave you an incredibly large scholarship. We have made a decision that you will not be on the same scholarship next year. (that would have them and their parents crying anyway) We are going to and have to honor your scholarship for the year. We are going to protect your 4 years of eligibility and we won't have you run in a UT uniform. You can run unattached in any meet that you can pay for yourself (like many many redshirts do). You can train with the team and coaches (which will detract from the coaches working with atheltes they plan to invest in). At the end of the year we will offer you a much smaller scholarship, or you can transfer. In fact, if you want to transfer in January we will not stand in your way. We can actuallly make some calls for you if you would like."
The kids and parents would still be mad, probably just not newspaper story mad. The coaches would have had some extra bodies at practice. They still would have SEC transfer restrictions, but it would be a red-shirt freshman year just like is done with so many athletes in other sports.
By being nicer but still being clear about the eventual outcome, UT may have gotten what they wanted without the massively negative publicity.
Coaches in all sports "get rid of" kids all the time. MOst of the time it is THEIR recruiting mistake and not a previous administrations. They are usually just a tad nicer about it.