Beth Sullivan making headlines at UT

That sounds good to me. Only the issue isn't how she compares to others the issue is how Beth has treated an innocent freshman with a full ride.

Reality Check x 2 wrote:

To "one who know" and 5uyik5yi

I actually am a college coach and clearly you are not. I didn't say I didn't think the young lady wasn't talented and I would have given her a scholarship. What I said was that BAS saw that she is not an immediate SEC scorer (which is what the SEC head coaches want) and got rid of her. I have watched plenty of videotape on the young athlete. She IS NOT an SEC top scorer and her all-time performances will show that. But she can be a successful collegiate athlete given the right circumstances (time to develop) which is not what the SEC gives you and clearly what BAS wants. If you haven't scored as a freshman in the SEC then they want to get rid of you. That is fact.

i agree with you.

educator wrote:

So it is ok to hold scholarship athletes to a lesser standard than walkons because they are already on scholarship. Why should the coach be required to sink additional time into an athlete who didn't sink a second of time into the program over the summer? Why are they entitled to a year long evaluation period?

No. A decent coach and person would not do this to a scholarship athlete OR a walk on. They are 'entitled' to at least get one season in before someone pulls the rug out. A few weeks into the fall is simply BS.

And yes, I have coached D1.

I have no problem with coaches who want to run the teams the way they choose. I have 4 personal problems with the coach's decision:

1. She cut the athletes before they had a chance to prove themselves worthy or unworthy.

2. The time of notice eliminates ANY opportunities to transfer immediately or mid-year based on current NCAA/NLI rules. Meaning, these girls are screwed unless te NCAA grants a special waiver under the circumstances

3. It's embarassing to the sport of track & field and NCAA. The NCAA is getting sued monthly, and schools will soon be forced to require 4 year scholarship guarantees due to this stupidity.

4. The girls are not permitted to practice, strength train while the team is present. If there were no disciplinary problems, this move is a blatant attack and display of supremacy. Classes are scheduled and practice windows are limited. DON'T screw the girls careers, to make a strong point to your team.

Hey, if she finds a way to cut 5-6 more, or a large number of girls quit, she will likely face an APR penalty that will force the UT team to be ineligible for post season participation when she lands her "SEC caliber" recruits. Karma is a......

As a long-time college coach I have observed the Tennessee situation and just can't come to any rationale understanding of why BAS would do this. There is no value to it. I have no problem if she has decided to not have the athletes on her team, but to not use them for the first year defies logic. You already have given them a scholarship so unless they leave at the end of the first semester, and BAS has someone better waiting in the wings about 2.5 scholarships are just unused. I think most of my collegiate coaching buddies are scratching their heads trying to figure this one out. Politically it is a disaster and can only bring about bad things. Just darn strange. I really wish BAS would come out and provide a reason for this to happen. Maybe then we could grasp this situation.

The silence from Tennessee is deafening. I have tried to give Beth the benefit of the doubt in the past, but this confirms what her detractors have said about her.

Why hasn't David Epstein pursued this story for WSJ. This is the kind of sports story they relish. Corrupt coach, pariah of the coaching fraternity, an educator in name only, bullies a freshman athlete, whose only possible defense is that it is technically allowable.

Get on the story David.

26mi235 wrote:

The silence from Tennessee is deafening. I have tried to give Beth the benefit of the doubt in the past, but this confirms what her detractors have said about her.

Perhaps posting the question on the Tennessee facebook page might get an answer?

Something about this situation stinks. Maybe she's done this before or this is some sort of pattern of crappy behavior?

I looked back at the Penn State press releases about their recruiting class that was signed before she took over the whole program after Groves retired (high school grads from June of 2006). There were a few kids that did disappear within the first semester of school from team rosters. A couple of guys (one from NJ and one from PA) with 47 second 400m credentials were just gone from the team.

After looking at several other message board posts about the guys referenced above, it seems that they were given much the same treatment as the girls at Tennessee (just without the media backlash we've seen here). Quite of bit of nasty stuff out there about Beth. One of the forums I read even went so far as to speculate that the dismissal of the guys at PSU was because because they were both white sprinters! I would hate to believe that this is all a racial thing. Even Beth couldn't be that messed up.

I hope that the girls end up somewhere their talents are fully realized and they are happy. F*** Tennessee and Beth A-S.

There are only a couple of logical reasons for a move like this. I don't think the move to dismiss these girls is out of the ordinary as much as the time frame. if this happens in December or may then it is a non issue and we don't talk about it for 100 posts. Politically it was a very bad decision to do this now. Like you said there is no upside. That being said what would cause her to do that. Like any other public figure BAS is probably not as bad or as good as people say. I think that are only three possible conclusions.

1.she is really the evil person that everyone says and it is her goal to ruin the lives of such talented scholarship athletes. I doubt this is true

2.she is an idiot who made this move and did not think she would get the blow-back that she has received. I think this is highly probably. Coaches sometimes get lost in there bubble of a world and forget how things work out in the real world.

3. there are some disciplinary issues behind the scenes that due to FERPA cannot be discussed publicly. The sad part is that if this is the case then her handling of this in the media is absolutely terrible. Why would you ever say publicly to a kid you recruited at another school that you would not have recruited them to your current school. It does not matter if SEC standards are higher, perception is everything.

Ultimately this whole situation was mismanaged by BAS. regardless of whether or not the move was justified the novice way in which it was dealt with will no doubt cause repercussions in the next couple of years worth of recruiting. Real rookie move. Plenty of people drinking the UT haterade now.

I am also surprised that a sports network such as ESPN has not catch on to this story and do a little more digging on the background of this story and relate it to how most of the NCAA rules are not to protect the athletes but for the most part the institutions. We are in the era where athletes are beginning to unionize, where discussions are taking place on whether athletes should be paid, etc. These zombie administrators and coaches need to be held accountable for such despicable acts/actions athletes.

If there were discipline issues, we would get a generic, "they violated the team policies" or something along those lines.

polevaultpower wrote:

If there were discipline issues, we would get a generic, "they violated the team policies" or something along those lines.

Exactly. A no way they all six broke the same policy.

i've always hated ut... wrote:

polevaultpower wrote:

If there were discipline issues, we would get a generic, "they violated the team policies" or something along those lines.

Exactly. A no way they all six broke the same policy.

While I agree that in this specific instance it seems more like BAS being shady, multiple student-athletes violate the same policy all the time. You're telling me a group of 6 girls couldn't go do something against team/school policy together?

That actually had nothing to do with BAS. Of the two 400 meter guys mentioned one straight quit because he didn't want to wake up for 6 am fall conditioning while the second quit shortly after for similar reasons. Both didn't like the spring coach at the time.

We always said the 4x4s that could of been put together if they stuck around but them leaving the team was more the fact that they weren't high school studs anymore and didn't want to do the work because natural ability got them through high school.

Does no one else see that a few of the parents or kids from this situation are keeping this thread alive by continually posting. While I may not agree with what BAS did here (I also admit I don't know the full story nor do these biased parents) I have seen much worse happen to coaches in college athletics. These kids will be fine - a little wiser and more mature - after this is over and done with. I have seen coaches get fired for doing nothing wrong just because someone wants their own people. These are coaches with families and kids in school that have to uproot everyone and move often to lesser paying jobs. This is NOTHING compared to that UNLESS you are the person involved and somehow see this as a bigger deal than it is. It is obvious that the parents or students in this situation think that keeping this thread alive will somehow help their daughters or hurt BAS. If anything it will hurt their daughters because college coaches don't really want whiny babies. If I were a strong program I would go no where near any of these girls. Some crappy desperate program will take them and eventually find out the hard way why they were dropped. Good luck!

The fact that Tennessee coaches and administration have been so tight lipped leads me to believe that they know they are in the right.

As usual, kids only tell to their parents PART of the story (the part that makes them out to be angels).

I respect the coaching staff for not getting pulled into the message boards.

The parents need to let it go.

Instead of fighting Tennessee, they need to put their energies into finding an alternative school for their daughters.

No scholarships were cut!

They were non renewed and in a timely manner that allows the athletes to transfer at semester and receive aid from any university outside of the SEC. According to the compliance department the athletes are released unconditionally to any University outside of the SEC. The ladies have 6 official visits to take between now and next year, no rules were violated.

BAS's reasons aside the lack of understanding of the rules on this thread makes 90% of the posters look like idiots, and ultimately is damaging the young ladies chances for scholarships elsewhere.

The timing of the release is so strange, and makes no sense from a business stance unless there is an underlining issue, "attitude or discipline". No one wants an athlete who may be a discipline issue, and if cut is gong to bring the kind of drama seen here on LR. If the 17 pages of whining is indicative of the kind of company the young ladies keep, I don't want them anywhere around my program.

The dirtiest Sanchez wrote:

If anything it will hurt their daughters because college coaches don't really want whiny babies.

Nor do college coaches want whiny PARENTS of "whiny babies"