Lost money: High school athletes losing scholarships because of pandemic and new NCAA rule
The late November letter from Slippery Rock University football coach Shawn Lutz went by email to loads of high school coaches in Western Pennsylvania. Lutz's letter had information, explanation and an apology.
In the middle of the six-paragraph letter, Lutz revealed the unfortunate news: "We will not be able to have a freshman recruiting class due to having no scholarships available or walk on opportunities."
And there it was, in an email from a college football coach, yet another example of the effect COVID-19 is having on sports — and this one involves scholarship money for high school athletes, many in Western Pa.
The pandemic, coupled with a new rule from the NCAA allowing an extra year of eligibility for college players, is taking away scholarships from high school athletes, especially football players and more so at NCAA Division II than any other college level.
Talk about a recruiting story between the Rock and a hard place. Slippery Rock, a Division II football program, will not sign any high school players this year — from Western Pa. or elsewhere. And consider that Slippery Rock's 2020 roster had 32 players from WPIAL high schools and 16 more from Western Pa. schools outside the WPIAL. The reason Slippery Rock isn't signing any high school recruits is because the team has 17 seniors, and Lutz said it appears all of them want to return for the extra year of eligibility provided by the NCAA, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lutz feels bad about what has transpired with the scholarships, but it's a sign of the times of recruiting during the pandemic.
"We wanted to be proactive about our situation," Lutz said of the reasoning for the letter. "We wanted the high school coaches to know where Slippery Rock stood because we usually sign anywhere from 18 to 30 kids every year."
Although not all Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference schools are in exactly the same boat as Slippery Rock, other teams also have their feet in the pool of shallow scholarship water. IUP coach Paul Tortorella said he will probably sign only six to eight freshmen. "Signing 18-20 is probably an average year," Tortorella said.
California coach Gary Dunn said he also is recruiting fewer high school players. "When you're not losing many kids from the previous year and a lot of seniors decide to come back, it creates a numbers crunch," Dunn said.
WPIAL and City League high school teams supply many players every year to schools such as Slippery Rock, California, IUP and others in the PSAC. Besides those three schools, the other five Western Pa. football teams in the PSAC are Mercyhurst, Edinboro, Seton Hill, Clarion and Gannon.
A number of WPIAL and City League coaches say they have players who normally would be recruited by PSAC teams, but it's pretty much crickets from those colleges this year.
"For a lot of our kids, Division II is in their wheelhouse," said Belle Vernon coach Matt Humbert. "They're getting some looks and some (scholarship) offers from some colleges out of the state. Normally, those kids would be a slam dunk for some money from PSAC schools. But those kids aren't getting recruited because this isn't a normal year."
'It has been frustrating'
South Fayette quarterback Naman Alemada is one player feeling the wrath of the COVID-19 effect on recruiting. He is a 6-foot-6, 205-pound senior with loads of potential who threw for more than 3,000 yards as a junior. Alemada was recruited a little by FCS college teams and had a scholarship offer from Long Island, an FCS team. South Fayette coach Joe Rossi believes Alemada could play at the FCS level, but would be an optimum recruit for a Division II college. Some Division III schools are now recruiting Alemada, but IUP is the only PSAC school to show interest.
"It's been a mess," Alemada said. "I do believe I can even play at the FCS level. My talent is a little raw, but if I got a chance and put in the work, I believe I could play anywhere. It has been frustrating."
Westinghouse receiver-defensive back Darius Bruce, the Post-Gazette City League Player of the Year, also has felt the ill effects of recruiting during the pandemic. Both Bruce and Westinghouse coach Donta Green said Slippery Rock was showing strong interest in Bruce during the season. But the interest faded when Slippery Rock decided it wasn't handing out any scholarships to high school players.
Bruce has a partial scholarship offer from IUP and also a few other offers from Division II colleges outside of Pennsylvania. He said he was strongly considering Slippery Rock.
"Last year, I was setting things up to even visit Division I schools," Bruce said. "Then the 'rona came around and everything changed. Now schools are short on money, seniors are staying for another year and it's limited my chances to go to some schools."
Paul Lueken was Slippery Rock's athletic director for close to three decades before retiring Dec. 31.
"I've talked to some fellow athletic directors and I'm not sure how they are going to handle things," Lueken said. "I would say certain sports in Division II are hurting in recruiting, and especially football. There just aren't as many opportunities for kids coming out of high school this year to play Division II football, unless they are willing to walk on."
Why is Division II affected?
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused athletic budgets to be cut at colleges across the country and at all NCAA levels. So a natural question is why are Division II sports, especially football, being affected the most? The answer has a few different layers.
First, football has the most athletes of any college sport and, thus, gives out the most scholarships. But major-college programs are still signing close to the same amount of players as they did before the pandemic. Look at the signing lists of FBS programs during the early-signing period in December and most were still signing 15-20 high school players.
The extra year of eligibility rule also applies to these major-college programs. But some seniors don't want to use that extra year and some Division II coaches said some major-college programs will nicely tell some seniors "goodbye."
"Some coaches (at the major-college level) who know a senior is not good enough to help them, they're not going to grant them another year," Lutz said.
As for Division III colleges, they aren't affected as much in recruiting because Division III schools don't give athletic scholarships. Many will take players if they are simply willing to play. There is also no limit on how many players Division III schools can have on a team. It's not uncommon for a Division III school to take maybe 35 or 40 freshman — and none are on athletic scholarship.
Under NCAA rules, FBS colleges are permitted to have 85 players on scholarship while Division II schools are allowed the equivalent of 36 scholarships. Division II schools generally don't give full scholarships to a player. They split up 36 scholarships among the team and some colleges don't even give out the equivalent of 36 scholarships. So a high school recruit might get only one-fourth or half of a scholarship, at most. But still, one-fourth of a scholarship might be worth at least $5,000 to a college. Plus, there is financial aid to be had in other ways.
Lueken said Slippery Rock usually budgets $1.2 million for scholarship money in all sports. About $400,000 worth of scholarship money comes from the school and the university gets the rest of the scholarship money through donations and fundraisers.
"This year, the amount coming from the school will be more in the 70 to 80 thousand range," Lueken said.
What to do?
IUP's Tortorella and other college coaches say the lack of available scholarships also is affecting colleges at the lower FCS level. South Fayette receiver Charley Rossi is an example of that. A senior and son of coach Joe Rossi, Charley was originally accepted at Princeton, his No. 1 choice to play college football. But Princeton ran into problems with seniors wanting to use the extra year of eligibility. So, Princeton told Rossi it would definitely take him as a freshman in the 2022 season and suggested he go to a prep school to play for a year.
Rossi will most likely attend Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Conn., and pay some tuition for the prep school before going to Princeton the following year.
But there are loads of other high school seniors who are solid Division II or lower-level FCS prospects and they have lost out on football scholarships. High school athletes in other sports also have lost out on scholarships because of the pandemic. What are their options? What can they do?
"I've seen a lot of kids who would've normally been scholarship kids, walk on at some place and hope to get a scholarship in the future," California's Dunn said.
One other option is to possibly play at a Division III school. But without athletic scholarships, the cost could be much higher to attend a Division III school.
IUP's Tortorella said, "If they want to go to a Division II school, we can tell some of them, 'Hey, we don't have scholarship money for you this year, but if you bite the bullet for a year, we can give you a scholarship next year.' There's that, or maybe they can go to a prep school for a year. If they go and play at a good prep school and have a good season, they actually might be more recruitable."
Mike White: mwhite@post-gazette.com and Twitter @mwhiteburgh
First Published January 7, 2021, 5:30am
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