In the end, Kevin Stallings and Vanderbilt’s vindictiveness will cost Sheldon Jeter around $8000 and a delay to his education by a year. That’s my rough estimation of the costs Jeter and his family are probably incurring for this year. The travel costs to and from Florida, living expenses and tuition down at Polk Junior College. That may not sound like much in the big picture. But keep in mind this is because of the vindictiveness of a coach that makes nearly $2 million per year and a university that has an endowment of over $3 billion.
At the same time, it changed nothing with the broader outcome. Sheldon Jeter will still be wearing a Pitt uniform next year and part of the team. Just as he would, if Stallings and Vandy had simply released him from his scholarship without blocking Pitt.
Still Stallings got his pound of flesh. Sheldon Jeter and his family acted with dignity by keeping quiet about everything. Trying to work within the system rather than make it a media thing. They did not play the victim. Unfortunately, reality turns that virtue into a personal cost.
Stallings actions — though initially decried — will quickly be forgotten simply because he won’t answer any questions about the matter. At worst, for Stallings, the incident is a symptom of his own larger problem of losing a lot of players and his program starting to slip.
This sort of thing is why for all the talk of reforming/changing/destroying the NCAA is a load of crap. Coaches. Individual schools. Conferences. They like to talk about it. They will use the NCAA as their whipping boy. But at the end of the day, they want that NCAA shield. Not simply to take the abuse and be the entity to take the brunt of the anger. Pretending that the NCAA is some separate behemoth keeping them down.
The member institutions — including Pitt — are the NCAA. They put the rules in place. They place the responsibility with the NCAA and complain when it doesn’t work their way to deflect their own responsibility and ownership.
Stallings and Vandy can hide behind NCAA rules to control what happens to Sheldon Jeter. Pitt fans and the media that notice can complain, and bitch about how this is another case where the NCAA is not really working for the “student-athlete,” but the member organizations interests. And the game goes on.
UPDATE: And to prove my point about how Sheldon Jeter and his family have taken the high road the entire time with Vanderbilt and Kevin Stallings, this interview he did about his commitment to Pitt. With no ill words.
Jeter averaged 5.5 points and 3.4 rebounds while playing 18 minutes a game as a freshman at Vanderbilt. When he decided to transfer to be “closer to home,” Commodores coach Kevin Stallings denied both his request and an appeal to accept a scholarship from Pitt, which hadn’t offered Jeter out of high school.
Jeter picked Vanderbilt over Penn State, Kansas State, South Carolina and Wisconsin. When he decided to transfer, Jeter said he was in contact with Cincinnati, Georgetown, Florida State, Ohio State, Purdue and VCU. While he waited, those schools filled their scholarships.
“It’s just been difficult,” Jeter said. “To leave a great institution like Vanderbilt and then go through what I went through this summer, it’s been humbling. But the end result is worth everything I went through. I felt like I fit in at Pitt. How I feel now is worth all the anger, frustration and stress that was put on me.”
Shell was blocked from ASU and AU … there was probably just as much speculation Pitt had dealings with Jeter than that Shell had with these 2 schools
Yet, when they beak their own rules and are sanctioned, they blame the NCAA instead of looking in the mirror.
Fact is … whether college sports or just about every else including POLITICS …. MONEY DISTORTS!!!
Graham was the coach at pitt, and now pulls the “star” running back… right or wrong there is connection.
What the heck was Vanderbilt’s connection with Pitt ?
Along with ASU, UA, and the ACC, I thought Shell should have been blocked from going to PSU, WVU, and Ohio State also.
I certainly don’t have a problem now, because it happened to Pitt.
Are the NCAA, the universities and the coaches full of crap, of course they are. We’ve been beatin’ that dead monkey for years.
I don’t know all the information, but I would imagine Mr. Jeter was blocked from Pitt and probably the other 13 SEC schools???
There are 351 Div 1 schools that participate in college basketball. That would have left him
337 Div 1 schools to choose from, tons of them right around here that most gladly would have offered him a scholarship.
If this is the road he chose, then obviously he could “do” this road.
Can’t wait to see him in a Panther uniform, he’ll be just fine.
Please don’t tell me the NCAA, universities and the coaches are crap. I already said I agree with that comment.
I’m not gonna be a hypocrite though.
Pitt blocked Arizona because of Calvin MaGee. He was the co-OC/RB coach at Pitt under Graham & holds the same position at Arizona under RichRod. I believe their may also be another coach or 2 from Graham’s staff there as well.
I just Googled if there are any other Freshman on the watch list and out of 75 candidates, only Corey Davis of Western Michigan is the other true Freshman on the list. Why in the world Chas/Reed/Justin hasn’t begun a thread about this news, I have no idea, because this is big time good news for Pitt football!
You guys have heard all the comments before, “Pitt football has been irrelevant for decades”, “Pitt Football continues to be a joke”, “many college football fans outside of Western PA don’t even know Pitt has a football team”, “what quality recruit in their right mind would want to play for the Panthers”, etc.
Well, all of a sudden, Pitt has a tandem of WRs that are BOTH on the Bilenitkoff Award watch list! And we wonder why Savage has a tendency to lock onto his deep receivers??? Kind of hard not to go to that well too often when the water seems to taste so sweet, often times!
Also, this kind of recognition for a true Freshman can do nothing but good things for Pitt’s recruiting fortunes. There are still four or five highly coveted quality recruits out there in Pitt’s backyard that are still seriously considering their Pitt offers. With Pitt playing so many RS and true Freshman already, and now Tyler getting some major love from the national media in this form has to be impressive to these guys. Lets hope that is helps land some of thos Bookser, Henry types that Pitt could so dearly use next year.
In light of guys like Robert Foster who, by comparision, is buried on the Alabama depth chart, while Boyd is basking in the national limelight, and at the same time is helping his team WIN, no downside there!
Great news! Hail to Pitt
Not necessarily saying that Foster made the wrong decision, things may work out well for him in the long run … just that there may be obvious advantages in playing here.
I was hoping Pitt was going to get a local kid, I believe his name was Tom or Tim, Downey.
Did we ever offer him? If not, where did he go, and did he do very well.
He was like a 6’5″ guard.
I know I have the name wrong, hence I can’t Google it.
You can see on the attached that both ND and Pitt offered him before he chose Davidson. If memory serves, Duke was looking at him his junior year also but apparently didn’t offer.
Not sure how hard Jamie pursued him … sometimes, after a school gets commits from others, they quit pursuing people but not pull the offer … but not sure if that was the case here.
Thus far, Jeter is the only commit for ’14 but that doesn’t necessarrily mean anything just yet.
Based on what I’ve seen of Droney in Greentree, he is a nice player but would not have been a fit for Pitt. He is a good shooter, but too thin and not nearly strong/athletic enough for Dixon.
On a side note, it is absolutely ridiculous that a coach can break a contract and go to another school for any reason and be able to coach right away, but a player has to sit out a year and a coach can block him from going to a specific school.
These are contracts just like with coaches .. and if you’re going to fire a coach midway thru a contract, then you must prepare for a coach to also leave midway. The are provisions for both in every contract these way … a buyout either for the school who lets go of a coach, or for the coach who wants to go elsewhere
I agree with Boubacar, Droney would have been eaten alive in the Big East. I still am proud of him and point him out to my wife when we watch Davidson on TV.
@Boubacar, of course, I hate that too. I think coaches should have to sit out a year.
It’s a mess, then the law gets involved. And lawsuits etc. etc.
There has to be some form of restriction though. You have 351 Div 1 schools. What’s the player rosters, 13 or so.
Quick math, 4500 or so Div 1 hoopsters. Taking it to the extreme, you can’t have 4500 players changing their minds every year and everyone just going willy nilly.
I’ve always believed, if you offer a kid a scholarship, it should be for the 4 years, not the every year roll over thing. Big suprise to me earlier this year, when a fellow blatherite set me straight on that.
Been following college athletics for about 40 years, always thought they got a 4 year scholarship, until I found out this spring, it’s a continuous one year deal. What an ephiphany. Had no idea.
I always thought a coach should have to sit out a year, then lawsuits would come with that too.
You can bring the old, “well make him stick to his contract” when a coach wants to leave.
Emotional answer, and one I would say, immediately following a coach announcing he’s quitting you.
But, after some thought, do you want a guy coaching your team that doesn’t want to be there??
I will agree it’s all a mess. Usually not supposed to opine unless you can give some answers too. I have no answers, so, I think I’ll put Hogan’s Heroes on.
When are some of the most rabid Chryst critics… now in self-imposed quarantine… going to catch on to the fact that behind his small-town Wisconsin, folksy demeanor… Chryst is more brilliant than dumb?
********
Panthers coach Paul Chryst said he plans to use Pitt’s open date this weekend as a chance to rest some older players, who may be nursing bumps and bruises, and let some younger players — in Savage’s case, redshirt freshman Chad Voytik — get some meaningful snaps with the first team in practice.
Post Gazette
Made mention of it in a post yesterday morning about the need to come up with more ways of getting Mr. Boyd the “DAMN BALL” as one of the pre-requisites for a possible win in Blacksburg.
However, as usual, Dr. Tom was far more eloquent in his effort to draw attention to it.
Still believe Foster is a special talent.
Looking at both of them coming out of high school, saw Foster as more the pure receiver… Boyd as a runningback who looks like a receiver.
While it remains to be seen just how special Foster will prove to be… Boyd has already done so.
In exceeding the expectations of even his biggest supportes, Boyd has shown how football is as much a mental game as it is physical.
Would go so far as to say that if Boyd had joined Foster in heading to Alabama… Boyd would be higher on the depth chart than Foster and possibly getting playing time.
More than his obvious physical ability, it’s maturity, coachability and work ethic that has catapulted Boyd to the place he holds at this early point of his college career… a true freshman sitting at the top of the ACC.
Foster made his decision and has to live with it. I hope the other local superstars are paying attention.
I hope Jeter is a good one, but we need true big men to compete in the ACC. Hope we find one.
Pitt being Pitt, presents the opportunity at this point in their team development to permit true talent to rise to the top immediately and compete on the big stage NOW. Obviously Boyd has grabbed that opportunity tightly with both hands and is making the most of it, while helping Pitt big time put some essential “Ws” in the win column.
Hopefully those upper level recruits who also are interested in seeing the field early will take note and appreciate the opportunity that Chryst and Co. have demonstrated is available to those who have the ability to prove themselves and who have the work ethic to earn it early.
Also, anyone recall the name of the team from Florida that pretty much went Dunkenstein over every team in the tourney till the Sweet 16 or Elite 8. Mid Florida Gulf or Florida Sun Coast or something like that??
I’ll obviously take Boyd in a heartbeat at this point and was very glad when we recruited him. Put it this way – I was more glad about Boyd than I was sad about Foster.
On another point, I’ve been reading that some PITT fans are saying Foster is regretting his AL choice given the success Boyd has had at PITT. I kind of doubt it. He wouldn’t have started over Street and because of the way Boyd blew up right out of the gate in summer camp I doubt Foster would have beaten Boyd out for WR2.
Either way he’d be on the bench more than out on the field.
Selfish vindictive coach won’t let a kid
transfer to a school which he does not
play. NCAA will eventually become
irrelevant.