Academic standards require dual focus in athletes

By RYAN HOCKENSMITH
Collegian Staff Writer

A press release issued Wednesday announced 66 fall-sport Penn State student-athletes had earned Academic All-Big Ten honors. Nowhere mentioned on the press release was the name of Nittany Lion football player Corey Jones.

And when the large list of winter- and spring-sport honorees is released, Penn State wrestler Jamarr Billman's name is unlikely to appear.

Billman and Jones epitomize the other spectrum of balancing academics and athletics -- ineligibility.

Billman, the Lions' All-American 149 pounder, will sit out tomorrow's National Team Duals in Iowa. The sophomore currently awaits a ruling on his future this season as a student-athlete.

Jones, now a junior, missed his entire sophomore season because of academic problems.

While other athletes garner academic accolades, Billman and Jones have brought attention to the struggles student-athletes encounter with school and sports.

In section 67-00 of Penn State's University Faculty Senate Policies for Students, a guideline put forth by the UFS Committee on Intercollegiate Athletics, distinct guidelines are established regarding eligibility.

Student-athletes, in order to stay eligible, not only must maintain certain minimum grade-point averages, but are also required to meet minimum credit guidelines according to their semesters in residence.

If these guidelines are not met, grave consequences loom.

Jones lost eligibility for the entire 1997 football season because of a failing grade he received in a Spanish class taken during that year's summer session. Billman, still awaiting a definite decision on his eligibility, could face an equally lengthy absence.

Both know the rigors of maintaining NCAA and Penn State student-athlete guidelines but refuse to place blame anywhere else but on themselves.

"Everything that's happening, everything going on … it's my own fault," Billman said. "I didn't make the effort."

Jones showed equal self-criticism in comments made to The Daily Collegian in a November, 1998, interview.

"It was bad, shocking news," the wide receiver said. "I had not been doing the things academically that I should have been doing and it just caught up with me."

Athena Yiamouyiannis, a director of athletic eligibility with the NCAA, said the requirements of student-athletes are reasonable and necessary.

"The intent isn't to punish (athletes who do not meet eligibility requirements)," Yiamouyiannis said. "The intent is to get their concentration back on academics, as opposed to just athletics."

She added institutions are responsible for establishing their own academic requirements, and Penn State has been firm in upholding its own eligibility guidelines.

The academic records of Penn State's football players are especially monitored and scrutinized, as Penn State coach Joe Paterno not only establishes his own academic guidelines but oversees the class attendance of his student-athletes as well.

Joe Jurevicius, a wide receiver on last season's team, found out Paterno's dedication to academics the hard way. Now playing professionally with the NFL's New York Giants, Jurevicius faced Paterno's wrath after academic difficulties and was forced to sit out last January's Citrus Bowl.

Paterno said Jurevicius "went to class, he just didn't do anything," and suspended the senior, effectively ending his Lion career.

Jones, a year after being academically ineligible, returned to the team this year with a new attitude on the field and in the classroom. The experience taught him a lesson that he needed to rank academics on the same level as athletics in his life.

Billman, who had a 3.0 gpa last spring semester as a freshman, is now sitting on the sidelines awaiting his fate. And despite the disappointment of potentially losing a season of eligibility, Billman feels the system is fair.

"It's fair," he said. "Athletes just need to get the job done in class."