“Jed’s Best Seat Buzz” with Jed Williams

Let’s start with a quick Gallup Poll. If I type the words “Mid-Year Enrollment” and say not a syllable more, how many Sabre-ites will instantly fire off passionate, if not venomous posts about the University of Virginia’s stance on the subject?

10? 100? 1,000? More?

So here goes: Mid-Year Enrollment. Let the invective begin.

And let the discussion – and dilemma – continue.

Chances are you understand the context of the conversation with good clarity by now. UVa – unlike droves of other institutions nationwide – refuses to accept first-year students who apply for January admission except under the most extenuating, outstanding conditions. This policy is germane to ALL students, not just those with 40-yard dash times and vertical jumps.

Could an international student with a Visa issue gain admittance? Maybe. The next Gailileo? Probably? Stud linebacker with a nose for the ball, decent marks, and a baseline test score? Nope. Not a chance.

UVa’s underlying principle behind this, as espoused to me several times by Dean of Admissions Jack Blackburn, is the sanctity of the “first year experience.” If a prospective student – or student athlete – begins his/her 4-year track staggered from the rest of his/her classmates, that person loses out on vital parts of the “University experience” (define as you choose).

Okay, with the background layers having been peeled back, here’s the question: the policy is time-honored (darn near as seasoned as TJ himself) and UVa proudly stands by it, but has the time for re-evaluation finally arrived?

Affirmative.

Please note that this is NOT a football discussion. This is a UVa forum. Potential impacts far exceed playing fields. They reflect a proactiveness that benefits the general welfare of the institution … not just the offensive line depth chart.

While preserving the holiness of the “first year experience” is wonderfully idealistic, the blunt reality is that the student experience is a-changin’. Non-traditional forms of education that don’t necessarily operate on a standard clock are more popular than ever. International students have broadened the academic recruiting climate. Dear ol’ UVa still wants the very best and brightest – and the competition is more diverse and cut throat than ever (sounds a little like “Countdown to Signing Day,” doesn’t it?).

Gotta keep up. One way to do so is to embrace non-traditional educations vehicles for the non-traditional student.

Now, the football/sports angle.

As you now know, this scribe believes that overall University open-mindedness to an alternate educational track far exceeds a couple of promising gridders, a hotshot tennis player, and an ace golfer on the import scale.

That doesn’t mean it isn’t significant. But make or break? No.

And that’s where many of the Virginia Football faithful and I reach the proverbial fork in the road, and I hook a sharp left.

To many it would seem, this subject has become a fanatical fixation. To me, it’s a medium-sized footnote.

Would Virginia be aided by the ability to enroll in January, to let precocious prospects go through a full spring practice session before training camp, to grayshirt? Yes, yes, and yes.

Would this flexibility afford the Grohs, Mike London, and others another face card to play with hotshot 4 and 5 star recruits. Probably.

Would this program have played in fruit bowls (Orange and Peach) instead of synthetics (Continental Tire) and software (MPC Computers) with such a change of pace? Hard to know for certain, but my gut tells me no.

On the totem pole of truly significant reasons as to why Groh Football has plateaued – if not disappointed – in recent years, mid-year enrollment is dwarfed by far more vexing concerns.

Frequent coaching turnover (some good, some not so good), staff chemistry, massive attrition, player slotting and development, general recruiting identity, and in-game decision making all rank far above January enrollment on my personal list of possible pitfalls.

Plus, I’m not sure if anyone has a formal list, but with how many blue-chippers has this issue been the singular deciding factor working contrary to the Hoos during Groh’s tenure? A dozen? A handful? I’ll give you Robert Armstrong because that’s what FUMA’s John Shuman relayed to me. Maybe Jarrell Miller and Anthony Castonzo most recently. And perhaps Auburn’s Ben Tate and Florida’s Joe Haden in-between. Clemson’s Jacoby Ford is up for debate as well. After that, “I got nothing.”

It’s not as if Groh & company have limped on the recruiting trail. In fact, many would argue his strongest territory has been recruiting … and his hiring of bright, exuberant staffers who exude those qualities on the trail. Sure, all Wahoos would love to have USC’s class every year, but they’re in the “selection process.” UVa recruits. It’s a different world. And the Cavaliers have mined it well, hauling in a Top 10 class in 2002 and consistently delivering a Top 25 caliber product in most other years.

Recruiting is a dicey, imperfect science. The game is booming at the youth level. There are mounds of prospects to evaluate – more than ever before. Yet in the era of scholarship reduction, slots are limited and precious. All in all, Virginia has done a nice job here. And mid-year enrollment, me thinks, hasn’t held them back all that much.

Yes, it might get the Wahoos in the door with a few more names. Yes, it may have maintained Derrick Williams or Marvin Austin’s attention that much longer. But to state defiantly and definitely that thoroughbreds like those cut Virginia because January wasn’t viable is a gross oversimplification.

As 73Cav posted so cogently just the other day “I think there is more to the story than has been reported … it has been a case of [recruits] saying [they] would consider Virginia more if they offered January admissions … they never said ‘I will come to Virginia if they offer January admissions!’”

Now, an even greater dose of realism: if Peabody Hall ever conforms its policy to allow mid-years, the pickings will still be slim. The change will likely be measured and deliberate, not sweeping. Individual cases must still be defined as extraordinary (see Castonzo, not Miller). So, doing some simple mathematical assumption here football fans, you’re looking at 1-3 slots out of 25 annually that are open to this possibility, or between 5 and 10 percent.

Prep schoolers would almost certainly not be granted mid-year acceptance (unless, of course, a Castonzo case exists, but most “normal” kids aren’t prepping for his reasons with his scores … this is the one-in-a-million anomaly). That very fact makes a change even less impactful considering those at postgraduate and/or prep schools are the likeliest candidates to begin with.

It also rules out a Virginia Tech-like grayshirting haul. The Hokies will produce a 2007 roster with upwards of 20 early enrollees. Over half of them came to Blacksburg from prep schools. This won’t happen here. And it shouldn’t, unless Virginia truly wants an identity overhaul. Which it doesn’t. And we shouldn’t either.

Some tweaking? Yes. An open-ended, Jeffersonian conversation about the merits of embracing non-traditional educational modes? Absolutely. But re-writing the books? No.

Groh and company have enough resources to reach a bowl in January, even if their future players can’t enroll that month.

---

Jed Williams is the host of the Charlottesville sports radio show “The Best Seat in the House,” which airs daily from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on WINA 1070 AM. He also is the play-by-play voice for the Cavalier women’s basketball team and is the former sideline reporter of the football team. Williams’ column appears regularly on the Sabre.com.