Charlie Weis’ bouts of dickishness don’t come as a surprise, but there’s some true chutzpah to the story of former Kansas quarterback Brock Berglund that manages to elevate Weis’ reputation.
… On Dec. 27, Berglund, a freshman quarterback, sent athletic director Sheahon Zenger an email asking permission to speak to other coaches, but made it clear he had not decided whether he was transferring.
Seven days later — the last day Kansas could respond without forfeiting its right to hold Berglund to his scholarship commitment — Berglund’s request was denied and, just to make sure it didn’t have to send a separate letter, Kansas also denied any potential transfer request.
That didn’t stop Berglund from submitting an official transfer request on Jan. 15 as well as a notice that he would not be at a mandatory team meeting on Jan. 16. Berglund said he spoke with his lawyer about the meeting and worried that if he attended the meeting it would lock him into another semester at Kansas.
“We had been talking about that meeting for a week or more and just how we were going to handle it,” Berglund said. “In essence, once you show up on campus that day of that meeting, you would have locked yourself in for the next semester. And if you don’t finish the semester you make yourself academically ineligible to transfer. So, that meeting marked a lot more than just a mandatory team meeting.”
Berglund’s failure to attend the meeting was the reason given for his dismissal… [Emphasis added.]
Catch 22, sucker. Now go to class so Weis’ APR problems don’t get any worse. And on the way, don’t forget to thank the NCAA for enabling coaches like Weis to bully student-athletes they didn’t sign and don’t really want.
It’s crap like this that makes me feel dirty for loving college football.
Free Brock Berglund!
This sort of crap has to stop. If the university can issue scholarships for one year at a time and pull them for no particular reason then the students should also have similar rights. They should be able to leave at will without requesting or needing any kind of permission from the school or the NCAA and without forfeiting any eligibility or needing to sit out a year. Fair is fair. What we have now ain’t the least bit fair.
Especially after a coaching change. Why they haven’t changed that yet I have no idea.
I have no problem with them keeping you from going somewhere else in the same conference (or in Notre Dame’s case, somewhere else on the schedule). Otherwise, they should be free to go anywhere. The rules are beyond ridiculous.
To play Devil’s Advocate, I could imagine Nick Saban or the like recruiting a bunch of seniors each year from other universities, or kids hoping on the school they think is hot to try and win a championship. Yeah, it sucks to read about stories like this and you feel bad for the kid, but thinking about how it could be with more freedom makes me cross-eyed. I’m not sure how they can fix it, but I know the NCAA won’t get it right.
Did you miss the part when Weis dismissed him from the team?
Nobody’s been recruiting this kid.
But this is not a case of recruiting … much like Todd O’Brien’s case, Berglund is being held hostage by the University because it can. Berglund has already been told he was not in KU’s plan.
The rules have always been written to the advantage of the member institutions and treat student athletes as if they are predispositioned to commit violations.
As I have said before, the principles of amateurism have always been fundementally flawed. The system assumes the worst of the participating athletes. Its roots are part of a Victorian philosophy that tried to prevent participation from those of “lower” socio-economic and ethnic classes.
Those in charge of the system have tried make “improvements” to the system to try to eliminate corruption and to make the system fairer to prospective student athletes from lower classes – yet those who are members of the power class find new ways to abuse the system. Corruption via under the table payments by agents, boosters, etc. still occur. Administrators and coaches still engage in illegal/unethical recruiting, academic fraud, and reap the financial benefits of the system at the expense of the actual participants.
When the NCAA “amateur” system is actually reformed and the players achieve the status and power that they deserve, there will be less of stories about the Brock Berglunds or Justin Taylors in college football.
Honestly… what’s the downside to that? I can’t think of a compelling reason why college athletes shouldn’t be able to pack up and leave whenever they want provided they are in good academic standing. No other subset of the student body is prohibited from deciding they want to change schools and study elsewhere, why is it any different for scholarship atheletes? If a kid is languishing on the depth chart as a junior at UGA and wants to transfer to UF, is there any reason to deny him that besides the fact that as fans we wouldn’t want to play him? Is that a sufficient reason to deny a kid a chance to achieve his dream of playing college or professional football?
I don’t see why the students shouldn’t have the same freedoms the schools do when it comes to making these kind of decisions.
First the NCAA denied the appeal of that poor kid at UAB whose former coach at St. Joseph’s refuses to let him take advantage of the NCAA’s own grad-student waiver, now this. Pardon me if I throw up in my mouth a little every time I see one of those feel-good promos about how the NCAA looks out for the welfare of student-athletes.
Weis is nothing but class, class, class.
He is a grown man. He has another 2 QBs transferring in. Berglund doesn’t suit the system Weiss runs. Kudos Charlie Weis.
Now, where’s my COOLER?!!?
if scholarships are year to year…how does the school deny your transfer if you have completed 1 full year?
He hasn’t lost his scholarship, only his participation on the football team.
So couldn’t Berglund simply refuse his KU-granted scholarship and be on his way?
That’s not the way the NLI works. It’s basically a one-sided deal.
So the NLI says that you need to be allowed to transfer if you want to end the agreement, but that a school does not have to grant that release and they can keep you indefinitely, well for your 5 years? Do they have to provide you with a scholarship if they dont allow you to transfer?
He won’t have completed a full year until the end of the spring term anyway.
He could leave then I think.
Looks like they are keeping him to conserve APR numbers…
If so, that is the nastiest, most, low-down, chickenshit move anyone could possibly make.
Deliberately screwing with a kid’s career and education, just to massage numbers to combat a problem you got yourself into by parting ways with so many players at once??? Holding this kid in limbo, for reasons that are helpful to the program, but detrimental to the kid’s future??? All so you can cover a statistic???
Really??? REALLY??????????
Horseshit, Jimmy. AHHHH!!!! CAN’T BELIEVE HOW PISSED THIS MAKES ME!!!!!
KU should be immediately sanctioned if they are, indeed, holding this kid HOSTAGE just so that fat-effing turd of a walrus can meet APR his first year on the KU-Weasel…
Offensive genius, my left nut… guy friggin’ sucks… and a he’s dog-shit role model for the kids.
The kid should take Charlie’s Krispy Kreme supply hostage until a deal can be made.
What a fat, miserable, fat, vindictive, fat shit of a human fat being.
I was thinking the same thing. Occupy his cupcake/twinkie closet and see how fast that douche signs his release. If I’m a big12 coach, I use this to recruit against Kansas.
There is no way “Sheahon Zenger” is a real name.
He’s got issues: Where is Sheahon’s flag pin? I don’t see a flag pin. Sheahon’s not patriotic
Way to zinger Zenger.
Wow. How pathetic. How Weis can sign players after this I don’t know.
This kid needs to just go juco and get away from that sorry excuse of a person they have as head coach.
Why is this even allowed to continue when coaches quit anytime they want…..gah.