by Ryan Rogers
LSUsports.net
LSU provides a distinct example of the impact college football can have on a campus. Former LSU coaching great Charlie McClendon once said, “In Baton Rouge, it’s not a law to love LSU football. But the city fathers could probably get one passed if they needed to.”
With the huge interest in the sport comes an immense amount of available information and statistics channeled through numerous media outlets. One statistic that fans have been passive in discussing, however, is the academic performance of student-athletes.
There are stereotypes unfair involved. Poor test scores, academic fraud and low graduation rates have all been associated with college football in the past. To say that these problems don’t exist at all wouldn’t be fair either, but if fans were more open-minded about the issue, they might be surprised at what they discover.
If you walked around Tiger Stadium before a game one Saturday and asked how many touchdowns did LaBrandon Toefield score against Tulane, or who did Tommy Hodson complete the game-winning pass to in the “Earthquake Game” against Auburn in 1988, a large majority of tailgaters could answer those questions with no hesitation (Three and Eddie Fuller, in case you’re not one of those fans).
But ask people how many LSU players own a 3.0 or higher grade point average, or what two current players have already earned degrees, not too many respondents would know the answers. LSU has 46 players, not counting freshmen, with a 3.0 GPA or higher and tight ends Robert Royal and Joe Domingeaux have already worn a cap and gown. Surprised? Don’t worry, you’re not alone.
LSU has made tremendous steps toward insuring that its football players excel both on and off the field. The biggest step taken may have come with Nick Saban’s arrival and his initiative to expand and renovate the Academic Center for Athletes.
“Our academic support program should be the standard by which all academic support programs are measured,” Saban said. “A first-class academic support center plays a major role in developing a quality academic support program for all student-athletes.”
The Academic Center for Athletes is the heart of LSU’s academic support system. The center offers many features that can lead a student-athlete to classroom success, including counseling, tutorial sessions, computer labs, libraries, and scheduling assistance.
The Gym-Armory is currently under renovation to house a new, expanded ACA. The new ACA will consist of multiple computer labs, reading rooms, a library, classrooms for group tutorials, a communications studio, private study rooms, a 1,000 seat auditorium and new offices for administrators.
The south wing of the Gym-Armory previously housed the ACA. Now the entire building — located on the corner of North Stadium Drive and Fieldhouse Drive — will be used for the ACA’s purposes. The north wing is under construction and the south wing wil be completely renovated.
The project will expand the ACA from 10,000 square feet to 54,000 square feet.
“Our main purpose is to help the student-athletes here at LSU graduate,” said Karla Lemoine, ACA Associate Director. “We want to help them succeed in the classroom.”
The ACA employs staff members in many areas. Counselors, learning specialists for students with special needs, tutors, computer instructors and mentors make up the staff. The ACA gets a huge boost in the cooperation received from the LSU faculty and staff.
“We couldn’t do our jobs if it wasn’t for the faculty and staff here at LSU,” Lemoine said. “The faculty is great. We work in conjunction with the college advisors to make sure student-athletes are on the right track.”
Lemoine and her staff meet with the football coaches once a week to discuss the players’ performance in the classroom. Attendance and test scores are monitored and reported for every player. Together, the ACA and the coaches insure that all players are taking care of their school priorities.
The ACA institutes guidelines to help student-athletes excel. All athletes are required to put in a mandatory eight hours of study hall a week at the center. Student-athletes are also required to schedule courses that comply with their degree programs.
With the busy regimen that student-athletes experience, time management sometimes becomes a problem. Student-athletes practice up to 20 hours a week, keep steady workouts, attend class, attend study hall, travel for road games and try to maintain a social life. This busy schedule can make life stressful at times.
This is where the ACA plays its most important role.
“I’m not sure these student-athletes could manage without our support,” Lemoine said. “It’s really hard for these kids to devote time to both school and athletics. We stress time management and help them cope with the demands of college life as an athlete. We don’t want them to be totally dependent on us, but we want them to come to us for help and we are willing to be there for them.”
Recruiting is the lifeblood of college football. Last winter, LSU lured in a recruiting class ranked as high as No. 2 nationally by some publications. Those rankings were based solely on athletic talent.
However, if you re-arranged the rankings strictly by academic achievements of the incoming freshmen, LSU may finish in the top five as well. Saban and his staff signed two valedictorians and over a dozen honor students in its stellar class of 2001.
The new ACA will have an impact on keeping those top classes pouring in.
“With the strong class we brought in I think you are going to see our graduation rates climb,” Lemoine said. “Now we are seeing kids from California, Florida, Ohio and all other parts of the country that are interested in playing football here that we never saw in recent years. Parents and student-athletes want to see what we have and they are very interested in what academic support we offer.”
Another aspect of the ACA is its relationship with the CHAMPS program, which is coordinated by Miriam Segar, a former LSU women’s basketbal player. The focal point of the CHAMPS program is to provide students with insightful information to help them become complete and well-educated people. Academic excellence, athletics excellence, career development, personal development and community service are all commitments of the CHAMPS program.
Many career opportunities are presented for student-athletes through ACA-sponsored internships and employee workshops. Internships vary from jobs at legal firms, hospitals, engineering and construction firms, private business, and any other field in which a student-athlete has an interest. These internships, offered during the summer, allow student-athletes to gain work experience and important personal contacts.
During her tenure, Lemoine and other ACA counselors have helped a large number of LSU athletes graduate. Naturally, the joy of seeing students succeed is special.
“It is really fulfilling to see a student-athlete that we worked with graduate,” Lemoine said. “Prior to coming to the academic center, I was a counselor in the education department. I remember (former LSU running back) Kevin Faulk telling me the first time we met when he was a freshman that he was going to graduate in 3 ? years. I just said, ?OK, if that’s what you want to do, we want you to do it.’ He truly did it. This year, to see Robert Royal and Joe Domingeaux graduate was just wonderful. That is the highlight of all the work we do with the kids.”
Royal is both a star on the field and in the classroom. He graduated in August with a degree in kinesiology. Ironically, Royal came to LSU as a partial qualifier, and he was forced to sit out of competition his freshman year. Royal was later granted a fourth year of eligibility by the NCAA due to his progress in the classroom.
“I always received great support from the academic center,” Royal said. “When I first came to LSU, they put in a great position to graduate. Now that I have graduated they have put me in a great position to enter the business world and succeed. I think it’s great that they are expanding the academic center. Many times we had crowded computer labs, but that won’t be a problem anymore with the expansion.”
The new ACA is expected to be ready for use in August of 2002.
Everyone involved feels the anticipation for the new facility, especially Saban.
“I am very pleased with the support that we’ve received from everyone involved in all aspects that allowed us to get this project off the ground,” Saban said. “The new academic center will be pivotal to the overall success of LSU football and LSU athletics.”
Brighter horizons have arrived for LSU student-athletes with this project. Its impact is boundless. Who knows, there may come a day when LSU and Ole Miss fans are outside Tiger Stadium stating their cases for who has the better team and who attends the better school, and the LSU fan might slip into the argument that his school has a first-class academic center and 46 football players on the honor roll. Just maybe.