Prime Prep: The School of Hard Knocks

Deion Sanders is back in the headlines again. Not surprisingly, it’s not for a good reason. It seems as though Deion’s Charter School, Prime Prep was not fully qualified by the NCAA academically and now two of its stars from last season, Forwards Karviar Shepherd and Jordan Mickey have been ruled ineligible for the upcoming season for TCU and LSU, respectfully.

I feel bad for both of the kids because they were just following their Head Coach, Ray Forsett from Grace Prep over to Prime Prep. In January, Prime Prep announced that it had completed “all the preliminary steps necessary” to ensure that its student-athletes would be eligible to receive scholarships from NCAA institutions according to the report.

“We are pleased to announce that Prime Prep Academy has successfully completed all preliminary steps necessary for NCAA membership! As a result of this milestone, all prospective student athletes are eligible for individual review through the NCAA initial eligibility process. This will enable students to attend and receive scholarships from Division 1 and Division 2 college institutions. Once again, Prime Prep Academy continues to make strides for students both academically and in the athletic department. We anticipate a great partnership with the NCAA.”

Well now we find out this may not be the case. Both players were ruled as non-qualifiers by the NCAA even though they were both told prior to transferring that they would be eligible.

John Infante at the Bylaw Blog breaks down all of the details: 

 “Part of the answer is in Prime Prep's January statement. Note that it does not say it has taken care of everything with the NCAA. It has completed "preliminary steps" with the NCAA that allow for "individual review" of prospects at the Eligibility Center. Prime Prep's Approved Core Course List at the EC backs this up. All the courses submitted by the academy have been approved except for one (Sociology/Social Problems). That means based on reviewing things like course descriptions, syllabi, and course flowcharts, the Eligibility Center determined that most of Prime Prep's catalog fits the definition of a core course.”

 But the list includes this notice right at the top:

“This program is under an extended evaluation period to determine if it meets the academic requirements for NCAA cleared status. During this evaluation period, the courses listed below may be subject to further review on a case-by-case basis, which will require additional academic documentation.”

That means when prospective student-athletes from Prime Prep submits their transcripts to the Eligibility Center, they likely also have to submit additional information, such as grade books, course stop-start dates and assignment dates, detailed course outlines, even copies of assignments, quizzes, and exams completed by the student.

What the NCAA is trying to determine is that the courses it has approved are being taught in an academically sound manner. When a school submits a new course or especially when a new school establishes its list for the first time, all the NCAA has is how the school plans to teach the course. The PSA Review process is then used to determine if the course is actually being taught according to the approved plan.

Well, there you have it. Prime Prep may not have been entirely truthful in their January statement. Now we have two kids who have just had their dreams of playing Division 1 basketball taken away from them because Deion Sanders and his school, in their haste to steal talent from the area, didn’t go through all of the proper channels before starting their basketball program. The coaches at TCU and LSU are surely upset by this ruling by the NCAA, and all Division 1 programs might want to rethink their dealings with Prime Prep athletes going forward.

Like I said, I feel bad for Karviar and Jordan, they didn’t do anything wrong and they are the ones being punished. Shame on you for always needing to be in the headlines, Mr. Sanders. Mr. Prime Time, Neon Deion. You should have to wear a Neon sign that reads “Do not trust this person”. But you don’t care, Deion. It’s always about Deion, he doesn’t care about these kids. Hopefully the NCAA does and Jordan and Karviar aren’t punished for the likes of Deion Sanders.

Until next time...

Geoff

@geoffrey_craig