[EKUAlum05]

Academics and athletics aren't on the same page in my opinion. Academics is understandable because your brain will take you somewhere, make you someone, why not challenge yourself to be better prepared for college. Athletics are done for leisure.

Not saying you are right or wrong, but this is a more in depth topic than many think. Let me give you an actual example and you can judge yourself:

David Jones- Belfry HS, graduated 2004 (pretty sure you heard of him)

Jones grew up in Mingo County, WV and attended the Matewan school system. He started at matewan as a Freshman and Sophomore and garnered All-State honors in his Soph season. During that season, tiny Matewan made the playoffs but couldn't go very far, additionally, anyone familiar with Matewan's Coach Yogi Kinder will say without hesitation he is far from the ebst role model for his players to follow. Kinder openly made racial comments regarding Jones, that coupled with the fact that Matewan standouts rarely gett he chance to play major college football made playign at matewan a tough situation ATHLETICALLY for Jones. Additionally, Mingo County schools are not just among the worst in west Virginia in academics, but among the worst in the nation. At that time, even had Jones wnated to take an AP course to prepare for college it would have been impossible as Matewan did not offer them. In fact, matewan did not even offer Pre-Calculus.

Jones transferred legally to Belfry, there he went to a superior school system in terms of academics to prepare him for college and give him the necessary tools to qualify through the NCAA clearinghouse. He also got the ability to play for a team on a major level (There is NO comparison between the WV State Finals and KY State Finals), which in turn led to his ineviatble invites to camps (Nike Camp) and the D-1 interest that follwoed (Recruited by Kentucky, Virginia Tech, and Ohio state among others)

Had Jones stayed at matewan I would say without hesitation that he would have A) Never been offered a FULL SCHOLARSHIP (major misconception abut NAIA sports, there are very few to no full rides offered) B) He would have never won a state title C) Would have never been recruited by a D-1 school D) And with the track record of athletes in Southern WV, the chance sof him actually remaining in college four years would have been slim

In this case transferring to a better ACADEMIC institure went hand in hand with ATHLETIC success and improving a kid's future.

By no means is every transfer a win-win case such as Jones', but I wouldn't be so quick to disgard that the Athletics and Academics can't have a synergistic connection.