Boise State Asks NCAA for Waiver to Feed/House Homeless Recruit

Submitted by boliver46 on

The NCAA, as we know, is an unfeeling, subjectively controlling and enforcing, miserable waste of space...but they have the opportunity to do the right thing...for once.

Boise State recruit Antoine Turner is currently homeless, though the school can't do anything to help Turner until he officially arrives on campus in June.

Boise is trying to help the kid by submitting a waiver to the NCAA to allow them to assist him until he gets on campus in June. I feel for the kid and hope the NCAA grants the waiver in an expedited manner.  I cannot imagine being homeless and trying to make my dream come true to play bigtime college football.

Good luck to him!

Link

Oh, and f* the NCAA!

Here2CWoodson

May 14th, 2014 at 11:44 AM ^

I don't understand why he isn't living with his girlfriends family for this last month? It says he moved out to move in with his uncle, government housing didn't allow him to do so anymore, and now he's sleeping in his girlfriends car.



Either way, hopefully they can find him some help ASAP.

Njia

May 14th, 2014 at 11:44 AM ^

Mark Emmert is just as likely to find that Boise State is totally in the wrong for offering him a scholarship in the first place for some reason or other that makes absolutely no sense to people with sympathy.

LSAClassOf2000

May 14th, 2014 at 11:58 AM ^

I know this was a joke, but it is a well-timed one as loans are a permissible form of financial aid provided the NCAA finds the repayment schedule to be reasonable and the loan is administer no differently than it would be for the student body at large. With regard to the housing situation, I think that institutions can make available for rent on-campus space at will provided it is at what the bylaws call the "institutional rate", so hopefully there's no problem getting Antoine Turner on campus. Like the end of the article says, whatever his achievements at Boise, given all that he's gone through, this is a a success story. I hope the NCAA does indeed do the right thing here. 

SuddenlyKitties

May 14th, 2014 at 12:22 PM ^

Thanks for the info.  Whenever I think of NCAA and "reasonable" I think back to the story of the NCAA making a student athelete (Can't remember particulars) pay the university something like $20 for the "Fair Market Value" of the water used to wash her car.  Considering my water bill is around $60 for 3 months, I tend to be skeptical of anything that involves monetary measurements.

Arizona Blue

May 14th, 2014 at 11:52 AM ^

If I were him I would just show up to Boise State and make them turn me away. I suspect the School (not the A.D.) could figure something out.

That or, a family in the area who really like the team but officially thinks Antoine is nice

Ron Swanson

May 14th, 2014 at 12:17 PM ^

It's a slippery slope. If they help improve the life of one kid by doing something like this, then every kid will expect the NCAA to do the right thing. We can't have that. Not when money is at stake.

Seth

May 14th, 2014 at 12:42 PM ^

How can this kid ask for such an "extra benefit" like that? What about the competitve advantage it gives over Boise State's opponents whose recruits died of exposure or starved to death because their schools respect the inviolate principle of amateurism?

Isn't a free education at an outstanding institution like Boise State University, not to mention free room and board and equipment and top coaching and a chance to play in the NFL enough remuneration? How greedy can you get to ask for an advance when you're already getting all of that!

Think of the slippery slope! If the NCAA allows one school to put a roof over a kid's head before he gets to campus and feed him, then what about the next school that wants to get a recruit out of a crack-addict's house, or pay back a high school coach who takes the kid in? What happens when schools are dishing out so much money to feed and clothe and house their recruits that they can't make payments on their new $35 million practice facility for the women's equestrian team that replaced the 10-year-old $15 million one they haven't paid off yet?

And, oh man, think of how this can be abused for recruiting! We'll have SEC coaches going all around the country picking kids off the street and getting "homeless exemptions" for them. I can just imagine Spurrier ripping 14-year-olds out of crackhouses, sticking them in dorms in Columbus and enrolling them in the local high school. Saban will start feeding all of Africa just to pick the athletes he wants to bring to the United States!



The NCAA and its member conferences and schools don't have unlimited funds, no matter what multi-billion dollar TV rights deals, soaring gate prices, and licensing deals they've made and don't have to pay any taxes on. They can't just start giving handouts to kids too lazy to have parents who make enough money to feed and house them. What, do you want athletic directors taking taxis instead of separate limousines from the airport to the 5-star hotel hosting their meetings this summer?

NCAA should be about student athletes playing for the love of the sport. How dare any non-already-millionaire demand they should be able to profit from their own potential value?

Arizona Blue

May 14th, 2014 at 2:40 PM ^

Wow, that was intense. I agree with you (assuming this is satire) 

I also agree with you (unfortunitley) that if given the opportunity, coaches in the Nick Saban win at all costs club would be snatching kids out of the projects, putting them in dorms and enrolling them in defacto IMG academies all over the god damn country. By doing so, they would be essentially creating a farm league system similar to how youth leagues work in the EPL and La Liga

Now I cant comment on whether that would be a good or bad thing overall beacause I am not a social scientist, I am a finance nerd/

 

 

2Blue4You

May 14th, 2014 at 12:50 PM ^

Staying in his girlfriend's car seems like an improper benefit.  Did he pay for this car?  How do we know the girlfriend isn't a Boise Supporter and just trying to get him to on her favorite team?  

SanDiegoWolverine

May 14th, 2014 at 1:51 PM ^

There is no way the NCAA would sanction them considering the media firestorm. Plus it would be national news if the NCAA did and be great publicity for the university.

Sports

May 14th, 2014 at 2:21 PM ^

UPDATE:

 

NCAA has approved the waiver. Very glad to hear this. Good to see that they're willing to do the right thing this time. Best of luck to this guy at Boise State.

Bo_Knows

May 14th, 2014 at 6:40 PM ^

to substantiate Sports' previous post on the NCAA approving immediate assistance.

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/10931580/boise-state-broncos-allowed-ncaa-provide-immediate-assistance-incoming-recruit-antoine-turner

I'm glad they were able to move on this so quickly.  Makes me believe the local Boise news feature helped the story gain some momentum.  Because if the NCAA dropped the ball on this, just imagine the backlash.