Johnell Davis commits to Calipari and Arkansas
Reported two hours ago.
Two weeks ago it was reported Davis wanted to follow May to Michigan, but with one year of eligibility left and still needing about year or less of credits to graduate from FAU they were not able to get him in.
https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2024/apr/30/nations-top-transfer-commits-to-calipari-and-arkansas/
As a follow up question, previous comments said that transfers to Michigan need two years of Michigan credits to get a Michigan degree. And most alums agree with that.
However, couldn’t he have theoretically transferred (assuming his grades were in good order), played for a year, used up a scholarship and final year of eligibility, and then still spend another year at Michigan as a student to graduate? How is that not an acceptable academic transfer?
Clearly in his case he would leave for the NBA and not get a degree.
there's another rule that they have to have enough credits to be on track to graduate. I don't know the details but thats why players cant just choose to give up a bunch of credits and come anyway.
You hit it on the head. If you are in your 4th year of college, you need to have senior year progress toward graduation. If only 60 credits transfer then you only have 2nd year progress and therefore are ineligible to play.
Yeah, that's the NCAA's rule and seemingly has been a big reason why guys don't come over to UM because of the lack of credit parity during a transfer.
It is sort of weird that a guy who's been in college for 4 years would still be a not-insignificant number of credits away from graduation at this point.
My understanding is that Michigan only allows a maximum of 60 credit hours to transfer, which means Davis would no longer be on track to graduate on time, rendering him academically ineligible.
I see, so planning to graduate in 6 years even if you use up your 4 years of eligibility in 5 years and still actually want to graduate in 6 years, violates the NCAA policy of not being on track.
I'm having trouble understanding your question, so I'll just say this: in order to stay eligible, you need to be 40% of the way to your degree after two years, 60% after three years, and 80% after four years. Since you can only count a max of 60 transfer credits toward the 120 you need to graduate from M, any transfer has their progress capped at 50% when they get here (and that's if they can get 60 credits to transfer, which isn't always easy). So any transfer that's been in school for at least three years would be immediately ineligible here. You may be able to take summer classes to hit the threshold by the fall, but for guys like Davis that have been in school four years but didn't graduate (and aren't in a position to before graduating), you can't take 36+ credits over the summer to get to 80%...
Yes thanks, great explanation. I wasn’t familiar with the NCAA 40/60/80% progress rules.
And since he’s been in school 4 years and has said he wouldn’t graduate until end of 24 or in 25, he has a lot of credits left and would need a school to accept all his credits.
Thanks for the explanation. I'm sure the info is around somewhere but I hadn't seen it.
As others have mentioned, this is likely an NCAA progress towards degree issue.
However, there is another problem with your question: who would pay for that 6th year after his eligibility has expired? It wouldn't be covered by scholarship. NIL would be significantly reduced (not an active player, only 1 year with the team so not an icon). It's not a good value proposition to pay out of pocket, out of state tuition to graduate.
In contrast, Arkansas only requires 30 credits at the school to graduate. Enroll in fall and spring semesters and he's fine. His scholarship will cover it.
For comparison: Alabama requires 30, Georgia requires 45, UCLA is on quarters but requires the equivalent of 45. Illinois also requires 60 so it's not clear how Shannon got in unless they made an exception, Washington requires 45.
It's frustrating that the school can't see past the "two years of Michigan credits to get a Michigan degree" issue for certain high level athletes. It's a perfectly fine policy to apply to the hundreds (?) of transferees you may see in a given year--you want a Michigan degree to represent a Michigan education. That's fair. However, a small handful of impactful athlete transfers on a yearly basis are not going to dilute the name-brand value of a Michigan education and all you're doing by not granting an exception is harming an asset that you have decided brings value to the school.
Even if those athletes do eventually depend on their degree to get a future job and someone hires the individual and ends up thinking "man, I thought you had to be smarter to earn a Michigan degree." It's not like that isn't also true of hundreds of other graduates every year. The same thing happens at every school (maybe an exception would be the MITs and Cal Techs of the world), especially where getting in is often harder than getting through with a degree (depending on major).
An exception for high level athletes? Sure. And then wait for the lawsuits to star piling up from disgruntled "regular" students.
Other schools do this all the time and they don't face lawsuits.
Such as...?
Well maybe Illinois in the example of Shannon, although we don't know the details on that one.
Wrong!!! Other school don't value their degrees because an Arkansas degree is nothing special. This is why many of the B1G schools are much higher level academic institutes. Michigan, NW, Wisky and Illinois are all top 50 schools and want to keep that degree's value. Schools like Arkansas, Bama, Florida and Kentucky value athletics way more than a degree.
Exactly, I'm so sick of the excuses making commitee on this board.
Michigan academic rules are archaic.
You not liking them or them not benefitting your sports team does not make them "archaic"
I feel like you don't really know that and/or are misconstruing things.
As others have stated, other schools have different levels of credits they will take towards graduation and degree progress. And schools do have different acceptance guidelines for incoming freshman athletes than other students.
"all you're doing by not granting an exception is harming an asset that you have decided brings value to the school. "
What value does the football team being good bring to the college of Engineering, or LSA, or Ross that they should want to change their policies?
Remember - they already reject 75% of applicants because there are no spots. Increased applications provide no benefit.
Wow I can't believe people are downvoting this. Tell me how having Terrance Shannon on our basketball team the last two years is hurting Michigan's brand. Athletes major in athletics, their real degree is athletics, and the good ones will have a far greater affect on Michigan's brand than thousands of academic transfers combined. It's ludicrous to not let them in because of where they took their kinesiology classes for a degree they'll never use.
Would have been nice if Nelly had graduated in 4 years of school. Oh well.
Pretty sure the Million he got to commit to Arkansas was helpful.
Davis would've been nice to have for next year, but long-term it might be better to have more usage spread to the guys with multiple years left.
Thanks, admissions. Good job keeping the riff raff out.
Ark gave him the bag. They gave him a million plus for his services. Big rumor mill (UK sources have mentioned this) is that arky and donors are doubling payments for any recruit that was going to UK. Yet, another bridge that Cal has burned. Would love to see Davis jump into the draft now.
Arkansas has a deep donor pool with the Tyson and Walton families. They are one of the few who can go toe-to-toe with the Kentucky donors in MBB. I don't know that Cal has burned a bridge as much as not met monied donor's unreasonable expectations for success. My money is on his continued underperformance with one-and-dones.
Burned the bridge as far as UK is concerned. I also think his new schtick, “it’s cal university, and I just moved down the street” sales tactic really pissed off the fans. To your point, I am think they have that initial love the every other school he went to. Jerry jones also a huge contributor for funneling money with them as well. But from everything I have read, they’re a football school and do not care as much as basketball.
This is Michigan not playing school. OSU plays, Arkansas plays.
I'm ok not playing, but we shouldn't lend our brand of school to others. We aren't playing the same sport.
Players are not disposable and vice versa. Blow it up.
No hookers were harmed writing this post.
Actually this is Michigan still playing school.
I get the Cardale Jones take, and the Brian take, for that matter, but play and work are different. You need to read. Sport is a job, not the job.
I'll take my lumps here, but supporting 5th year transfers without a degree, that is a school and a person who is getting played. Michigan is not that school...yet.
I don't know about the rest of you, but I want my Michigan degree to mean something more than association with elite sports programs. I do welcome such an association, but for me, and the vast majority of alumni, a degree from Michigan was a stepping stone to a long and profitable career.
I have this debate with my friends all the time and I get both sides. But I don’t feel my degree or the university’s reputation is diminished by adapting to the modern (and admittedly screwed up) new normal in college athletics. There should be two sides of the fence here based on where all of this has gone. The academics and the standards that apply to students who come to play school and the athletics (especially football and men’s basketball perhaps unfairly) and the standards that apply to athletes who don’t come to play school.
But how do you apply that? Your policy is that you need 60 credits from U of M to graduate, unless you're an athlete, in which case you need 30? The athletes are students too, and it's not unreasonable to hold them to similar standards. Don't forget that Harbaugh routinely graduated players in three years; it's entirely possible to play school while achieving elite results.
Now if you want to talk about eliminating the NCAA's academic progress requirement (40%/60%/80% as discussed above), I'd be receptive. The intent is to make sure guys are keeping up with their education, but at most schools they give you so much help (and at many are willing to bend, if not outright break, so many rules) that you pretty much have to try to not hit it, unless the issue is caused by a transfer.
Cal, left Tucky, wayyyyy too fast. Left trail of carnage.
So he'll get a degree from Arkansas in 2 semesters?
Congratulations and good luck to him.
I'm guessing Arkansas would allow a player to transfer 120 credits and still get an Arkansas degree.
I'll save the relitigation of admissions because basically nobody totally understands it or has insights into specific cases. But I will say that it's not UM's job to make an exception for a guy who's been in college for 4 years and apparently isn't all that close to graduating. He's in the same class as Cade Cunningham and Caleb Love, amongst others, and while I'm sure there are factors involved here I don't blame an admissions office for saying they aren't going to make an exception for a 1-year player.
UM basketball will survive without Davis anyway.