Michigan offers a JUCO player (DT) for the first time in 27 years

Submitted by Gentleman Squirrels on October 19th, 2021 at 6:38 PM
https://twitter.com/CoachPcasso/status/1450587351395172355?s=20

Jeffrey M'Ba is a DT out of France who was once part of the class of 2019. He first got on Michigan's radar when they held a satellite camp in France and Michigan actually offered him a scholarship then (along with PSU, Maryland, MSU and more). M'Ba was supposed to transfer from France to play in the states but due to transcript/visa issues he was unable to do so. He deferred to the class of 2020 where he was committed to play for Virginia, but again transcript/visa got in the way. Eventually he made it to Independence Community College in Kansas, after which covid happened and messed up his plans again. This season he's blown up and has offers from several programs.

For Michigan to offer, they must see a path for him to get to Michigan despite coming from JUCO. And considering the route he's had to take to get there, he definitely does not seem like the typical JUCO student. He's listed at 6'6 305lbs so definitely would be a mammoth on the DL

ak47

October 19th, 2021 at 10:10 PM ^

Except for the multiple incidents across basically every sport which shows it’s not a problem. I’m sure admissions just hates football which is why they let in multiple jucos for baseball, sophomore and junior transfers from Kentucky and nebraska in men’s and women’s basketball all in the last 5 years off the top of my head 

but sure let’s keep repeating this as fact or something different from other universities because Seth had a hard time transferring credits 30 years ago 

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Leaders And Best

October 19th, 2021 at 10:23 PM ^

Michigan has taken exactly 2 JUCO transfers in the last 25 years. I don't think that was by choice by the football staff. It is way below the average for programs in FBS.

Taking a transfer from a regular 4-year university is different from JUCO. Michigan football has also taken transfers from 4-year universities. And not all JUCOs are equal. I don't know much about the baseball JUCOs vs football ones in terms of how the academics compare. I don't follow baseball as closely--where are Michigan's baseball JUCO transfers coming from?

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ak47

October 20th, 2021 at 10:39 AM ^

Why would the academics of a junior college be significantly different because baseball is the sport someone played? My understanding is most of these sports junior colleges have multiple teams. I'm not going to pretend to know if there are prestigious academic junior colleges compared to the general junior college experience so its not like providing the names of the junior colleges means anything. The idea that there is such a massive gap and admissions hates the ones that are producing more football players seems a little far fetched and something that people say to drive a narrative they've already decided is true in order to deal with facing contradictory evidence.

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Leaders And Best

October 20th, 2021 at 11:11 AM ^

If you are talking about contradictory evidence, how do you explain only having 2 junior college transfers over a 25 year period with 4 different head coaches?  And this is not just commits; over this period, we almost never heard of junior college players even reporting offers from Michigan. Brady Hoke and Rich Rodriguez recruited junior college players at their other stops--why not here? Rich Rodriguez recruited several high school prospects who didn't qualify, but he wouldn't try JUCOs with the holes on his roster and his job on the line? How do you explain it then?

And the reason I was making a distinction between different junior colleges is that some prospects go to JUCO or prep school to get better offers with their academics in order while some prospects go there to get academically eligible. I also don't know the ins and outs of it, and that is why I am not going to assume the baseball players are in the same situation.

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Jonesy

October 21st, 2021 at 8:07 PM ^

Michigan is unique in requiring people who transfer to, for every class they took at another school, find an equivalent class offered at michigan in order for the credits for that class to count. Because of that many credits for many potential transfers dont count and so the players dont come having lost years of schooling. This is only the case for undergrad transfers, grad transfers are no problem.

Furthermore, almost every football player that goes to a juco does so because their grades suck. Baseball players go to jucos to raise their stock to get to a better school or to go to the MLB. The pipeline is completely different.

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Mr Miggle

October 20th, 2021 at 1:05 AM ^

While it's true that Michigan takes JUCO transfers in other sports like baseball, it's not the same thing. Football players nearly always go the JUCO route only because they don't meet the minimum NCAA academic requirements. Baseball only gives partial scholarships. JUCOs give a full ride which appeals to a lot of players who could easily get into a four year school. That's much like regular students who may start at a JUCO to save money.

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ak47

October 20th, 2021 at 10:32 AM ^

So your argument is because of the pathway people take to get there the admissions office treats a junior college transcript differently in its admissions decision?

Because the argument has always been that admissions just doesn't accept junior college credits or doesn't accept those students because our admissions department is too stuck up or something. And the reality is there is clear evidence that isn't the case. If someone does poorly in high school and then well in a junior college setting and wants to transfer to Michigan they can get in, whether that is for football, baseball, or the general student body. It is really as simple as that.

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Mr Miggle

October 20th, 2021 at 11:14 AM ^

The admissions department looks at the classes taken. They readily accept JUCO credits from Michigan schools, California and New York too. 

The reason football JUCOs can rarely get into Michigan is that they are starting from behind academically. And it's hard to catch up when you are simply trying to get eligible. JUCO players are rarely concerned whether a selective school like Michigan will accept their credits, plenty of other schools will. If a recruit went the JUCO route with the goal of getting into Michigan, there's a fair chance that they could.

Those baseball transfers and others are usually not at a JUCO because they did poorly in HS. And they go in planning on where they want to transfer. If it's a school like Michigan, they can have a good chance. Admissions may look at their transcripts in the same way, but they typically have different types of transcripts.

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JonathanE

October 20th, 2021 at 12:52 PM ^

I guess I am not quite understanding what is the difference between a 100 - 200 level American or World History, English Lit, Poly Sci or Algebra 1 taken at the local community college versus taken at a traditional liberal arts college when transferring? I always thought that if the taken course lined up with the University's course it would suffice.  

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Leaders And Best

October 19th, 2021 at 10:16 PM ^

From what I understand, the issue is not so much whether or not the prospective transfer is qualified; the issue for transfers is whether their credits will transfer to Michigan or not. The last JUCO I remember at Michigan was Austin Panter in 2007. They have been EXTREMELY rare from my recollection. The last one before Panter was Russell Shaw I believe in 1997.

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Brian Griese

October 20th, 2021 at 1:13 PM ^

I think you are on the right track.  I will add my own personal experience for some context.  In high school, I was able to take advantage of some rules the state of MI had regarding MEAP scores and lack of AP classes at your high school (I went to a tiny high school) which allowed me to go to a community college half the day for my junior and senior year.  When I graduated high school, I had 39 credits.

I then attended a small college that is very academic rigorous; a good friend of mine transferred from the U of M Honors Program to my college and found most things academically to be on par between the two colleges.  Anyways, after I was admitted I submitted my transcript for review.  The registrar approved all but two of my classes for transfer credit, which was 32 Credit Hours if I am not mistaken.  However, the only ones that actually counted towards classes on the core curriculum was my Pre-Calc credits, Intro to Psych and Intro to Soc.  Everything else applied just as an elective.  This was frustrating and one glaring example of how petty the process was: At my community college you had to take a humanities course, which I passed.  At my 4 year college, you had to take an intro level class designated in the music program, theater or art.  I asked the registrar why on earth my humanities class wouldn't count towards that requirement as my class a the community college was something like an intro to Music and Art History.  He told me it did not count since it was classified as Humanities and not a class in the Art, Music or Theater Department.  I thought that was bonkers and still do.  So my sophomore year I ended up having to take music history at my 4 year college much to my chagrin.

Tl;dr version: I suspect Michigan does the same thing and it throws a wrench into anyone looking to transfer in since they would most likely make people seemingly 'retake' classes to check the boxes in the academic catalog per the letter of the rule.  

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