NCAA prospective student-athletes that wakeboard

Just wondering if anyone has had any problems being eligible for college (NCAA) sports after or during competing in wakeboarding(as an amateur in wakeboard world). Could sponsorships or competing in the Pro Tour or Wake Games make you not eligible? I have been looking at the NCAA website but it is hard to determined if wakeboarding would be a problem. Wakeboarding is not a NCAA sport so it just doesnt make sense that it could keep someone from getting a soccer,volleyball,softball or any other sport scholarship but I have been told I better start looking into this matter.

Werent there a couple "pros" on the UCF team a couple of years ago idk about now.

Here something about Jeremy Bloom CU football player and Free style skiier. Hope it helps.

Bloom to play football, ski without endorsements
By John Mossman
AP Sports Writer

BOULDER, Colo. -- Jeremy Bloom said it wasn't about the money -- and proved it.

The two-sport athlete said Wednesday he will play football at the University of Colorado this fall while also continuing his freestyle skiing career, but without potentially lucrative endorsements.

A champion moguls skier and a standout wide receiver and punt returner, Bloom came to his decision after the NCAA ruled he could not remain eligible for football and earn endorsement money as a skier. The money helps cover the cost of training and traveling as a World Cup competitor.

Bloom has appealed the ruling, but a state district judge last year denied his request for a temporary restraining order against the NCAA.

His love of football, Bloom said, was an overriding factor.

"I know money is the last thing that brings you happiness," he said. "Getting an education and playing college football is what I love to do. That's what makes me the most happy."

Speaking at a news conference at the Colorado campus, Bloom recalled his thrill of returning a punt 75 yards for a touchdown against Colorado State during his freshman season last year.

"Coming here right after the Olympics, I knew what it was like to compete in the biggest competition the world has to offer, and the feelings of representing my country there were amazing," he said. "As an athlete, that's the biggest honor I will ever have in my life.

"But as far as just sheer thrill and emotion, I got an opportunity to return that punt last year. When I scored, I don't think I'll ever have a feeling like that in my entire life. I just hope to have maybe a couple more this year."

As he did last year, Bloom will ski competitively on a shortened schedule after the football season.

Colorado coach Gary Barnett called Bloom's decision "testimony to Jeremy's love of the game, his love of his teammates, his love for the University of Colorado and his unselfishness. In so many ways, it epitomizes what a student-athlete should be about."

Bloom said the U.S. Ski Team tried unsuccessfully to set up a fund to help him, but officials were wary because of the NCAA's position.

Ski Team spokesman Tom Kelly said officials will support him when he returns after football.

"He's achieved being a member of our team based on his athletic ability and what he's done and that doesn't change regardless of what he wants to do," he said.

By choosing football, Bloom walked away from endorsement contracts amounting to at least six figures.

Asked how much money he was leaving on the table, Bloom said, "It's a lot more than last year, and last year my agent told me it was six figures. It's substantial."

Bloom competed last season on the freestyle circuit at his own expense against a field of competitors who had corporate sponsorship for equipment, training and travel.

Despite missing half the ski season because of football, Bloom won two medals at the 2003 world championships -- gold in dual moguls and silver in individual moguls. He finished 13th in the World Cup standings and had four top-four finishes.

He placed ninth in the moguls in the 2002 Olympics but bounced back a month later to win the World Cup moguls title in Finland.

At Colorado in 2002, Bloom had three scoring plays of 75 yards or longer, including a 94-yard reception that was the longest in school history and an 80-yard punt return against Oklahoma in the Big 12 championship game.

I never agreed with that crap they tried to put on Bloom. For one thing, the NCAA rules state that if an athlete is a "professional" in a sport, that person is considered inelligible to compete in the SAME sport in the NCAA. One of my buddies got drafted to play in the MLB and played for a couple of years then went back to play soccer in college with me. He was inelligible to play baseball, but could play soccer. The deal with Bloom was b/c of how much money he made through endorsements, as stated above. But either way. it doesn't say anything in the NCAA rule book about that. That's why they made a special case about Bloom. Honestly, i think it was a jealousy factor.

Hey this is Morgans mom. Thank you for the article Phantom. And RidinNSippi where does it state "that if an athlete is a professional in a sport, that person is considered ineligible to compete in the SAME sport in the NCAA" that is what we are looking for. Morgan is currently playing 3 high school sports as a freshman (in addition to competing in wakeboarding) she loves wakeboarding and keeps up pretty good with the other girls. We just want to know as much as possible about the amateur status (NCAA)just in case she gets any breaks in wakeboarding we dont want to have any issues down the road if she is lucky enough to get offered any kind of a sports scholarship for college. We have found that the term Pro in wakeboarding is a gray area or maybe we just havent talk to the right person yet.Thanks again and we will keep looking into this.

being an athlete is a tricky matter. i ran track in college and the first day of meetings before school starts, i had a 3 hour compliance meeting of ALL the things i couldnt do. its amazing, but once you start to compete and see how many people are trying to take advantage of the system by finding loop-holes, you realize why the rules are so cut and dry.

for the time being. i would say dont sign her name on anything. i would definatly not accept any money and if someone "happened to toss a board or something in the back of the car while you werent looking" eh so be it.

i wish your daughter all the luck and i REALLY strongly encourage anyone to become an athlete in college - if given the chance. it was not only the hardest thing ive ever experienced, but it was the most rewarding. you will form the greatest friendships, work ethic, guidance with your busy student-athlete sched on a daily, or at least weekly, basis to help you plan on when you have time to study etc... overall the best decision ive ever made...

I dont see how it could be too much of a problem.
The way I understood it was that if your were once a pro in one sport you couldnt play that sport but any other sport was fair game. There are guys who play professional baseball for a couple of years then come back and play football all the time. Matt Mauck (quarterback for LSU in 2003 national title run) played 2 or 3 years in the Cubs organization then came back and played 3 years at LSU. He was 25 when LSU won the title.

Dennis Dixon from Oregon is STILL in the Atlanta Braves farm system. He played the last summer for a farm team before this past season. And he was one of the most highly recognizeable players in the NCAA this past year and he was still eligible.

I just cant see how the NCAA could honestly say that your daughter couldnt play in college while being a sponsored wakeboarder. The thing you are going to run into is the coaches are not going to want her to wakeboard because of its high injury rate. Thats what i ran into. I was gonna walk on with the football team here at ULM but coached asked me about some previous injurys and how i got them. I told him about wakeboarding and he said either dont try out or quit wakeboarding. so i said the hell with the football team. they sucked anyway. lol. then they beat alabama. they still suck though.

ok so the difference between being on a "pro" club with either a major or minor league contract is that you are getting paid to play the sport. if she gets sponsored wakeboarding she will be getting paid to represent a product, or store etc...

with that being said, who is to say that nike cant "sponsor" the NCAA's best basketball player in something else like pro hop-scotch... there is too much grey in wakeboarding. if some local shop were to sponsor you, its tricky because then why cant a shop like "dicks sports" sponsor someone in "tennis pro," (even if they have only played one set ever) when they just so happend to be a big name football player for USC. and then that college football players face will be on a billboard representing a store and getting paid for it!

What i would do is call and talk to a counselor at university in your area and just ask them the questions.

The NCAA is a tricky thing and you dont want to get caught fighting it cuz with people like Miles Brand running the show you never know what decision that guy could make. The NCAA's rules are very straightforward but there's also a lot of things you have to be in compliance with if you want to compete at that level.

I'd just make a couple of phone calls.

Yeah, I think it also has to do with if the athlete is presently receiving money. In the cases where athletes played pro baseball, then came back to play football, they were no longer being paid for baseball. The questions come when an athlete is receiving money from an outside source while simultaniously playing a collegiate sport.

They are trying to keep players from being paid by boosters to play sports for their college. If I want your daughter to play volleyball for my alma mater, what is to stop me from giving her a $50k wakeboarding sponsorship to represent "Jason's Binding Screws" on the tour?

Wakeboarding is not a NCAA sport but a club sport. Many pros have ridden in college wakeboard tournaments. The question they are concerned about is how does riding as a pro wakeboarder affect NCAA eligibility in the other sports. An example would be if Austin wanted to compete in an NCAA sanctioned sport such as soccer at UCF. Would he be ineligible due to his pro status in wakeboarding? I definitely would talk to someone at the school or even contact the NCAA directly AND get it in writing. It doesn't affect the wakeboarding but it very well may affect the NCAA sport.

I was actually going to use Austin as an example but see mr. hair already beat me to it. Correct me if I am wrong but Austin competes for UCF and still rides on the tour. But as far as playing NCAA sports I agree that you better get it in writing if they OK it.
On that note how is the UCF team looking this year? GO KNIGHTS!


(Message edited by era3 on March 13, 2008)

bc its a club sport it doesnt matter if Austin makes a million a year as long as he's in school he can participate in wakeboarding as long as its a club sport. hell you dont even have to be a full time student to participate in club sports.

once you get into scholarships and the university giving you money to compete for them you're into a totally different set of compliance rules. Minimum of 12 hrs taken per qtr. or semester. keep a certain gpa, the one that would probably pertain the most is the inability to work or make money during ur playing season, they will not allow you to have a job during your season. they limit the amt of money you can make from working even a part time job during the off season while still in school (school year not the summer).

i honestly wouldnt worry ab it until she starts to win tourney's, make money and she starts to get paid to ride(even board sponsorships).

I'm not so sure I would contact the university or the NCAA and bring the situation to their attention. Often it is better to ask for forgiveness rather than permission. I'm not suggesting that you cover anything up. Of course if you are asked if she is sponsored in ANY sport or received endorsement money for ANY sport, then you need to be honest, but I'm not so sure I would initiate such a discussion if you feel that after reading the NCAA rules this is OK, but are not 100% sure.

I agree with some of the other comments about grey areas. A local shop gives you stickers and sells you stuff at cost...Is that a sponsorship? I may be off on this, but recall that you have to earn more than the cost of participating in the sport to be considered a pro who is earning a living for the sport. Wakeboarding costs lots of money so if that is the threshold a rider would have to earn a lot of money.

Thanks everyone!! I will look for a number to call. I will try to find out if riding for a clothing company,board company,or anything related is a problem. Also I will ask if the rider is amateur (by wakeboard standards?) and chooses to compete in Pro Tour (long shot but you never know)Pan Am,Wake Games or Nationals and Worlds how would that be viewed. We are jumping the gun a little with the college thing since she is only a freshman(HS) but one of the coaches that knows about her amateur wakeboarding season from last year( about 25 tourneys including Wake Games, Pam Am, Nationals, and a lot of grassroot) brought it to our attention. Morgan's Mom (Terri) I will let you all know if I find any solid answers in case anyone ever runs into this problem.

i wouldnt chance messing with the NCAA's they find out everything....just ask, they get those questions all of the time.

I'll call my director of compliance at JMU and ask her first thing in the morning. I just tried her and she's gone for the day.

Well she just called me back. Here's what she said....

TECHNICALLY she would not be able to compete if she was getting paid, or getting ANY free gear. NCAA set up their rules very strict for the reasons that someone could be giving her money for "wakeboarding" to play an NCAA sport. In all honesty that's why you are supposed to be even given a tshirt if its for free. BUT here's the kicker. when it comes to gear. If a shop gives her say...a wakeboard or something, and she were to give them even a penny! then it would be legal, as long as there is a transaction and receipt. but if she's given free anything while being an ncaa athlete, you're playin with fire so to speak. so getting paid is definitely out of the question. BOTTOM LINE...if she ends up getting sponsered and becoming a "pro" but still wants to compete in a NCAA sanctioned sport, the only way she can do it is if she refuses endorsement deals and ya'll pay for her wakeboarding yourselves until she's finished playing the ncaa sport (just like Bloom did).

but doesnt that rule only apply to her DURING her collegiate career?

i forgot all ab the paying for your gear. we used to get soo much gear at IU that at the end of every year we had to give coach $5 so we could keep everything. and all of this gear was given to us by who ever was sponsoring us. gloves, bats, hats, everything.

Dont mess with the NCAA they'll get you everytime.

Thats how i understood it as well. The NCAA is not to be played with they will find out. Its a trip how football players and such that play pro baseball get around this. Some of them had signing bonuses of over a million.

jr, yea it only applies to your college career, of course! but that includes the off season too! but as soon as your elligibility is up, its not like they can keep you from playing or anything anymore. I know what you mean about getting the gear. we had the same thing! and had to give coach a couple bucks at the end. I think being that strict is the only way they can keep alumni from paying a college kid however much they want and give them cars and stuff to go play at their school. It does kind of suck that we couldn't havejobs an stuff but honestly, I didn't have time for one if I could! soccer was my job in college.

Tennessee had a football player, Kelly Washington, that had signed a major bonus contract for professional baseball and after 5 years in AAA decided he wasn't going to make it to the majors. He played 2 years of NCAA football at UT and then went into the draft. I don't see how the NCAA could argue over a few grand that a wakeboarder makes.

RidinNSippi so what you are saying is that the NCAA could think that someone could pay her $$ or give her stuff to entice her play a college NCAA sport but cover it up as wakeboarding? WOW... my mind and morals just dont think that way. What a shame that so many rules have to be in place because of others bad choices. I just still find it hard to believe that if a company wanted to give her a few clothes to wear at wakeboarding events or a shop give her a board could cause problems 2/3 years down the road if she is lucky enough to get looked at by a college lets face it the talent out there in our high schools is incredible so all this worry could be for nothing. The more I think about it the more I find her wakeboarding to be so far removed from any NCAA sport. It is very hard to explain to a 15 year old that no you cant ride for that company or shop (like all your other wakeboarder friends) because we just arent sure if it could come back to bite you when you are a Jr or Sr.Yes playing one of her sports in college is her goal not mom and dads but she wants both wakeboarding(for a company) and college sports. Parents beware when you tell your children "Sweetheart you can do anything and be anything you want the sky is the limit its just up to you to work hard and follow your passions" There has to be someone out there with a high schooler playing school sports that also competes in a non NCAA sport (BMX,skateboarding,motoX)that maybe has a contact person or has found solid info on whether these kids can enjoy a few perks for all their hard work. Thanks everyone for the input... Terri (morgans mom)

Morgan it's a non issue UNTIL she gets to college or until she starts to be recruited to play a particular sport.

Don't be amazed that a booster or coach would try and give an athlete money. The athletic dept at a big school is the major source of funding for the rest of the university. college athletes make millions and millinos of dollars for their respected schools by being the best at what they do and there's no limits to which a coach, booster, admins, etc will go to make sure they have the best players on their squads.

George, Its fine that he did that! What he could NOT have done is go back after quitting the AAA and play NCAA baseball! that's illegal! b/c its the same sport. what we are refering to here is like if he would have gone back to play college football, but still getting paid for his pro baseball career. That's illegal too b/c he would be getting paid for endorsements, and being a proathlete AT THE SAME TIME as he would have been playing football for the ncaa. Its not very confusing after you sit through a compliance meeting...every year!

Terri, you are exactly right in the beginning of your last post. That's exactly what they think. It sucks for everyone that does the right things. But you'd be amazed at what alumni/boosters will do to get good players in and keep them there! But like jr said...This is only DURING her college career. When it all comes down to it, its like this. If she was a pro wakeboarder, on the pro tour, making money, has endorsements, has sponsors and all that jazz in high school, when she goes to college, if she wanted to play for an ncaa sanctioned team (lets say soccer), she could play! BUT she'd have to stop getting paid for endorsements, and sponsors for wakeboarding, WHILE she was enrolled as a student-athlete. when she graduates college, or stops playing soccer, she can pick up all her sponsors again. Now if by some chance, the ncaa had wakeboarding as a D1 sanctioned sport. and she wanted to wakeboard for her college, she would not be eligible because she had already lost her amateur status as a wakeboarder. i know its all confusing. there are a couple of simplicities here...

1. No, she cannot be getting paid or sponsored for any sport and be playing on a NCAA sanctioned team.

2A. If she has been a "professional" in 1 sport, She is not eligible to play that same sport for a NCAA sanctioned school.
2B. If she is a "professional" in 1 sport, and wants to play a different sport in college, she has to stop getting endorsements, basically she can't be "paid" or get hook ups during her tenure at college.

Yes it sucks bad, i mean the ncaa allows student-athletes to have 1 job (if they must), you can only get paid around minimum wage (don't know the exact number off hand), and you can only work a certain number of hours a week. That's how bad they got it. But once again, on JR's comments about the money. he's exactly right! did you know going one of the top 6 bcs bowl games pays 17 million! alumni will throw what they can at the top recruits in the country for that!