Since most of the readers of StateFansNation (“The graduate level NC State Website”) are a little more experienced in the real world than the readers of other sites…let’s play a little “real world” hypothetical this morning —-
Let’s assume for a moment that you own a company.
One of your account officers makes a key sale for the company. In the sale the new client signs a contract committing the client to provide certain services for the next four years. You are restricted by law to having less than fifteen clients at any one time, so the commitment of the new client is very important.
After the new sale is signed, sealed and delivered and you have begun making arrangements and planning around the new client, the account officer who signed the deal accepts leaves your company to accept a new job with a competitor.
The new client, who signed his/her contract with YOUR COMPANY – not the account officer – suddenly claims that they are uneasy with their agreement and would like to take their business elsewhere.
Question: As a prudent manager of your business, do you allow the new client to freely ignore his commitment and simply waltz into the horizon without exercising any of the penalty clauses availability to you in the signed contract?
FORMER NC State recruit, Larry Davis, has decided to forego his commitment to NC State and join Seton Hall and their new coach, Bobby Gonzalez. (Link)
In the summer of 2005, the 6-foot-3 shooting guard who played at New York’s Christ the King High School committed to N.C. State, the first school he had visited.
“I really don’t know coach Lowe,” Davis said. “He’s not going to be here in June. It’s just not good going into a new thing like that, not knowing what you’re getting into.”
Davis is a nice player who barely averaged 14 points a game in high school and was barely ranked around the #100 HS players in the country. A case could be made that if Larry Davis is playing signficant time for NC State in three or four years, then our program isn’t where it will need to be or where we hope that it will be.
The big issue around this situation now is NC State’s (yet to be determined) decision to grant Davis a full release or a partial release where he would be required to sit out a year before becoming eligible to play at Seton Hall. In recent years, the NCAA has been more lenient in allowing petitioning players to transfer without having to sit out a year.
But…from NC State’s perspective…Is there really a choice here?
OF COURSE State should only grant a partial release and make the kid have to go through the NCAA’s appeals process to be allowed to play immediately.
From State’s selfish perspective:
* The kid didn’t even afford Sidney Lowe the opportunity to meet with him face to face. (Does Seton Hall really have that many other kids right now to whom they are trying to give this extra scholarship?)
* Also, it was pretty evident, even mistakenly printed in local newspapers in New Jersey, that Seton Hall was illegally contacting Davis long before NC State granted him a conditional release to talk to other schools.
It is UNACCEPTABLE that NC State would support this kind of behavior from the kid and from Seton Hall by just rolling over and being complicit in this bullshit.
But, there is a lot more to this and Larry Davis.
Human beings react to incentives; give someone enough incentive or disincentive and you can create the behavior that you desire. (See Freakanomics). NC State MUST be smart enough here to signal to Dan Werner or Dennis Horner that DISINCENTIVE EXISTS FOR THEM TO CONSIDER BACKING OUT OF THEIR LETTERS OF INTENT.
Most schools do NOT give kids that sign with them a change of heart because of a coaching change a full release. NC State should not either. If they want to go so badly, then let them all know that they will have to go through the hassle, the time and the process and deal with the NCAA for a full release.
