Teamwork lets athlete be student

To get from Birmingham, Ala., to College Park, Md., as quickly as possible is not difficult.

That's why airplanes exist.

If you are a college athlete, things are not quite so simple.

Myron Rolle's weekend had the potential to be complicated.

Rolle starts at safety for Florida State University, and the Seminoles play at the University of Maryland tomorrow.

Normally, Rolle would take the team flight and take the field with all the Seminoles.

Rolle is not a normal college football player.

Tomorrow afternoon, Rolle has an interview in Birmingham, Ala., with the Rhodes Scholarship committee. Rolle hopes to become one of 32 students from American colleges and universities who will be a Rhodes Scholar.

The odds always are long for such an honor. They are non-existent if the candidate does not go to the interview.

Becoming a Rhodes Scholar is a wonderful honor.

But it does nothing to help the Seminoles beat Maryland. And the game is a must-win affair for Florida State to stay in the race for the Atlantic Division title in the ACC.

Florida State coach Bobby Bowden could have pointed out that football pays for Rolle's education, and said, "See you on the team flight."

Instead, Bowden and the Florida State administration set out to find a way for Rolle to have it all this weekend.

Florida State needed help from ESPN, which is televising the game. And Rolle and the Seminoles needed a great deal of help from the NCAA.

Talk about your long odds.

ESPN cooperated by setting the kickoff for 7:45 p.m.

The issue then became logistical. Rolle needed a private jet to get to the game on time.

The idea that the NCAA would permit a school to charter a plane for a single player to play in a football game seemed ludicrous. The NCAA believes strongly that athletes should not be afforded privileges unavailable to all students.

It easily could have done nothing and forced Rolle to choose between the game and the interview.

Instead, the NCAA cooperated. With any luck, Rolle will be in Byrd Stadium for kickoff tomorrow night.

Everybody wins.

It would be easy to be cynical about all this.

Florida State uncovered academic irregularities involving 23 athletes last year and is awaiting word from the NCAA on potential sanctions. The Seminoles hardly could tell Rolle to get on the team plane or turn in his uniform.

ESPN takes a fair amount of criticism for publicizing "athletes" well before "students." Accommodating Florida State and Rolle certainly casts the network in a favorable light.

The NCAA has a number of beneficial programs for college athletes, but they often are overshadowed by such things as the NCAA's pursuit of money to fund those programs.

Who would dare criticize the NCAA for making Rolle's day?

No one.

This time, for whatever reason, everybody did what should have been done to help an exceptional young man have the best of both worlds.

Florida State, ESPN and the NCAA got it right.

The challenge now is for everyone involved in college athletics is to get things right when a Rhodes Scholarship is not involved.
Contact Paul Woody at (804) 649-6444 or .