The disturbing rise of "academies"

[skyway 128]

It is clear there is a rise in these "Academies" that purport themselves to be almighty in the hopes of persuading teenagers to sign up. That they pose as actual schools as well represents an attack on public education. Actually, it is an attack on private education as well in a sense. Schools that have been around for decades and have been held to the highest of standards and placed under significant scrutiny are now being challenged by new "schools" that are ran, often, by novices. American Collegiate Academy in Clearwater, Florida is an example. The school director, who is the person who created and served as the director of the athletics program, does not appear to have a college degree and is currently an UNDERGRAD at the University of Tampa. There is an attempt made to portray him as having a degree from Columbia, but a little digging reveals that he merely holds a certificate from a six course, online-only "Sports Industry Essentials" program.

linkedin profile for school director, ACA

The extension program certificate in sports from Columbia

I think a lot of self-described "free market champions" are inclined to support these kinds of schools popping up because they only see an increase in competition. "What could hurt?", they ask. Lost in all of that is the fact that, quite frequently, the people in charge of running schools are not the least bit qualified to run a school.  Should any parent want to send their kids to a "Collegiate Academy", whose vision includes rhetoric about " ...in order that they may be better prepared for the rigor of “higher education.” ", when the SCHOOL DIRECTOR himself has not yet earned a bachelor's degree? I'm certain he has a wonderful smile and an AMAZING handshake. So, he's probably really persuasive for some folks. 

[Perspective 318]

How about this new one in Alabama? 

 

https://247sports.com/Article/Rush-Propst-USA-Academy-coach-Alabama-football-141540436/

[skyway 128]

1 minute ago, Perspective said:

How about this new one in Alabama? 

 

https://247sports.com/Article/Rush-Propst-USA-Academy-coach-Alabama-football-141540436/

Yup, I've been reading and commenting at length on that one over on a national forum. Beyond the obvious issues with their needing to build facilities and not having permits, that whole operation just screams "academic fraud".

I'm an outspoken advocate for the power of properly implemented digital tools. But, they aren't meant to allow some middle-aged man, who really only wants football glory, to be able to just purchase a package and suddenly have a full high school, worthy of granting diplomas that are honored by legitimate accrediting agencies. 

[SportsNut25 607]

On 1/10/2020 at 11:39 AM, skyway said:

The school director, who is the person who created and served as the director of the athletics program, does not appear to have a college degree and is currently an UNDERGRAD at the University of Tampa. There is an attempt made to portray him as having a degree from Columbia, but a little digging reveals that he merely holds a certificate from a six course, online-only "Sports Industry Essentials" program.

Just want to note that unless the website has been edited since this thread was created, it is pretty clear he did not receive a degree from Columbia. 

[skyway 128]

5 hours ago, SportsNut25 said:

Just want to note that unless the website has been edited since this thread was created, it is pretty clear he did not receive a degree from Columbia. 

Right, it was a certificate from a six course, online sport management thing.

[SportsNut25 607]

14 hours ago, skyway said:

Right, it was a certificate from a six course, online sport management thing.

I got that part, but I was just highlighting that your post said there was (supposedly) an attempt at deceiving people by creating an illusion of sorts that he earned a degree when in fact there was no attempt at deception from what I could see. 

[skyway 128]

On 1/15/2020 at 9:06 AM, SportsNut25 said:

I got that part, but I was just highlighting that your post said there was (supposedly) an attempt at deceiving people by creating an illusion of sorts that he earned a degree when in fact there was no attempt at deception from what I could see. 

Well, sure, I think they've steered clear of any accusations of falsifying a resume. But, I think the Columbia part is presented in such a way as to allow more credulous lay persons to assume he has a degree from Columbia. 

[Big Ray 10]

My opinion is this, you would think that somebody starting up a school would have a degree. But, whether you have a degree or not, as long as things are done properly, it shouldn't be a problem. There are some folks who did not go to or finish college and are very successful in their work field. There are some who have a 4 year degree and are not as successful. Bottom line, I just hope that they do things properly.

[skyway 128]

On 1/22/2020 at 7:50 AM, Big Ray said:

My opinion is this, you would think that somebody starting up a school would have a degree. But, whether you have a degree or not, as long as things are done properly, it shouldn't be a problem. There are some folks who did not go to or finish college and are very successful in their work field. There are some who have a 4 year degree and are not as successful. Bottom line, I just hope that they do things properly.

The guy is at a school named American Collegiate Academy. One would think preparing kids to get to college and get a degree is a focal point. And the director himself has yet to get a college degree. How, exactly, can they actually sell themselves as superior to most any school?

How do we determine if they have, in fact, done things "properly"? They appear to be operating (like most all charter or private schools) free of much of any oversight.

[181pl 274]

The only way to stop this in Florida is to make these teams ineligible to play FHSAA members. I'm sure FHSAA took a big payoff from IMG and the like to allow its "school" to play regular schools.

 

Only way to stop this crap it to prevent FHSAA members from participating against these teams. Period.

[181pl 274]

If there are 10-15 national academies that only play each other, so be it. But to stop the rise of this crap, normal academic institutions have to stop playing sports academies. 

[ColumbiaHighFan2017class 2,349]

1 hour ago, 181pl said:

The only way to stop this in Florida is to make these teams ineligible to play FHSAA members. I'm sure FHSAA took a big payoff from IMG and the like to allow its "school" to play regular schools.

 

Only way to stop this crap it to prevent FHSAA members from participating against these teams. Period.

It should be the schools choice if they want to play a IMG type of school

 

Maybe if more teams around Florida especially North Florida weren't so spineless than maybe teams wouldn't have to play IMG or SFA type of schools

 

 

 

 

[ColumbiaHighFan2017class 2,349]

1 hour ago, 181pl said:

If there are 10-15 national academies that only play each other, so be it. But to stop the rise of this crap, normal academic institutions have to stop playing sports academies. 

The benefits of playing them sometimes outweigh the bad

 

Ik we got a good paycheck to play IMG last year that covered our travel and gave us extra take home money in addition to a split of the gate and we took it because nobody up here in our area had the stones to play us and the only teams who may have been willing to play would have been in SFL where we would have been forced to travel and gotten close to nothing on a stipend to cover it and likely lose money by taking the game

 

 

Until you know the struggle of filling a schedule don't come on acting like "real schools" need to stop scheduling them

 

 

A lot of schools don't have the same safe space scheduling setup that Hillsborough county is where they never have to worry about filling a schedule as it's all down by the county internally

[Perspective 318]

20 hours ago, ColumbiaHighFan2017class said:

A lot of schools don't have the same safe space scheduling setup that Hillsborough county is where they never have to worry about filling a schedule as it's all down by the county internally

This can be both a blessing and a curse. 

[ColumbiaHighFan2017class 2,349]

3 hours ago, Perspective said:

This can be both a blessing and a curse. 

Yeah but it also means that a school like plant would never know the struggle of spending months trying to fill a schedule because teams less than 30 minutes away are too scared to play 

[ColumbiaHighFan2017class 2,349]

181pl can sit here and say the fhsaa should ban the playing of a school like IMG but he doesn't realize what struggle it is for many schools trying to fill a schedule because his school never has a issue filling it as the county does it for them

 

 

Why should a school like Columbia be punished because they reside in a area surrounded by spineless schools who are scared to lose

 

Suwannee, Buchholz and Bolles are all considered schools that are good to great schools in North Florida but all 3 were too scared to play Columbia last year because they all knew they would lose 

[Perspective 318]

3 hours ago, ColumbiaHighFan2017class said:

Yeah but it also means that a school like plant would never know the struggle of spending months trying to fill a schedule because teams less than 30 minutes away are too scared to play 

Yep; that's the blessing.   The curse is having very little, if any, control over what non-district teams end up on your schedule.  This curse gets magnified now that power rankings are used to determine which non-district winners make it into the playoffs and seeding for all the teams that make it (which, of course, determines home field advantage). 

Also, I suspect it helps to be in an area that may have 100 schools within an hour or so drive (like Tampa, Orlando and South Florida) versus being in a rural area, relatively speaking. 

[badbird 1,383]

2 hours ago, ColumbiaHighFan2017class said:

181pl can sit here and say the fhsaa should ban the playing of a school like IMG but he doesn't realize what struggle it is for many schools trying to fill a schedule because his school never has a issue filling it as the county does it for them

 

 

Why should a school like Columbia be punished because they reside in a area surrounded by spineless schools who are scared to lose

 

Suwannee, Buchholz and Bolles are all considered schools that are good to great schools in North Florida but all 3 were too scared to play Columbia last year because they all knew they would lose 

Bolles would have won last year

[ColumbiaHighFan2017class 2,349]

55 minutes ago, badbird said:

Bolles would have won last year

No they wouldn't have

 

Bolles barley handled a .500 Bradford team at home, Columbia had a depth and athletes edge on bolles and would have dropped dart after dart on their secondary

 

Every loss by Columbia came against a team better than bolles

[ColumbiaHighFan2017class 2,349]

59 minutes ago, Perspective said:

Yep; that's the blessing.   The curse is having very little, if any, control over what non-district teams end up on your schedule.  This curse gets magnified now that power rankings are used to determine which non-district winners make it into the playoffs and seeding for all the teams that make it (which, of course, determines home field advantage). 

Also, I suspect it helps to be in an area that may have 100 schools with an hour or so drive (like Tampa, Orlando and South Florida) versus being in a rural area, relatively speaking. 

That is true 

[181pl 274]

One IMG doesn't fill up N. FLA schedules. Lol. One way to get around your problem is to have "Region" schedules in rural areas where the teams in region play must a certain amount of teams not only from their district, but the larger region. This would help, an be better than tax payers subsidizing IMG's existence by playing them while they take players from those schools. Don't sell your soul over this.

[ColumbiaHighFan2017class 2,349]

37 minutes ago, 181pl said:

One IMG doesn't fill up N. Glad schedules. Lol. One way to get around your problem is to have "Region" schedules in rural areas where the teams in region must at a certain amount of teams not only from their district, but the larger region. This would help, an be better than tax payers subsidising IMGs existence by playing them while they take players from those schools. Don't sell your soul over this.

And how are you gonna force the schools to take these games? 

[ColumbiaHighFan2017class 2,349]

The schools will never vote for that, especially considering it's the very reason districts were taken out is because the majority of the schools were scared and unhappy having to face the 1 or 2 good teams in their region

[badbird 1,383]

3 hours ago, ColumbiaHighFan2017class said:

No they wouldn't have

 

Bolles barley handled a .500 Bradford team at home, Columbia had a depth and athletes edge on bolles and would have dropped dart after dart on their secondary

 

Every loss by Columbia came against a team better than bolles

not many agree with you especially the computers.  They also beat Mainland, Cocoa and played BTW tough.   Bolles was better than Lee and North Marion.  

[ColumbiaHighFan2017class 2,349]

2 minutes ago, badbird said:

not many agree with you especially the computers.  They also beat Mainland, Cocoa and played BTW tough.   Bolles was better than Lee and North Marion.  

Bolles wouldn't have beaten Lee or North Marion

 

Bolles couldn't beat University Christian who on a year to year basis is always a medium sized fish in a very small pond

 

 

 

And between cocoa and mainland who is the best win between those 2 this year?