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COSIDA CONFERENCE CALLSeptember 24, 2013Jim SeaveyANDY SEELEY: Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to our CoSIDA continuing education, Capital One Academic All‑America Program. My name is Andy Seeley. I'm the moderator. I'm the third vice president with CoSIDA. Happy to have Jim Seavey, a CoSIDA Hall of Famer, with us to present some information regarding the Academic All‑America Program. If you preregistered you should have been emailed four downloadable PDFs to accompany this call. The PDFs we're going to look for are tips for maximizing your nominations, the 2013/2014 master schedule, how to nominate, and 2013 media members and district coordinators. At this point I will turn things over to Jim. JIM SEAVEY: Thanks, everybody, for taking time out of your day. Very special thanks Barb and everybody at CoSIDA for affording the Academic All‑America committee and the program the opportunity to speak to you today before the nominating process begins, which believe it or not is in one short week. Nominations open next Tuesday, October 1st, for men's and women's soccer, followed by football and volleyball. Today's webinar will cover some tips for getting your nominee noticed. When you are putting together your information for the voting process, also additional ways on how you can maximize your visibility opportunities for or Academic All‑District and Academic All‑America honorees. We'll also touch upon nominating for the Academic All‑America Hall of Fame which will continue through early November. We'll provide additional information on some social media outlets that you can use in going to nominate and provide additional visibility for your student‑athletes. Before I get started, just a quick couple of notes about the Academic All‑America Program. We're in our 62nd year of honoring student‑athletes. The program was founded in 1952. Still going strong into its seventh decade. Capital One who has poured a tremendous amount of resources to provide visibility opportunities at all schools across the country, we look forward to that continuing. Before I begin on the tips for maximizing your nominations, I just wanted to point out a couple of resources that will help you in the nomination process next week and throughout the year. Links can be found at CoSIDA.com. That will allow you to nominate and vote during the process if you're on a voting for both the district and national teams. The nominations page also includes historical records, key contact information which was provided to you in the PDF handout. The list of vice chairs, chairs, coordinators, anyone you may need to contact during the course of the year during the program is part of that list. The most important thing you need to do before the nomination process begins, however, is to make sure that your institution has paid to be a member of CoSIDA. If your institution has not paid its dues for the year, you will not be able to nominate. Please make sure before next Tuesday that your institution has become a dues‑paying member and you will not have any issues with that. It's also important to note that Capital One has instituted a wonderful Academic All‑America homepage which provides links and additional information, located at CapitalOneAllAmerica.com. It has the latest news, social media for the program. One thing that's very important to remember with Capital One is that with the Academic All‑America Program, please remember to use the correct terminology when nominating and when promoting your student‑athletes. It is the Capital One All‑America as Selected by CoSIDA or by the College Sports Information Directors of America. That same terminology would apply for any announcements that you have on an Academic All‑District honoree. It is important to remember that we are extremely appreciative to all the folks at Capital One who have provided us with great support. They are the sole title sponsor. If you need any artwork or anything like that to help promote your student‑athletes, I'd be happy to send you an official logo. You can contact myself or Barb for that. Let's dive in real quick, Andy. I just wanted to dive into the dos and don'ts on the maximizing your Academic All‑America nomination. If there are questions or emails that come in, I'll be more than happy to provide as much information as I can and any tips on it. The first thing I would say when you are sitting down to nominate your honoree, the first rule of thumb is to make sure that he or she has a minimum grade point average of 3.30. You cannot round up. You cannot round up a 3.295 to 3.30. Our committee members are instructed if they receive a nomination of 3.30 exactly, they are to confirm that that is the grade point average. We have had nominations over the years received and the nominating school has rounded up the grade point average. There are several things that voters will look for when they are analyzing your nomination. The key thing to remember is that you don't want to start a nomination with things that may be obvious to a voter. By that I mean, John Smith is a wonderful kid and a great representative at State Tech is not the way you want to sell your nominee. It is assumed that any athlete nominated is worthy of being an Academic All‑America candidate. When you type sentences like that, it does two things. Number one, it takes away from valuable information that you want to present about your candidate throughout, the second thing it does, is it wastes characters. You only have a 500‑character limit. If you use phrases like that, it's not very well‑received by the voters and wastes valuable space that you need through the course of your nomination. Please keep that in mind. I've seen over the years where schools have really hurt themselves by putting that information because by the time the voters get down to the end of the nomination, the information they were looking for is really sparse. Keep that in mind when you're nominating. In terms of things that are crucial for the nomination, if you have a student‑athlete that has been selected as an Academic All‑District or Academic All‑America in past years, that should absolutely be the first thing you list after the statistics, the sport, et cetera. Make sure you put Capital One Academic All‑America third team national or second team national, even if the student‑athlete was an All‑District that didn't get to the national team in previous years. Those are things that the voters will look at specifically. It is one of the things that the program is really built upon or has done a great job of recognizing excellence throughout the years, where you have a two‑time Academic All‑America or a three‑time. Having that information at the top of the nomination is very important. ANDY SEELEY: We have a question on the live blog. JIM SEAVEY: Absolutely. ANDY SEELEY: If my student‑athlete is in grad school, is her GPA the grad GPA, undergrad or both combined? JIM SEAVEY: The nomination form asks you specifically for the undergraduate GPA and the graduate GPA. You will need to have both of those when you nominate the student‑athlete for Academic All‑America. ANDY SEELEY: Thank you. JIM SEAVEY: Some of the other things, and I want to go back to the do not's for a couple of seconds. It's imperative to realize that you're nominating for Academic All‑America at the collegiate level. I say that because there have been instances in the past where nominating institutions have included information about an individual's high school accomplishments, which aren't germane to the Academic All‑America selection process. This is based upon accomplishments achieved at your institution. Make sure you keep in mind when you're nominating that that is the information you should be putting in, that is the information the committee is looking for. Since you only have 500 characters, it's important to edit and abbreviate wherever possible. Don't bog down your nomination with statistics. Keep it to a manageable number. If you have a student‑athlete that has been three‑time all conference, it's a waste of space to write down each year and write down the same all‑conference accomplishment three different times where you could say three times all‑conference. Keeping that to a manageable number is going to allow you to put as much information as possible about your nominee. Don't bog down your nominations. Really take the time and put down the information that you are selling to the committee, you are selling to the voters, you are selling to everyone that is looking at this. You want to make sure that you have the information that is going to put your candidate in the best light and move him or her from the district ballot to the national ballot and hopefully to the Academic All‑America team. It's important to realize that when the expansion of Academic All‑America Program over the last couple of years, we have doubled the number of student‑athletes that have been honored. It has gone roughly from 800 to 1600. The opportunities are certainly there at all divisions to have your student‑athletes earn this great honor. So make sure that the information you're putting down is the information that the committee will look at and will put your candidate in the best light. It's important to do two things when you talk about multiple honors for nominations. Don't overstate them. As I said before, with being able to edit it and condense it to three‑time all‑conference, things along that line, but don't understate it. If you have a student‑athlete that was on the Dean's list, he or she has been on the Dean's list all seven semesters, make sure that's there. Those are important things to realize. If it's been every semester that the nominee has been at your institution, then those are the things that the committee is looking for. One thing I can't stress enough to you about your nomination process is that the Academic All‑America Program, the tagline is trademarked and is only used with CoSIDA and Capital One at the collegiate level. If you're referring to a coach's association's all‑academic team in your nomination, make sure that it says all‑academic, scholar, whatever the name is. In past years we've had situations where nominations have come across, whether it be in track and field, swimming, wrestling, other sports, where it will say Academic All‑America based upon information received from that coach's organization. The Academic All‑America Program, particularly our chair emeritus, is very careful, he is the caretaker of that from our end to make sure that trademark is protected and the terminology is used correctly. Keep in mind that Capital One is the only sanctioned level All‑America program at the collegiate level. That's important when you're nominating because that is something that voters look at, as well. ANDY SEELEY: We have three questions that have come in. The first one, Should SIDs treat this as a season or career award? Shouldn't it just be noted in the release if people are selected for a second time? JIM SEAVEY: In terms of that, it's vital, it's extremely important that if a student‑athlete is being recognized and nominated for an Academic All‑America for a second or third time, that that information be presented to the committee. The answer to the question is both. It's both a career and a yearly award. If you have prior accomplishments that one of your student‑athletes has attained this honor, is being nominated for it again, it's absolutely crucial that the voters be able to see that information when they're making their decision. There have been instances where there have been Academic All‑Americas selected in one year and not in others. That goes to the part of, Is it yearly or career? It's somewhere in between. The more information you have on that the better. If your student‑athlete was an Academic All‑America or Academic All‑District in prior years, then absolutely it should be part of that. I guess the answer to your question is that it's somewhere in the middle. The more information you have on that from past accomplishments, the better. ANDY SEELEY: What are the best ways to go about nominating multi‑sport athletes with a worthy nomination in each sport? JIM SEAVEY: I'm not sure if the question is dealing with the at‑large program because soccer would have its own program. ANDY SEELEY: I think they're asking about athletes that are multi‑sport athletes. My guess is, it sounds like there's something about when you have somebody who is worthy in two sports, is there a way to nominate them in both sports? JIM SEAVEY: Absolutely. The example you set forth with soccer and lacrosse, in soccer you would be able to nominate your student‑athlete for the soccer Academic All‑America Program in the fall. You'd be able to nominate that same student‑athlete for the lacrosse program in the spring. Keep in mind, if your student‑athlete is fortunate to be selected to the Academic All‑District, All‑America team, make sure that information is on the ballot for your nomination for lacrosse, as well. Obviously student‑athletes that are excelling as a two‑sport or three‑sport athlete, excelling in the classroom, excelling in athletic competition, that is something that the voters would definitely take a look at. So, yes, you're absolutely able to nominate that student‑athlete in both programs. ANDY SEELEY: One more question. Our soccer captain is injured this season but meets all the other qualifications and was nominated last year. If they are currently not active, are they still eligible to be nominated? JIM SEAVEY: Unfortunately, from an injury standpoint, there are minimums for number of competitions that a student‑athlete must have played or appeared in, both as a starter or a significant contributor. It's unfortunate because I've actually had student‑athletes that meet the requirements, but the only requirement they didn't meet was the number of competitions or games that they had played in because of injury or other ailments. So, unfortunately, unless they meet that minimum standard of competition, they wouldn't be able to be nominated this particular year for Academic All‑America. ANDY SEELEY: One more question. What sports are included with the at‑large category and is there a limit per school? JIM SEAVEY: The limit actually went up to four. Used to be three per institution, now it's four. The at‑large category would include men's and women's lacrosse, field hockey. It's important to note, Andy, that the Academic All‑America Program mirrors those championship sports that are sponsored specifically by the NCAA. In the at‑large program, it would be programs like lacrosse, field hockey, wrestling, fencing, men's and women's swimming, men's and women's tennis. I'm trying to do this off the top of my head. Men's and women's golf. But there are other sports that we've been questioned on over the years, like equestrian is unfortunately not an NCAA championship sport. Any of the at‑large, we broke out volleyball a couple years ago‑‑ I'm sorry, track and field and cross‑country separately. The list of all that information is contained at the nomination page at CoSIDA.com. I'm sorry I don't have that in front of me. All those sports are listed on the nominations page. ANDY SEELEY: A follow‑up question. Is it a four per gender at‑large? JIM SEAVEY: Yes. Four per gender per institution. ANDY SEELEY: That's all the questions we have at this point. If you want to go back into your presentation, we'll keep an eye out for other questions. JIM SEAVEY: A couple of other quick things over the do's and don'ts. With editing, make sure you're abbreviating wherever possible. If you play in a conference that has a very long name, come up with an acronym for it so that you can save the space on your nomination form. Make sure that you highlight your major athletic and major academic awards. A Dean's list is a great academic achievement, but there may be other academic accolades that your nominee has attained that you want to present to the voters prior. Make sure you highlight the major athletic awards, whether it's player of the year, all‑conference, whatever, like if you have a previous All‑America citation, something along those lines. Make sure those major honors are highlighted first. If there is room in your nomination form, if you have any interesting human interest facts about your nominee, whether it's community service, an internship, an academic venture, an athletic venture, whether they're a member of your SAC, been involved in community projects. We've had student‑athletes before that have been nominated that during the summer they've been part of major training programs at NASA or things along that line. Those are important things to put in the nomination. It's a matter of sitting down and prioritizing what you think the most important facets of your nominee are before you sit down and put that into 500 characters. If your student‑athlete has been part of a national championship team or a conference championship team, is a career leader in your respective sport, make sure that's in there because that shows, demonstrates that your nominee has been a key part of your team and program over the course of his or her career. If you have any questions at any time regarding the program, we are here to help. If you have a question of the nomination process, if you have a question about how many Academic All‑Americas your school has had, and that will lead into my next point about the Hall of Fame, the websites are a great resource, but don't hesitate to pick up the phone. You can contact any of us. The committee list is part of the PDF handout that was sent out prior to this call. So please feel free and take advantage of it. If you have any questions at any time, don't hesitate to contact any of us. ANDY SEELEY: We have another question. At our school we have lacrosse, which technically is not an NAIA sport, but for us is a varsity sport. We compete against other varsity and club programs. Are those student‑athletes eligible in the at‑large category for our school? JIM SEAVEY: That is a very good question. I believe the answer, unfortunately, is no, because it is primarily competition against club sports. The Academic All‑America Program is based primarily on the NCAA championship sports that are sponsored throughout the year. I don't believe club competition, unfortunately, would go into that. I will double‑check that and see if I can email that to everybody. Sounds like you primarily compete against club competition, the student‑athlete unfortunately wouldn't be eligible for Academic All‑America. ANDY SEELEY: We may need to look into that. I know in his question, he did say they compete against both varsity and club programs. JIM SEAVEY: It's a great question, Andy. I don't know if it's one that's come up before. I believe it's because of the club participation, but I will get the definitive answer and get that emailed to the membership. ANDY SEELEY: Another question. Last year we had a 3.8 basketball player who was the top shooter on the team, second leading rebounder, male scholar athlete at our school, had to sit out seven games. CoSIDA asks for nominations early in mid January for basketball. Is this going to be pushed back considerably this year? If somebody had to sit out early in the season, their nomination may not be as glowing as another one. What is your take on that? JIM SEAVEY: Well, unfortunately in that situation, it's unfortunate with the rule that student‑athlete would have to sit out. I'm familiar with the international rule on that. The deadlines are not going to change. They are published and set. The reason that is, is that we in our agreement with Capital One, we are bound to a certain timeframe in terms of voting and releasing the teams to coincide with respective championship seasons. The nomination deadline for basketball this year is January 14th, so that's not a change from last year. Unfortunately the student‑athlete in question, if the student‑athlete has eligibility remaining, I'm not sure if that student‑athlete is still in school or has graduated, by all means would be an excellent candidate this year. But the deadlines are already set and they're not going to be any earlier than they were this year. It's unfortunate from that standpoint, but that's just the way it's set. It's certainly something we can look at. There are things that come up. There have been rule changes that have come up, as everyone knows, trying to keep up with the landscape of college athletics. That's certainly something we can take a look at as a committee going forward. ANDY SEELEY: In that case, that student‑athlete would still be eligible to be nominated, their nomination form just might not be able to be fully complete as they missed some games, is that correct? JIM SEAVEY: That is correct. As long as they meet the minimum number of competitions either as a starter or significant contributor reserve, they would still be able to be nominated. Unfortunately, that student‑athlete wouldn't have the benefit of being able to play in those seven games in order to have his or her athletic information be part of the nomination. ANDY SEELEY: One more question. Would a sophomore athlete that is a 17‑year‑old and began college at 16 be one of those 'human interest type items' for a nominee? JIM SEAVEY: Absolutely. As long as the student‑athlete is in his or her third semester of matriculation at your institution, absolutely, that's a great human interest story. Definitely not my kid, I can tell you that (laughter). ANDY SEELEY: Let's move forward then. You can move into the Hall of Fame. JIM SEAVEY: The fourth PDF part of this presentation today was an excellent how‑to presentation done by Roger Horne of Pepperdine University. Last June at the CoSIDA convention in Orlando, we were honored to welcome Dr. Terry Schroeder, who is the head men's water polo coach at Pepperdine and was coach of Team USA. Terry was our honorary inductee into the Hall of Fame. Roger did a tremendous job of putting together Terry's nomination for the committee's consideration. The nomination process opened two weeks ago for the 2014 induction of the Capital One Academic All‑America Hall of Fame. Any of you who have been able to attend the event at CoSIDA over the last few years or have attended in the past know that it is an absolutely electric evening. Not only do we have the induction of the Hall of Famers, we also have the presentation of Dick Enberg Award. We've been privileged the last couple of years that Dick has been able to be in attendance to present the award. I would encourage you to read through Terry's nomination. The link is open. If you have any questions on that specifically, you can contact Mark Fleming at Moravian College. Mark has done a tremendous job in getting that together. Trust me, if you could ever see the book of the final 25 nominees that we go through every year, the volumes of information that Mark goes through, it's just amazing the nominees that come in. If you have a chance, please visit CoSIDA.com. A complete list of all the honorees. It's basically a who is who of college athletics, professional athletics, people that have gone on to do amazing things in their communities and throughout the world. It also contains a list of the Enberg Award winners. If you have a nominee for the Dick Enberg Award, submit that as well. You can send it to my attention. I coordinate that award from the committee standpoint. Please feel free to send it to me. Last year's recipient was Mike Krzyzewski.  The list of people we've honored, it's mind‑boggling when you look at that list. Please take a look at that. Remember, this honor is something that institutions and certainly your athletic administrators, your president, your alumni take great pride in and take seriously. There have been institutions, I would use Bucknell, MIT, as prime examples where they have built wings in their athletic complexes to honor the number of Academic All‑Americas they've had. I can tell you specifically, Massachusetts Maritime had its first Academic All‑America for the first time in 30 years. That was a major news item on our campus. The impact that it has on your program and on your institution is priceless. I thank you on behalf of the entire Academic All‑America committee and Capital One for continuing to support the program. I look forward to another great year. If there are any other questions, we're at that half hour point, but hopefully this has helped anyone in the nominating process going forward. Like I said, if you have any questions at any time, feel free to pick up the phone and call me or anybody on the committee and we're happy to help you in any way we can. ANDY SEELEY: We have a couple questions. Do you have any advice as to how to better promote a student‑athlete who has a last name listed lower in the alphabet towards Z? JIM SEAVEY: Well, unfortunately outside of a name change, I don't know. I understand the question. I know unfortunately sometimes that happens. Again, taking the time to go through and really plan out your nomination. The best thing I could suggest on that is the old trick of getting the legal pad out, writing down the qualifications, the things that you want the voters to notice the most about your honoree, go through them, highlight them, put your nomination together. I can tell you this from 23 years of being on this committee, seeing truckloads of national ballots, the voting committee does a very meticulous job of going through each ballot. The at‑large ballot is about a six‑ or seven‑hour process to read through each nomination and make sure we're picking the best student‑athlete. Going through and making sure you're selling your nominee, whether the last name begins with A or Z, make sure you have all that information the voter needs to see is just a key. ANDY SEELEY: How can one get on the Academic All‑America committee? JIM SEAVEY: That is a great question. With the expansion of the program a couple years ago, we are always looking for new members to the committee. The best person to check with that is MarkBeckenbach at Ohio Wesleyan. Mark will get that to the committee on committees for assignment purposes. If there are no openings on the committee, Mark always keeps a list of those who have expressed interest and can put them either as alternates or if spots open up we can make assignments from there. That's a great question and I hope you take advantage of that to get involved. ANDY SEELEY: Another question. If I make a mistake on my nomination form, what's the best way to correct it? JIM SEAVEY: Best way to correct it is to notify your district coordinator of that specific sport as soon as you discover it. The district coordinator can get in contact with the members of our internal nominations team. Barb can assist from her end. Get that information to the district coordinator so that he or she can make the correction as soon as possible. ANDY SEELEY: Those are all the questions we have. Just want to say a big thank you to you for presenting this information. It's been very well‑received. A lot of great interaction today on the blog. We appreciate everybody that called in to listen and joined in on the blog. JIM SEAVEY: I appreciate it. I have one quick thing. I said I would give you the list of social media outlets that you can also use to help promote the program and your student‑athlete. You can follow us on Twitter, on Facebook. We have a YouTube page, as well, because it allows you to see the student‑athletes give their personal experiences, what it means to them to be a member of the Academic All‑America Program. The only way your student‑athletes can be Academic All‑Americas is if you nominate them. We want to continue to encourage everybody to be a part of this going forward. It's a privilege to be able to talk to you all today. Best of luck during the season. ANDY SEELEY: Thank you very much again to Jim Seavey for presenting this information. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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