Jordan’s Team Project Budget

My piece of the high school transfers team story, along with being the editor of the overall project, will be a profile on Grayson High School football coach Jeff Herron. Herron is a veteran coach in the state and is now in his 27th season as a head coach with his seventh different school in Georgia.

Herron has been what many consider to be the benefactor of the many transfers over the offseason, as his new Rams program had six players transferred. Herron was not hired by the school before these players entered the program, and he offered interesting thoughts on transfers, saying, “Being old-school, I long for days where you stayed at one school your whole life …”

I plan to talk about his experience in the state, if he’s ever seen the rate of transfers higher than it is now, how the transfers have affected his new program, and if he expects to see more and more transfers in the state from here on out. I would also like to talk to other coaches about Herron as one of the well-respected coaches in Georgia and how he fits into the whole transfer mess.

Jordan’s Personal Story Memo

There is a famous statistic in college football that since the Southeastern Conference created the SEC Championship Game in 1992, 21 of the 23 coaches who won it played for the title at least once in their first three seasons in the SEC.

With this thinking in mind, I want to explore the characteristics of high school football coaches in the state of Georgia who have made the state playoffs in the last five years and determine on average how long the coach has been at his school. While this is a lot of information, I know this will give me a large sample size to consider and that I have the resources to find these answers.

My main question is will this be a case like the SEC where a fairly new coach is often the one who can lead his team to success, or is longevity more likely to be the factor that helps a program reach the postseason? Also, how extreme are the coaches who stand out as the outliers among their peers?

Along with the main story that centers on digesting the statistics and hearing from some of these coaches and why this is happening, I will make an infographic both showing this information as well as coaches who fit the profile of the average Georgia high school coach in the playoffs. I also plan to do a sidebar on a coach who stands as an outlier, whether that be a coach who’s been at one team for many more years than his peers or someone brand new to his team.

Comparing Georgia State, Georgia Southern coaching salaries

Attached is a link to my infogram chart showing select football coaches at Georgia State and Georgia Southern.

FiveThirtyEight looks at the Texas Rangers

FiveThirtyEight had an interesting story last week about the Texas Rangers, who currently have the second-best record in Major League Baseball. The article takes a deep look into the team’s success winning one-run games and compares it to other teams throughout league history. After a close look at history, writer Rob Arthur laid out the reasoning why the team’s ability to win tight games doesn’t guarantee any sort of reliable winning pattern come this fall.

I believe this particular piece does a good job of illustrating its points through infographics and data. Specifically, I think the graph showing bullpen WAR and a team’s winning percentage in one-run games was a valuable one in proving a few points, namely 1) The Rangers’ bullpen is by no means the best in baseball and 2) What Texas has been able to do is a rarity. It also helps that it singles out the 2012 Baltimore Orioles, who had comparable numbers in both these categories and eventually ended up losing in the ALDS.

There are several aspects mentioned in the readings that were easy to pick out in Arthur’s story. With “Visualizing Trouble,” it specifically spelled out that data needs to show comparisons and differences, which was accomplished with the aforementioned infographic. The need to illustrate cause-and-effect described in this reading was also evident in Arthur’s story, as he later explained that the team’s lackluster bullpen is aided by the offense’s ability to come up clutch in big moments on a fairly consistent basis.

As pointed out in “Introduction: Infographics and Illustrations”, the chart concerning bullpen WAR and the Rangers’ winning percentage in one-run games is left open to be closely studied and scrutinized, especially considering there are so many plotted points on the map. It’s clear that Arthur wants the reader to focus on two particular points — the Rangers and ’12 Orioles — but provides enough information that the graph is nothing something quickly passed by.

Georgia State salaries

Looking at Georgia State football provided a very odd obstacle for me. For some reason, only head coach Trent Miles’ name popped up in the search on OpenGeorgia. To make sure I was looking the information up correctly, I searched the names of Kennesaw State assistants as well as a few Georgia assistants and found them.

In lieu of those other football coaches, I searched all the Georgia State coaches across the school’s sports. Below are the only 10 coaches that popped up.

Name	Position	Salary
Trent Miles	Head football coach	$25,000
Lyndsay Shosho	Assistant women's tennis coach	$600
Mackenzie Popescue	Assistant softball coach	$1,500
Jamie Davies	Assistant men's soccer coach	$1,237
Ricardo Page	Assistant women's track coach	$1,216
Jeri Porter	Head women's basketball coach	$4,881
Ronald Hunter	Head men's basketball coach	$25,000
Brett Ross	Head men's tennis coach	$3,000

Big 12 Conference

Big Twelve Conference Inc.	2015 report
Revenue broken down by type	---
Contributions and grants	$265,125
Program service revenue	$265,747,735
Investment income	$127,928
Other revenue	$1,614,495
Expenses broken down by type	---
Grants and similar amounts paid	$227,225,053
Benefits paid to or for members	$0
Salaries, other compensation, employee	$6,141,751
Professional fundraising fees	$0
Total fundraising expenses	$0
Other expenses	$24,620,001
Total expenses	$257,986,805
Distribution by members	$227,225,053
Salary of commissioner	$2,290,970
Highest paid employee	Bob Bowlsby, commissioner, $2,290,970
Second-highest paid employee	Tim Weiser, deputy commissioner, $259,892

High School Transfers Stories: Questions to Answer

Disconnect between coaches – Jordan

For the veteran coaches in the state, has there ever been an offseason like this one as far as the number of transfers?
Do the comments from some coaches against transfers stem more from emotion than logic?

How valuable can transferring be for extending a playing career/The repercussions academically for doing so – Emily, Chenault

Does transferring in high school correlate with transferring in college?
How does transferring affect graduation rates and/or GPA?
Are high school transfers more likely to go on to play in college? The NFL? Where do they go?

Texas and Florida case studies – Evan

What led to the current policy in place? How did it come about?
Have others reached out to them on a discover-type basis to see how they run things?
Was there any thought given to one based on the other? Did one policy come before the other?
Would there have to be any addendums made based on outlying factors in Georgia if it did adapt a similar policy?
What is the overall thought by those within these states on the effectiveness of the policies?

Academic implications on school for transfers – Alex, Morgan

Do schools have problems reinforcing the importance of academics to transfers?
How common is it for highly prestigious academic schools to bring in transfers?
How much more of a workload do teachers face when transfers join their class? Also, how does it affect the time committed to other students?

Personal stories of transfers and their families – Giambalvo

How often do players and their families cite academic reasons for transferring?
For those transferring to a school a significant distance away — how does this affect the parents’ jobs?
How often do players feel like switching schools directly resulted in better athletic performance and tangible positive outcomes, such as college scholarships? Do they consider leaving their old school (with familiar friends and teachers) worth it?
How do other siblings feel about making the move to a new school?

Stories of players replaced by transfers – Glenda, Bryan

How tempted are these players to subsequently transfer to another school?
Is the team chemistry significantly harmed on a team with several transfers (Ex: Grayson)?

Changing of GHSA rules over time – Ashleigh, Nicole

Which rules had the most revisions?
Were certain rules added because of instances that happened the year(s) before?
How different are today’s rules from 10, 20, and 30 years ago?
How strictly are the rules enforced across the state?

Individual Story Ideas

– Georgia high school football coaching contracts

A look across the landscape in Georgia high school football quickly reveals the value schools put in their programs being elite. Take Colquitt County, for example, who pays head coach Rush Propst over $122,000 each year to be the head coach of the Packers. While the rise in salaries could be high schools’ responses to top high school coaches leaving to work up the college football coaching ladder, that doesn’t excuse the imbalance between coaches contracts and teachers at the very same school. What are the repercussions of a school committing so much money to one coach who may not even teach a class, and are high contracts completely necessary to build consistent winners?

– Division II tennis

Generally speaking in college athletics, the difference between being competitive and being an afterthought shrinks as you move from the NCAA’s Division III up to Division I-A. That, however, is not exactly the case in Division II men’s tennis due to international players. Programs such as Division II Armstrong Atlantic in Augusta field rosters of nearly all foreign players, with many of the athletes having tried their hand at professional playing careers before giving it the old college try. The result is damaging to the American tennis scene, as many would-be college athletes understand playing at a level lower than Division I tennis still often means competition against Division I-esque talent each match. I want to look at the costs for certain schools in Georgia to recruit and bring in so many international players as well as if there has been blowback from young local players who are not good enough to play professionally or at Division I but don’t want to waste their time against much superior talent.
– Southwest DeKalb football

Southwest DeKalb High School suffered a tremendous tragedy under a month before its first football game when head coach and former Florida State player Michael Tanks suddenly had a stroke and died at the age of 48. Despite Tanks’ unexpected death, the team has gotten off to a 2-0 record under interim head coach Fletcher Salter, who had not been a head coach in the state since he was at McNair High School in 1996. I want to examine how the program has carried on after such a horrible loss with so little time before the season and how Salter has gotten the team to its best start to a season in nine years.
– FBS football scheduling

Appalachian State shocks No. 5 Michigan in the Big House. Georgia Southern embarrasses Florida in the Swamp. James Madison tops a Virginia Tech team that went on to win the ACC. The list of FCS teams losing to FBS squads goes on and on, but if some people in the sport had their way, the games would no longer happen. For some FCS teams, the money they make from these seemingly imbalanced matchups help the entire athletic department stay afloat. How damaging could taking these games away be for programs such as Savannah State, which lost to Florida State and Oklahoma State 139-0 for a cool $860,000 four years ago, and Division II teams, which often get run-off from playing games against FCS opponents?
– Georgia State football

One team’s trash can be another team’s treasure. Just ask Georgia State. The Atlanta Braves’ decision to leave Turner Field for brand-new SunTrust Park has largely overshadowed the future of Turner Field, which will be used by Georgia State football. For a program still trying to become consistent in the Sun Belt Conference, the team’s move from the Georgia Dome to its own stadium could be a step in the right direction. I want to dive into the school’s decision to pursue the purchase and how valuable it can be both in football as far as recruiting and proximity as well as for the school, which wants to essentially make it a southern extension to the school’s campus.

FBS Scheduling Practices Information

Looking at the college football schedule issues I discussed, there are three categories of questions I would have.

The first is questions on the FBS side, like how long these games have been going on and if they are more frequent now than ever before. The second question would be on the FCS side and would concern how valuable the money from these games is and if there is a trickle-down effect to Division II teams. The third category would be about the finances in general, such as if the money they give to teams is worthwhile in the end as well as how many times FCS teams have defeated FBS squads.

One story I found from the Savannah Morning News in 2012 was titled “SSU Reaps Rewards of Moneyball Matchups.” The story discusses FCS program Savannah State, which infamously scheduled games against Oklahoma State and Florida State for the sake of making money. It features interesting quotes from the school’s athletic director, who was quite surprised that the Tigers got so much attention. Unfortunately, I could not find an online version of the story, only the PDF I was able to download.

I also took interest in a 2014 story from the Miami Herald’s Jacob Feldman titled “Money and the College Football Landscape – Checkbooks and Balances.” This story reached out past just one single FCS school, instead looking at several different programs that have taken on these kinds of games. It also detailed the scheduling practices of Miami at the time.

On the odd non-conference games featuring conference games, there’s the store from The Herald-Sun’s Steve Wiseman “Duke wants to follow UNC, Wake Forest on football games.” The story details the information behind the deal between North Carolina and Wake Forest as well as the fact that Duke likes the precedent these two schools have created.

In the area of pro-FCS teams, The Daily Commercial’s Eric Olson had a story three years ago that discussed how the Big Ten would not penalize teams for still playing FCS schools. Along with quotes from commissioner Jim Delaney about his thoughts on playing FCS teams are really good quotes from coaches on the games, specifically then-Wisconsin head coach Gary Andersen, who was once the head coach at Southern Utah.

Another good story with a coach’s perspective was The Palm Beach Post’s titled “Fisher not looking down on FCS teams” from last November. This article focused on the thoughts of Florida State head coach Jimbo Fisher, who has been one of the activists for playing FCS teams. Considering his background as a former FCS quarterback, it’s interesting to see his opinions on the matter and how he’s determined to push for others to see the points he’s making.

My questions would be:

Is there a true trickle-down effect from FBS to Division II football programs?
How much would FCS teams who normally schedule FBS opponents suffer financially if not for these games?
Is playing FCS — or Division I-AA as they were once known — more prevalent today than ever before?
What is the average difference financially for FBS programs to schedule another FBS team rather than an FCS team?
What is the outlook of the four College Football Playoff teams from last year in regards to playing FCS programs?

Through the Archives: Pickens High teacher accused of sexually assaulting student

I struggled to find stories about Pickens High School in the time frame suggested, so I went with this story from 2010 about a PHS science teacher who was accused of sexual assault.

It was a surreal time when I was in ninth grade and this happened. Laura Lyles taught several of my friends, so there were a lot of questions about if anything had occurred with them. One person who was rumored to be involved was my mother’s best friend’s son, so that was an interesting situation to see play out from afar.

It was a situation that certainly made it hard for everyone to keep their attention at the work in front of them. Some made crude jokes, some were scared of being accused and others didn’t pay it any mind. What’s strange now is that I had completely forgotten about it until this assignment. In fact, it took several minutes for me to remember the teacher’s name.