Monday, June 14, 2010
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
11
Dorsey denied admission to the U'
Five-star recruit
signed papers that
released him from
Letter of Intent
By MARK BURNS
Daily SportsEditor
"You have to look at the whole story
before you pass judgment on a young
man," Michigan football coach Rich
Rodriguez said after five-star recruit
and defensive back Demar Dorsey
signed with the Wolverines on Feb. 3,
2010. "Not everybody is perfect. Some-
times young people get in the wrong
situation at the wrong time, but they're
found innocent or they're acquitted. We
feel comfortable that every guy we sign
is going to be a great fir for not only the
football program but for this university
and our community."
"Every kid we recruit, we spend an
awful lot of time, probably more than
anything on character," offensive coor-
dinator Calvin Magee said at the time.
"Just like the other kids we recruited,
we saw a kid that has good character
and we had no problems with it."
From both statements, both Rodri-
guez and Magee believed Dorsey's
prior encounters with the law could
be overlooked - even though he was
charged with two felonies, a burglary
of an unoccupied dwelling in 2007
and a robbery with a deadly weapon
in 2008.
And despite Dorsey's non-con-
viction in both cases, the Office of
Admissions still refused to grant him
NEBRASKA
From Page 1
"I think it's a phenomenal fit, aca-
demically, athletically, culturally,"
Delany said of Nebraska in an inter-
view with the Big Ten Network.
It has been widely discussed that
the reason for expansion is to extend
the reach of the Big Ten Network and
generate even more money for new
and existing Big Ten schools.
With Nebraska, the Big Ten is
getting a Midwest, blue collar-type
school in the same mold as the Wis-
consins and the Iowas that are already
0 linchpins in the conference.
The move makes sense for Nebras-
ka, too.
"We're obviously not (located) in
the Sun Belt," Osborne said at a press
conference. "And we find some of our
sports at a disadvantage because of
admission into the University last
Wednesday.
Dorsey signed and returned docu-
ments that released him from his Let-
ter of Intent.
According to a statement posted by
the University's website shortly after
the announcement, "A Letter of Intent
is not a guarantee of admission, and
student-athletes are told they must
meet not just NCAA but also U-M
requirements. If student-athletes
meet NCAA eligibility requirements,
they are not automatically admitted
to the U-M."
Dorsey's high school coach at Boyd
Anderson, Mark James, was quoted by
ESPN.com last Monday saying Dorsey
had met NCAA requirements pertain-
ing to his ACT score and grade-point
average.
But while he may have academi-
cally qualified to attend Michigan, the
Office of Admissions has the final say
whether or not a student or student-
athlete is granted final admission to
the University.
The Statement on Admissions and
Student-Athletes continues by say-
ing, "All undergraduate admissions
decisions are based on the individu-
alized, holistic review of information
about each applicant that considers
academic achievements and his or her
potential to succeed, as well as many
additional variables such as essays,
letters of recommendation and other
factors.
"In the end, some student-athletes
who have received letters of intent are
not admitted and that has always been
the case."
Dorsey's father, Eddie Jackson,
that.
"Most young people who are golf-
ers or play tennis or play baseball or
play softball, sometimes even soccer,
would prefer to go someplace where
they can practice outside year-round
... So we would probably be having, in
comparison, more of apples to apples
(with Big Ten teams). It doesn't mean
that we can't compete (in the Big 12).
We can compete, but it's just more dif-
ficult."
With rumors flying that the Pac-10
Conference was looking at expanding
from its 10 teams by possibly taking up
to six Big 12 teams, the latter seemed
to be in turmoil and looked unstable.
The Big Ten had the security that
the Cornhuskers were longing for.
"Stability is something (that) when-
ever you can see it, you want to hold
onto it," Osborne said. "Because ath-
letics tends to be a very unstable pro-
fession. So we think the stability of
Michigan football recruit Demar Dorsey was not admitted to the University last week by the Office of Admissions.
expressed his disappointment in an
interview with the Detroit Free Press
last week.
"Anybody would be disappointed
if you're not going to the school you
hoped," Jackson said. "He's optimistic
to go to school ... He's your son - got
to try to keep your spirits up. You live
and you learn.
"You look at it sometimes, a lot of
things coming down hard on him
through his past. Through all that he
kept a good sprit. He's a strong-head-
ed kid."
And while there continues to be
the Big Ten is something we cannot
ignore at this time."
Whether or not the Big 12's
remaining teams will stay in the con-
ference is still up in the air. And with
the departure of the University of
Colorado for the Pac-10 days before
Nebraska announced its move, the
conference is already down to 10
teams.
Osborne and Nebraska don't see
it as their fault that they might be
jumping off a ship on the verge of
sinking.
"One school leaving a confer-
ence doesn't break up a conference,"
Osborne said. "Two schools leaving a
conference doesn't break up a confer-
ence.
"Six schools leaving breaks up a
conference."
Added Nebraska chancellor Harvey
Perlman: "I (asked Big 12 presidents),
'What if Nebraska stayed and Mis-
speculation about whether other
issues affected Dorsey's situation -
the lack of communication between
the coaching staff and the Office of
Admissions or the failure of Rodri-
guez to contact the University before
offering Dorsey a scholarship, for
example - there lies one certainty:
Dorsey will not be a Michigan Wol-
verine.
Without Dorsey in defensive
coordinator Greg Robinson's newly
designed 3-3-5 scheme, the Wolver-
ines won't have the ESPN-ranked No.
2 safety in the country.
souri left?' The response was that they
would stay. I said, 'What happens if
Nebraska stays and Colorado leaves,'
and the response was they would stay.
I said, 'What happens if both Missouri
and Colorado leave and Nebraska
stays?'
"And they could make no commit-
ment that they would then stay in the
Big 12."
Athletically, the changes are obvi-
ous - Nebraska provides another
team to round out the sporting sched-
ule and create new rivalries with. But
the move fits academically, too.
"The Big Ten is all members of the
(Association of American Universi-
ties), which is of considerable impor-
tance when you try and recruit faculty,
when you seek research grants, when
you do other things in the academic
environment," Perlman said. "The
Big Ten operates the Big Ten Net-
work. It will allow all Nebraskans to
And certainly the Lauderdale
Lakes, Florida native's top-end
speed would have helped Michigan's
defense overcome last season's 33.2
points per game.
A vast amount of schools recruited,.
Dorsey, including USC and Florida
as well as Miami (Fla.) and Florida
State, and it is still to be determined
where he will end up in the future.
Jackson told the Detroit Free
Press that Dorsey and family mem-
bers will discuss his future plans
over the next few days, and then go
from there.
see almost all of Nebraska's competi-
tive games - not just football, not just
men's basketball."
Nebraska is also a member of the
AAU.
Michigan could see the Cornhusk-
ers show up on its schedule in 2011 at
the earliest.
The two schools shared a Nation-
al Championship back in 1997 and
are among the winningest college
football programs of all time. It also
increases the Wolverines national
exposure as well.
From here, continued expansion of
the Big Ten is possible.
Many scenarios are still on the
table, with teams in the Big 12 and
Big East being linked to other confer-
ences.
But at least for now, Nebraska,
after 20 years and seven days, has
evened out the Big Ten once again -
this time at 12 teams.