Landry chooses McNeese State over La. Tech

[CSN Log]

Landry chooses McNeese State over La. Tech

The frustration of Alonzo Landry’s final year of high school football has proven to be to McNeese State’s benefit.
After an all-state junior campaign, the Carencro Golden Bears’ tailback endured a senior season plagued with illness and injury, not to mention the constant reminder that he wasn’t going to be academically eligible to sign with a Division I-A program in February.

So on Tuesday, he decided to go with his next-best option by verbally committing to the Division I-AA McNeese State Cowboys program.
Read more ... (http://www.championshipsubdivisionnews.com/?title=landry-choose-mcneese-state-over-la-tech&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1#more383)

[The Moody1]

"he wasn’t going to be academically eligible to sign with a Division I-A program in February."

I wasn't aware that there are different academic requirements to go to an FBS school vs an FCS school.

[McNeese_beat]

"he wasn’t going to be academically eligible to sign with a Division I-A program in February."

I wasn't aware that there are different academic requirements to go to an FBS school vs an FCS school.

It's a little deceiving. I think most BCS-level programs have a limit on the number of academic non-qualifiers they can carry. Thus, the common practice of "props" being placed at jucos then being brought back to the SEC, Big 12, etc. That's especially big in the SEC, where, in struggling academic states like Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas, you have large numbers of props.

In the case of Landry, his choice was to either sign with an SEC school, then get placed at a JC (that option was very much available to him) or go to a school in a conference that would more likely allow him to go to school and work his way into eligibility as a prop. He actually chose McNeese over Tech, which is a "I-A" (FBS) school.

[Syntax Error]

... He actually chose McNeese over Tech, which is a "I-A" (FBS) school.You mean of course that Tech is an FBS (formerly I-A) team. xnodx

[JohnStOnge]

He actually chose McNeese over Tech, which is a "I-A" (FBS) school.

His sig isn't on the line yet, but my fingers are crossed.

Also hope this turns out better than what happened with another Carencro player who's name escapes me right now. Anyway, I saw this guy have the most dominant performance I've ever seen a high school player have when Carencro came to my neck of the woods to play St. Amant in the high school playoffs. McNeese signed him in part, I think, because academic issues reduced his attraction to BCS league schools.

He never played at McNeese or, to my knowledge, anywhere after high school. Maybe his name was Theo Babineaux or something like that. Can't really remember. But, MAN, what a football player that guy was.

[McNeese_beat]

His sig isn't on the line yet, but my fingers are crossed.

Also hope this turns out better than what happened with another Carencro player who's name escapes me right now. Anyway, I saw this guy have the most dominant performance I've ever seen a high school player have when Carencro came to my neck of the woods to play St. Amant in the high school playoffs. McNeese signed him in part, I think, because academic issues reduced his attraction to BCS league schools.

He never played at McNeese or, to my knowledge, anywhere after high school. Maybe his name was Theo Babineaux or something like that. Can't really remember. But, MAN, what a football player that guy was.

Well, McNeese's track record with Carencro props has been mostly good with Lawrence, John Paul Jones and Garren Jim, to name 3. There may have been more.

That has to concern Carencro supporters that so many kids are props out of that school. It has to be a cultural thing and by that I mean the school culture among peers and not the Cajun culture in the "Cro" (even though that is the backbone of the school culture.

When I was at a very inner-city high school at LC-B in the mid-to-late 1980s, nobody propped in our school. My senior class had Marc Boutte (LSU), Keith Bilbo (NLU, now ULM) and John Randle (Southern) all sign to play football, Terrell Thompson (McNeese) for basketball, plus Gerard Semien (McNeese) in track. I may be forgetting someone. I know Aleisha Lilly was a heckuva girls basketball player, I just don't remember if she played anywhere. Every single one was eligible. But we were all in the same classes together, taking courses you needed for your core AND to give you the background you needed to score better on the ACT. The culture surrounding athletes at that school at that time encouraged that.

In some of these schools where very few are getting eligible, I'm wondering does that culture still exist? I have my doubts.