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The USG (University System of GA) announced today a new policy governing walk-ons (someone who does not come through the normal channels to try out for a sports team, is not recruited, but simply walks onto the court or field and asks to be given a chance to make the team) for athletic teams system-wide. A walk-on may try out for a team only if they take and "pass" the same test most recently given to people who have tried out for each of the most recent U.S. Olympic Teams. The Regents approved without discussion the proposal drafted by their staff which was led by Dr. Barry Fullerton. We conducted an interview with Dr. Fullerton: AJC:
Why did the USG need a new policy for walk-ons?
Dr. Fullerton:
We don't want our coaches' valuable time wasted on kids who have no chance to make the grade, either in tryouts or later on. We're setting the bar higher to what's kind of like a "C" average for high school sports.
AJC:
Won't your coaches' time be used doing the testing?
Dr. Fullerton:
Oh, no! We've found a sports testing company to handle the testing for any walk-ons. The USG is not paying for any of the actual testing.
AJC:
If I understood you correctly, a person trying out for the basketball team at Dekalb College must pass not only the test in basketball, but also those for every other Olympic sport?
Dr. Fullerton:
That's right.
AJC:
But none of the USG schools even has all the Olympic Sports!
Dr. Fullerton:
Well, we don't have a way to completely duplicate the high school team sport environment for these kids to see how they would have done. This method, on which we worked for over two years, is the nearest approximation we could find.
AJC:
Wouldn't it be fairer to use some kind of average of the walk-on's scores rather than disqualifying over failure in even one type of sport?
Dr. Fullerton:
Well, we don't have a way to completely duplicate the high school team sport environment for these kids to see how they would have done. This method, on which we worked for over two years, is the nearest approximation we could find.
AJC:
Isn't that the very same answer you gave for my prior question?
Dr. Fullerton:
Next question, please.
AJC:
How were the passing scores determined?
Dr. Fullerton:
We recognized right away that it would not be fair to require as high a performance on these tests as achieved by those actually trying out for these U.S. Olympic Teams, so we assembled a panel of actual high school coaches to guess what scores their average team member back home would have made.
AJC:
Weren't you concerned that the coaches would be somewhat partisan in favor of the performance of their own teams? That they would expect better performance from them than they could actually deliver?
Dr. Fullerton:
Well, those coaches naturally were all very proud of their boys and girls, but I'm sure they were very objective - these are professionals, after all.
AJC:
I see.
Dr. Fullerton:
Anyway, we took the average of those guessed-at scores for each type of team. This placed the cutoff scores for most of the tests somewhere between the 50th and the 85th percentiles, depending on the type of team. As it turns out, the passing scores for each sport seemed a bit high, so we reduced each of them by an arbitrary amount, just to make them seem more fair. We used a fancy stastician's term for it. This placed the cutoff scores for most of the tests somewhere between, and I'm just guessing here, the 15th and the 50th percentiles, depending on the type of team.
AJC:
Could you explain about percentiles?
Dr. Fullerton:
Cetainly! If you are in the 30th percentile, it means that 30% of the test takers did worse than you. All the rest did better.
AJC:
So you're trying to pinpint where your "C" average player would fit among a bunch of Olympic hopefuls, and your results are suggesting the "C" average player would do better than many of the Olympic hopefuls?
Dr. Fullerton:
You're catching on. We may end up adjusting the scores again once we see how the program works in practice.
AJC:
So, what percentile would be given to the very worst Olympic hopeful for each test?
Dr. Fullerton:
The zeroth percentile, meaning that nobody did as poorly and everyone else did better.
AJC:
What kind of athlete bothers to try out for our U.S. Olympic Teams?
Dr. Fullerton:
Only the very, very best ones, of course!
AJC:
Even if you set your passing scores all the way down to the zeroth percentile, any walk-on for any of our USG teams would have to do better than the least among the "very, very best" athletes?
Dr. Fullerton:
That right.
AJC:
Wouldn't it also be true that very few, if any of the players who make your teams in the normal way could have gotten in this way?
Dr. Fullerton:
Yes, of course! What's your point?
AJC:
Thank you, Dr. Fullerton, for your time.
Dr. Fullerton:
You're very, very welcome!
AJC:
I don't think your coaches will lose any of their valuable time at all.
Dr. Fullerton:
Nor do I, nor do I.
This satire contributed by John Sewell.
For those of you who were completely lost, instead of sports think of admission into any of Georgia's state-run colleges. Instead of walk-ons, think of homeschoolers and any other students not coming from an accredited high school. Instead of the Olympics, think of the SAT IIs which are generally used by college prep. students to demonstrate knowledge in a chosen area of expertise. If you still don't get it, go check out HEIR's "University System of Georgia Admissions Issues" page.
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01/01/98 created
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