South Alabama's kicker lands on NCAA bowl eligibility committee
South Alabama kicker Aleem Sunanon is the lone student on an NCAA committee tasked with deciding what record is deemed bowl worthy.
Sunanon, who graduated in December with a bachelor's degree in professional health sciences and is currently working on his master's in public administration with a concentration in health care, is working with college football powers like Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby, Arizona State athletic director Ray Anderson, Nebraska coach Mike Riley and other in a effort to determine how the threshold for bowl eligibility is determined.
That threshold has been at least a 6-6 record, but last season there were more bowl games than teams available. So college football went to Plan B, which meant 5-7 teams with the highest APR scores earned a chance to play in the postseason.
Sunanon, who values both academics and rewards for a non-losing season, thinks 6-6 should be the standard.
"When I look at it, I believe that these 6-6 teams should be the bottom line because you don't want to be rewarded for a losing season," he told ESPN.com. "That's what I felt strongly about because you should get a reward for being a successful team, but at the same time — because we were one of the 5-7 teams but apparently our APR wasn't up to par with all of the other schools that had a much higher rate than us -- but I believe that academics should hold a stronger part.
"I feel like if you put a little bit more emphasis on the academic portion of it you'll see a lot more success, whether it's GPA or the graduation rate, whatever it is."
Sunanon has been on both sides of the threshold.
In 2014, he was on the South Alabama team that went 6-6 and earned the school’s first-ever bowl berth in the Raycom Media Camellia Bowl. Last year, South Alabama went 5-7 and was left out because it wasn’t among the programs with the highest APR scores.
Many members of the working committee told ESPN.com they believe the voice of the student-athlete is important, especially one that makes the “student” aspect a priority.
The group will meet in June and hopes to have a solution for bowl game eligibility moving forward.
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Graham Watson is the editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at dr.saturday@ymail.com or follow her on Twitter! Follow @YahooDrSaturday
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