Records differed on Eric Bledsoe's Birmingham prep grades

Records differed on Eric Bledsoe's Birmingham prep grades

Published: Tuesday, September 14, 2010, 5:30 AM Updated: Tuesday, September 14, 2010, 7:00 AM
Jon Solomon -- The Birmingham News Jon Solomon -- The Birmingham News

Conflicting grades recorded on Eric Bledsoe's high school transcript and a night-school grade report from Parker High School call into question whether the basketball star should have been eligible to play his one year at the University of Kentucky.


Bledsoe's four-year transcript shows he made an A in Algebra 3 in night school as a senior by receiving a 90 during each of the two sessions. However, a grade report from those night sessions showed Bledsoe was recorded as making a C average, with a low C recorded in the first session and a low B recorded in the second.

By receiving an A in Algebra 3, Bledsoe barely qualified for initial eligibility in college, based on the standardized test score his former coach said Bledsoe made. The NCAA determines a player's eligibility through a sliding scale based on grade-point average in 16 core classes and an ACT or SAT score.

Former Parker coach Maurice Ford was quoted in a New York Times story in May as saying Bledsoe's sum ACT score was a 69. That meant Bledsoe needed to jump from a 1.75 core GPA in almost three years at Hayes High School to a 2.475 by the end of his high school career at Parker, his transcript shows.

Bledsoe ended with a 2.5 core GPA, according to his transcript, making him eligible for a one-and-done season at Kentucky. Bledsoe flourished as a freshman on the court, and his success story continued with his first-round selection in the NBA Draft in June.

If Bledsoe had received a C in Algebra 3, as was recorded in the grade report, his core GPA would have been 2.375, according to his transcript. Even a B in the class would have left Bledsoe short of qualifying, at 2.4375.

In a telephone conversation with The Birmingham News, the Algebra 3 teacher, Larry Webster, said the final course grade recorded on the night-school grade report is wrong. "You've got the wrong grade. There are two of those printout sheets. I already talked to the (school) board attorney." He said he wouldn't comment further and hung up.

At the request of the Alabama High School Athletic Association (AHSAA), the Birmingham school system hired outside attorneys to investigate Bledsoe's academic records at Hayes and Parker compared to his final transcript. A school system attorney said on Sept. 3 the report is expected soon.

NCAA visit

The NCAA visited Birmingham in February, asking questions about Bledsoe's academic history and residency in Birmingham. Birmingham school system officials have said they elected not to cooperate with the NCAA, instead referring the NCAA to the AHSAA.

Since media reports came out on May 28, Kentucky has stressed that the NCAA Eligibility Center cleared Bledsoe last year during its basic eligibility review and after a more extensive follow-up review. The NCAA can retroactively declare a player ineligible based on new information. The eligibility center has fewer than 55 employees to evaluate about 90,000 transcripts for initial enrollment.

Efforts to reach Bledsoe for comment, including through his mother and his attorney, were unsuccessful. A Kentucky spokesman said the school had no further comment.

Ford declined to comment for this article and referred questions to his lawyer, Reginald McDaniel.

McDaniel said he checked with a "reliable source" and found no discrepancy between Bledsoe's night-school grade report and his transcript. McDaniel would not elaborate on how he knows there is no discrepancy.

Even if there were a conflict with grades, "Maurice is not an instructor so that would not involve Maurice Ford in any way, shape or form," McDaniel said. "He's just the basketball coach. I know Maurice doesn't have the power or authority to change grades."

Raquel Williams, Parker's night-school principal during the semester Bledsoe took the class, declined to comment.

Parker guidance counselor Susan Parks, who is listed as the high school's primary eligibility contact with the NCAA, also declined to comment on why two documents showed different Algebra 3 grades recorded for Bledsoe.

"I can't answer that intelligently, because I'm not looking at the transcript and anything on the transcript is supposed to be confidential information," Parks said. "I don't feel well discussing that with you."

Joseph Martin, who was Parker's principal when Bledsoe enrolled in the night-school course, said he never changed a grade for Bledsoe and couldn't speak to the conflicting recorded information because he never saw the transcript.

Martin was removed as principal in December 2008 when an audit revealed money was missing at the school. Auditors in February said Martin still owes the school system more than $17,000.

"I wouldn't have any reason to look at it (the transcript), and when grades were posted, I was long gone," said Martin, now retired from teaching and working at a local youth recreation center. "Grades don't go out until about the second week in January, so I wouldn't know."

Allen Lewis, who became the interim principal at Parker in January 2009 after Martin left, said the first-semester grades were finalized before he arrived. Lewis said he made no grade changes and does not know why different grades were recorded on the transcript and the night school report.

The News has not seen the Algebra 3 grade book that Webster, the teacher, maintained of individual assignment grades during the course.

Classes out of sequence

Bledsoe's transcript shows that he got his 90 in Algebra 3 during the first semester of his senior year, prior to taking Algebra 2 during the second semester. Bledsoe also received an A in Algebra 2. Before Bledsoe came to Parker, the highest grade he received in high school math was a C, according to the transcript.

Asked whether it is common for students to take Algebra 2 and 3 out of sequence, Martin responded: "It isn't normal for a person to do that or be allowed to do that. Had I looked at his transcript, I wouldn't have allowed him to do that. By the time he got to us, I guess what we had to do ..."

Martin paused before continuing: "Well, I ain't even going there with that. I'm going to my grave with that."

Bledsoe's transcript shows a significant academic turnaround between Hayes and Parker. According to the transcript, he had a 1.75 core GPA when he left Hayes late in his junior year and produced a core GPA of 3.0 at Parker.

"If you had a chance to go to a Division I school, wouldn't you work a little harder in the classroom?" McDaniel said.

With the exception of a B in English 10 at Woodlawn's summer school to make up for a failing grade, Bledsoe did not receive a grade higher than a C in any core class before Parker. He received an A or B in seven of his 10 core classes while attending Parker, according to the transcript.

"That is a pretty big jump," Martin said. "I've seen it done before ... I was not close enough to Eric along the way to determine whether he would be able to do that or not."

Parks, the Parker guidance counselor, said such a jump is possible depending on the student. She described Bledsoe as an "average" student who needed an "extra push" and received assistance from herself, Ford, teachers and the principal.

"We kept a close eye on him," Parks said. "We knew that he was an inner-city student that just needed more guidance and that's what we did. Put his foot to the fire."

Programs banned

Bledsoe replaced a D in biology from his sophomore year at Hayes with an A as a senior at Parker through Brigham Young University's Independent Study course. At the time, the NCAA accepted credits from the online program.

As of Aug. 1, the NCAA banned athletes from using the BYU and American School online programs for high school credit to beef up their grades in core classes. A new NCAA rule requires "regular access and interaction" between teachers and students in the 16 core courses required for initial eligibility.

In the best-selling book "The Blind Side," former Ole Miss football player Michael Oher replaced several F's in high school English by taking BYU "Character Education" courses. Oher was required to read only a few brief passages from famous works and answer five questions. The book described BYU's program as "the great Mormon grade-grab."

BYU has placed tighter controls on the tests it administers and has prohibited current college athletes from enrolling in online courses, a school spokesman told The Salt Lake Tribune in May.

Bledsoe arrived at Parker with a month left in his junior year, according to Martin, who said he and Ford were unaware that the player had enrolled until a couple days passed. Martin said Ford looked at Bledsoe's transcript from Hayes and had a counselor evaluate it to determine what courses he needed to make up to attend college.

"He's done that for numerous kids," Martin said. "That's the kind of person he is."

Lewis, the principal who followed Martin, said he had doubts at the time about the extent of Bledsoe's academic improvement in such a short period after coming from Hayes, and about Bledsoe's eligibility at Hayes. Lewis said he never expressed his concerns to anyone because he had no evidence of any impropriety.

"If his score was that low at Hayes, how was he playing the three years before he got at Parker?" he said. "I didn't understand. I can understand if a kid plays for three years and did well and if he transfers somewhere else. But if he had a horrible record at the place he left, something is wrong to me, you know?"

Based on his transcript, Bledsoe was academically eligible to play every year in high school under AHSAA rules. Martin said Bledsoe was able to juggle basketball and his classroom efforts to reach NCAA eligibility.

Bledsoe's transcript shows he took the two sessions of Algebra 3 in night school during the first semester of his senior year. Lewis said each night school session usually was three days a week, from about 4:30 to 8 p.m., over nine weeks.

Martin said he is not certain the exact dates Bledsoe attended night school that year, adding it was possible Bledsoe took one session early in the fall and another in the spring after basketball season, the latter of which would have been second semester.

Even if night school overlapped with the season, Martin said, Ford always held early-afternoon practices, meaning Bledsoe would have attended class afterward.

"There was no doubt he had to be in those classes," Martin said. "That was one of the stipulations I put on it and so did Ford. I said, 'Make sure he's on time.'"

The New York Times previously reported that Ford said he would not provide a copy of Bledsoe's transcript to colleges as he blossomed into an elite player. Ford told The Times it was his policy not to distribute his players' transcripts unless the player was about to go on an official visit, which requires a copy of the transcript.

This makes me more nervous than waiting on Kanter's eligibility. How does someone take Algebra 3 before Algebra 2 anyway? I sure hope this doesn't mean we'll have to vacate this past season. I think it's dead wrong the NCAA has that right to retroactively disqualify an athlete and punish any university for playing him. But we all know the NCAA plays under a different set of rules.

agent 00 wrote:This makes me more nervous than waiting on Kanter's eligibility. How does someone take Algebra 3 before Algebra 2 anyway? I sure hope this doesn't mean we'll have to vacate this past season. I think it's dead wrong the NCAA has that right to retroactively disqualify an athlete and punish any university for playing him. But we all know the NCAA plays under a different set of rules.

They make their own rules as they go. As I said before, they complain about being under-staffed. With the millions, prolly billions, they bring in, they could up their staff. It was dead wrong what they did to Memphis. Double-jeopardy doesn't exist in the legal system, and should not exist in the NCAA.

They sure do make their own rules as they go along and like you said, if double jeopardy isn't legal in the courts, then it shouldn't be for the NCAA.

Logic scares the NCAA.

UK Maine-Iac wrote:Logic scares the NCAA.

logic doesn't scare the NCAA because they don't know what logic is.