Matthew Will
Sports Media Staff
It is October, and we are quite far through the fall sporting seasons. Football is in full swing, but there is one major difference between who is running out of the tunnel this season. The usual Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference (KJCCC) roster included a majority of in-state talent, ready to prove themselves and make it to Division I ball in the coming years. That old way is gone and a new dawn has come for the conference.
On Oct. 20, 2016, the presidents of the KJCCC schools met at Butler Community College to discuss the future of the conference. In this meeting, Coffeyville Community College, Independence Community College, Dodge City Community College and Garden City Community College all threatened to leave the conference if things weren’t changed. These four schools make up half of the current KJCCC in football, currently an eight-team conference.
“The No. 1 goal was to keep the conference together,” Pratt Community College President Mike Calvert said.
Conference Commissioner Bryce Roderick is excited for the future of the conference and the effect the new rules will have on everyone.
In order to keep these schools in the conference, and keep tempers at bay, the KJCCC voted in two new conference bylaws. The first one has already taken effect, especially in football. Beginning this current school year, the KJCCC will follow the National Junior College Athletic Association’s (NJCAA) roster limits. This ultimately removes the KJCCC’s out-of-state and roster size limitations.
Therefore, if you want the talent in-state, you take it. If you want out-of-state talent, you go for that. Previously in football, you were allowed 63 players on scholarship, only 20 from outside Kansas. Now, the amount is raised to 85 players on scholarship, with no limit on out-of-state.
After this change, the 2017 KJCCC football rosters had 104 student-athletes from Kansas, compared to last season’s 317. That’s 16.4 percent of players from Kansas on KJCCC rosters, last year, it was about 66.2 percent of players.
The best kids will play,” Garden City Head Coach Jeff Sims said at KJCCC media day. “If a Kansas kid is good enough, he’ll be seen.”
The changes also affect Butler and their football program.
“Sure, we want in-state kids,” Butler Head Coach Tim Shaffner said. “You have to make a decision, which is best for your programs.”
The decisions have been met with a lot of negative reactions. Kansas High School coaches haven’t been too on board with the decisions.
“I think it’s unfair,” former Wichita South High School Head Coach Kevin Steiner said. “Hutch goes out and got a lot of out-of-staters, but still wants our kids to come to their summer camps…it’s just not fair.”
The overall reaction to the new rules have been quite negative, especially at the high school level.
“I’m personally not a fan of it,” Wichita East High School Head Coach Bill Coffman said. “It had a negative efect on a lot of Kansas football players this past year, especially mine.”
Former President of Dodge City and Coffeyville Community Colleges, Don Woodburn, explained a bit why these changes were made.
“You have to understand that schools like Butler and Hutchinson were sitting in the perfect location to recruit the best Kansas talent out of Wichita,” Woodburn said. “Where schools like Coffeyville don’t have much of a chance because those kids don’t want to be that far away from home.”
The second bylaw enacted will begin at the beginning of the 2018-19 academic year, allowing full-ride scholarships to Division I sports. This will affect rosters also, as it might sway students to attend the school offering the scholarship. The money from said scholarships will be given from donors and private donations.
There are still a lot of questions up in the air. How will this affect the competitiveness of the conference? How will this affect Kansas high schoolers who are striving to play at the next level? Only time will tell at this point. Butler has taken these rules and used them to their advantage, but also continues using in-state talent. The conference should still be competitive, the battles for players will be fierce, but one thing remains, the KJCCC remains intact, for now.
