Last week on TSL Sports Talk, Kellen Winslow Sr., FAMU's Atheltic Director, former NFL player, and HOFer, joined us to talk HBCU athletics. TSL Sports Talk host, Mark Gray, opened up the discussion by asking Winslow how he dealt with inheriting a program that has been hit by the APR violation and how long it would take the Rattlers to be compliant and contending again.
Winslow:
"We are always contending. We're always going to be out there and be competitive and give the Rattler's nation everything that they're known for and proud of about Florida A&M University. How long before it takes us to fix the APR [Academic Progress Rating]? It depends on the level of investment we make as an academic institution and to our student athletes. And that process has already started. The one thing about APR, is that people need to understand that it takes time to catch up. The reporting takes a while. The efforts are moving in the right direction, but the calculations take time before you have success, success, success, before you move those numbers. You can't move those numbers in a short period of time; it takes more than two, three semesters before that happens. So, we're anticipating improvement, which we have had over our last report last year and this year we have been better. And as a matter of fact, the irony of it all, we're going to receive an award next week from the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) in Orlando, for the improvement of our APR [for] having one of the highest improvements of our APR, but yet we're still short of the standards set by the NCAA."
Listen to the full interview below to hear what Winslow has to say about FAMU athletics, whether or not FAMU would draw interest from prospective students and athletes based on its academic program alone, financial difficulties that many schools are facing these days and more.
TSL Sports Talk broadcasts live, every Thursday, 3-5PM. Follow us on twitter: @TSLSportsTalk or write us at: [email protected].
