what do you do to improve academics?

Frankly, I've come to stop believing in study hall. We do it, but it's mostly inertia and because parents want to hear it, but I've looked and found no evidence supporting it. It's a hassle, kids who are going to study will study, kids who won't will screw around. Maybe helps a little but I doubt you could really show any effect size.

What helps most is being on top of the kids who won't study on their own, and making it clear that you will help them as much as they help themselves. I've spent a lot of time teaching calculus and orgo and editing papers, but they have to come to me and show that they made an effort.

If y u have some kind of eligibility rule you can make the solid point that no matter how strong or fast they are they won't play if they're not eligible, so the priorities should be pretty clear. Especially with the kids that like to talk about "grinding." I usually hit them with something like "you're not 'grinding' in the gym, you're having fun. You're doing the thing you're good at because you were born s genetically gifted athlete. 'Grinding' is doing the stuff you need to do when it's not fun and it's not easy. For you that means doing your homework."

If they're known to skip class I've made them text me a selfie with their prof.

Seriously. Don't play them. It's amazing how motivated they become.

homework, homework, homework!!! If a guy does his homework, he gets the points in class for doing the homework, it shows the teacher that he is trying, and "gasp" he actually learns the material. the way i focused on this was two fold. first i had the players fill out a homework log(they have to write down the assignment and when it is due) All the teacher has to do is initial that the student wrote the assignment down correctly. Then the student brings the completed assignment and his log to a coach every morning. If the homework isn't completed, that player does not get to work out that day. you do no good for the team if you are ineligible. The kids hate not being allowed to work out! they hate it. i make a big deal about how they are letting the team down by not working out, and that other guys are getting better and will take their job. i'm not worrying as much about playing time as these habits have to be developed in the offseason.

This seems like a good idea. At my high school homework isn't graded? Many of our departments do this but the biggest one is math. The kids get hours of homework a night, it counts for nothing, so they don't do it. Now they fail the tests because they didn't prepare, but being 15-17 year olds they lack the ability to see long-term consequences.

Your log idea may give them at least some level of accountability for doing that work.

It hasn't. Some kids are going to be motivated by playing on a team and playing time. Some won't. And when I say "not play them" I mean they don't dress or participate in any team activities. I'm working in Charter School Land now so we have some better tools and systems for monitoring grades and academic support than your typical high school. 

We talk about grades and have GPA Goals. We implemented a study hall on Thursday. I did weekly grade checks all year long. Then at the end of each quarter I sent out post cards to all the boys who made the honor roll with the Smarties candy. Corny but it shows effort on my part and it's funny. To the kids failing classes I send them a different letter.

Can you get a couple of volunteer tutors for study hall, and then be active about making sure they're working? Require them to do homework in study hall, and walk around and check it while they're in there. Do grade checks, and anyone struggling HAS to meet with the tutor in study hall once a week or whatever. There still may be kids who screw around, but you'll get a few of them to do work they otherwise wouldn't have done.

College basketball, we had a mandatory study hall. It did give an opportunity for some of us to do some work in a quiet library vs. the noise and distractions of a dorm. Plenty of guys using it as nap time as well. However, as freshman we had a mandatory weekly appointment in the writing lab that was basically a forced tutoring session. That was HUGELY beneficial. You couldn't screw off, the tutors were all over you. So I'm thinking something like that as part of a study hall might make it that much better.

The problem is when you dangle something in front of them, it's not necessarily in their minds at the time they need to be doing the work. That's not going to stop the procrastinators. You want to figure out how to get them to do the work when they have the time. Pretty much forcing them to open the book and take out their work will capture that many more kids who just need that kick in the ass not to "do it later".

We do weekly grade checks on Monday. They aren't eligible to play that week if they have any Fs or their GPA is below a 2.0. They still have to attend practice that week: they are not allowed to skip to make up work. They can come in before school to get their stuff done. That is essentially "study hall". This has been the most effective way to hold the kids accountable.

In my HC gig, kids that were failing classes had to miss practice for a mandatory study hall after school, as per the athletic handbook. This p-ssed me off to no end because these absences couldn't be counted as unexcused so the kids were still eligible to play that week. They didn't do their work in school, practices were f-ed if enough were failing, and I had parents all over me when I benched them for missing practice.

"YOU CAN'T BENCH THEM FOR TRYING TO GET THEIR GRADES UP! GRADES COME FIRST!"

The mindset is if they NEED study hall they wouldn't be much use to you on Friday if they didn't go after school cause they'd be ineligible. If they go early on they can get in a groove where they don't always have to go as the season gets going.

Plus they do come to practice as soon as they finish the assignment.

Ironically if those parents helped the kids enough at home they wouldn't need to go to study hall haha

Don't intend to sound lazy or uncaring here, but had a three-decade stint as a HFC/AD and never had a study hall nor went too far out of our way to worry about grades. Now, we did visit with faculty members and we would get online to check the grades of our kids and we'd visit with those having difficulty but I always thought that any kid who cared so little about his "career" and/or his teammates that he would not do his homework or study for a test, etc deserved to fail... HS kids need to grow up at some point.
We held their hands at times but I'll be danged if I'm going to spend any time in season sitting in a study hall prodding teenagers to do their schoolwork.
Never had any real issues with players bring ineligible, either.

There needs to be some sort of positive or negative reinforcement/punishment. Its simple classical conditioning. The problem with Quarterly Eligible/Ineligible is that the kids get to keep practicing bad habits such as not studying, doing their homework, sleeping through classes etc.

Some kids just hate school work, I know I certainly did. But habits need to be taught and reinforced. That is why I feel the ticket into the weight room idea is a good one. It immediately gives the kid feedback that if you want to do A you need to do B. It starts to instill good habits.

You can say if you dont do all the things you need to do in all your classes then sometime in October there is going to be consequences but it is too late by then and the damage has been done.
Little steps such as Allowing them to weightlift, taking away reps, rewarding them with something weekly if not daily is the way to go IMO.

Praise grades openly. Recognize students that have all A's and B's. Reward those students with good grades, by either allowing them to half of conditioning, or eat first at team meals, etc.

Sure. He's going to see me as quickly as I can get to him. If I'm not in class, I will go to his class as soon as I get the message and we'll have a come to Jesus meeting if needed. If I am, I will get to him at the first opportunity. If he can't straighten out his problems, we'll take further steps. If he needs help, we will get it for him. If he can't behave, we will let him decide if football means enough to him for him to do the right thing. Let me tell you, the last thing one of them wants is to to be doing the wrong  thing in class and have me show up at that class.

If I'm going to immediately correct things he's not doing right in practice or in games, then I need to pay the same immediate attention to what's going on in the classroom.