OT: Scientific ESPN Polling Reveals..."Recruits like money."
Recruits support athletes' stipends
http://espn.go.com/college-sports/recruiting/football/story/_/id/112407…
Dumbest poll ever, however, the real reason I am sharing is because there are some interesting comments on an early signing period which is much more interesting than ESPN asking 17-year olds if they'd want a check for playing football.
2014 Recruiting Survey
ESPN.com conducted a survey with the top 300 2015 football recruits. Here's a sample of some of their thoughts on many issues facing recruits and college athletes.
| Topic | Yes | No |
|---|---|---|
| Should players be allowed to unionize? | 60% | 40% |
| Should players receive a stipend? | 86.4% | 13.6% |
| For an early signing period? | 58% | 42% |
| Should scholarship offers have expiration dates? | 8.7% | 91.3% |
| Should there be noncommittable offers? | 11.7% | 88.3% |
| Is student body diversity a factor in decisions? | 28.4% | 71.6% |
| Would you play with a concussion? | 61% | 39% |
| Does social media affect decisions? | 18.8% | 81.3% |
The responses on concussions is one outlier on that.
The perception of athletes may be that it's in their best interests to continue playing with a concussion regardless of the potential for serious, long-term brain damage.
I find it disturbing that any athlete would think it was in his "best interest" to play with a concussion.
The kids answering the survey are mostly 16 or 17. Kids that age don't often fear things the same way that older adults do. I'd bet that when they are seniors in college, you will get a different set of answers about concussions.
That player definitely should have gotten pulled, but you cant compare a well-compensated professional choosing to take calculated risks with his playing career to a bunch of 17 year old high school students.
It doesn't say they always know exactly what their best interests are.
and it is pretty obvious that Biakabatuka suffered at least one concussion before half time, maybe another in the second half, on his way to running for his epic yardage. There was one instance he was helped up and instead of joining in the huddle, he staggered around a bit "punch drunk" before finding his way to the backfield.
During an interveiw with Anthony Thomas he was talking about a goal line stance, I can't recall the game, and he spoke about not knowing what happened because he blacked out.
It wouldn't surprise me if many players continue to see "seeing stars" or "bell ringing" to be a right of passage that is to be endured with pride.
People like what they feel is in their short term best interests.
peoples voting habits.
/politics
The alarming thing about this poll is that 13.6% of college athletes do not know what 'stipends' are.
Wonder what the response would be from the same group of kids when asked if they would rather just skip the NCAA and head right into the NFL?
From the article:
"Sixty-two percent said they have had a fan who follows them on social media harass them, and some fans have even gone to great lengths to get in touch with the recruits. UCLA four-star quarterback commitment Josh Rosen of St. John Bosco in Bellflower, California, said a Michigan fan somehow got a hold of his cellphone and called him regularly"
ohhh boy, do we have to go through the rules of fans contacting recruits again???
The second half of that sentence made me wince too:
"...and uncommitted four-star receiver Christian Kirk of Saguaro High School in Scottsdale, Arizona, said that fans of multiple schools have called him at all hours of the day and promised him money and girls if he would commit to that school."
Not only is this an awful and unethical thing for a fan to do, never mind that it is against the rules for a second, but in this case, you have to think that a fair number of the people making such "promises" have neither of these things. I imagine people my age or older trying to entice people half their age or less to come to their school through these means and it makes me shudder in disgust.
I agree about the full body shudder when it comes to adults engaging in these practices. When this topic comes up (again and again) on this blog, there are usually a few posts from high school aged fans who believe it is ok because they are peers. To me, unless there is already a prior relationship established (i.e. you were already close friends with a recruit) I think engaging in any communication to try to sway a recruit is a little creepy.
I should point out it also hacks me off when complete strangers offer their advice on how to raise my kid because he's two years old and happens to be having one of his very few meltdowns in public.
I should also point out it hacks me off when people think they can walk up and touch the belly of a pregnant woman like she is some budda idol.
Now that I think of it...I have a lot of grievances with you people!
/Festivus'd.
When my wife was pregnant, you could see her get real angry and start to ball up her fists whenever some stranger started eyeing her baby bump like they were thinking about going in to touch her belly. Fortunately, her body language was so obvious that we never had an incident with any strangers and even family and friends knew to politely ask her each time.
I on the other, had to snap quite angrily and loudly multiple times at women who would start touching my baby in the grocery store without permission when she was only a few weeks old. Moral of the story: Some people have issues and don't know when to draw the line.
One topic was cut from that list:
Will you take this bag of money and play for an SEC school? Yes - 62% No - 38%
"Does social media affect decisions?" what does that mean? fans harrassing recruits? coaches connecting to recruits on social media?
too vague.
There's a simple cure for that—kick SEC asses regularly when the opportunity presents itself. Until that happens—regularly—the SEC will continue to get slurped.
Since the SEC Network is for all practical purposes a subsidiary of ESPN.... O.K. I don't really want to continue with an analogy that includes slurping. Suffice it to say, it's about like expecting a mother on Toddlers and Tiaras to stop promoting her daughter.
Had they polled 500 players randomly selected from the 3000 or so that are ranked the results would likely be quite different. Imagine they polled a set randomly selected from all college bound students who played varsity high school football. Another interesting group would be the top 300 recruits who are headed for D-2 football programs.
The notion that 150 respondents of a group so selected reflect the typical views of junior or senior high school football players, or even those of the 3000 or so who get rated is pretty foolish. These are the views of the guys who have been "special" athletes since they could walk. Many carrying the hopes and dreams of family and friends since junior high school.