OT: The underbelly of CFB recuiting - good read
with recruiting being one of the few active CFB topics this time of year, thought everyone would enjoy reading this article from Texas Monthly exploring the seamier side of the process, especially the role of street agents and 7-on-7's.
Excerpts and then the link:
It wasn’t until three or four years ago ... that high school football was going the way of high school basketball. Basketball has long been overshadowed by the AAU, a league in which a high schooler often plays for different coaches and with different teammates. AAU coaches become so influential, it’s argued, that they manage the recruitment of players as their de facto agents.
The rise of 7-on-7’s has given Texas football its own shadow league, conducted outside the purview of high school and college coaches. “That’s when the kids are vulnerable. Especially the kids who don’t have very much money, maybe have parents who don’t understand what’s going on at home as much. They’re more vulnerable to someone who would try to come in and help them.” Mack Brown doesn’t just fear a shakedown. He fears a crack-up of the relationship between a player and his high school coach.
The real source of evil—the thing college football fans should fear—is the NCAA’s system of amateurism. It’s college football that puts a seventeen-year-old at an impossible disadvantage....In college recruiting, amateurism is a pair of handcuffs reserved for the person who needs help the most. The scary part isn’t that a seventeen-year-old football player would get himself an agent. The scary part is that, these days, he probably needs one.
It is a good read, and a bit frightening to see what recruits have to put up with.
The scary part isn’t that a seventeen-year-old football player would get himself an agent. The scary part is that, these days, he probably needs one.
That sums it up pretty nicely. Well written article; thanks for posting it.
it's won't be long before hiring an agent won't be an NCAA infraction. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I can't think of one other job, club association, personal relationship or anything else where obtaining legal counsel is grounds for punishment from the organizing body. Out of all the ridiculous rules the NCAA has, this might be the most blatantly unethical/possibly illegal.
characterization of an agent's role. I get where you are coming from, but agents--sadly--will not make the process less unseemly.
Most agents I can think of are lawyers and are definitely playing a role in where to best sign a contract (LOI). People wouldn't be very happy if the AMA or ABA told med/law school grads that their license would be suspended if they retained a lawyer trained in employment negotiations, and I can just imagine the lawsuits.
that these kids need counsel. Their rep is often not good, though, right?
I would love to see a class action suit against the NCAA by either current players, former players, or high school students. It's bad enough that the NCAA doesn't give them a slice of the pie, but they should at least allow the kids to make money from outside sources.
I'm not an attorney, but I have a feeling that somewhere between antitrust and restraint of trade, someone can make a case that would scare the NCAA into a settlement and a change of their bylaws to take the "handcuffs" off of the players.
Stick to your conspiracy theories.
agreed.. and it wont be long before they start seeing money either. Treat them like what they are, semi-pro athletes who make their institution a boat load of money
they'll ever see money from the school. What they probably will end up getting at some point is an employer/employee recognition for workers compensation and the like, and I think the NCAA won't be able to restrict hiring agents, compensation from outside sources or make money off likenesses.
Maybe I'm projecting my beliefs into what I think will happen, but I can see a lot of the NCAA's bylaws getting sued out of existence, and it looks like it's coming to a head. EA is getting ready to defend itself in court, I can see the same happening on some other NCAA fronts as well.
I lose a little bit of what faith I have left. The bit in the Miami piece about the kid who spurned FSU after being taken to the Miami strip club really upset me. It's great that Michigan is a little more upright in its approach; it's great that Michigan has more to offer kids school-wise. But. . . invested as I have become in Michigan football the last few years, through the RR debacle and love for Denard. . . I'm also pretty turned off.
I think (hope) that some governing body such as high school athletic associations steps in and does something to monitor the 7 on 7 thing. It's getting out of control. We are asking 17 year old kids to do more and more athletically, and we wonder why they have no real life skills once they get that D1 scholarship. I coach football on the west coast, and the culture being created by the push for recruitment is making high school football a business. It's disgusting.
Fans are hounding Manning too. Not long ago, a TCU fan saw him at Macy’s, recognized the name on his letter jacket from a recruiting website, and ran up to give him the Frog sign."
In the case they highlight - Justin Manning - what seems frightening to me is that he has to navigate this on his own, from the sound of things. I cannot imagine being stalked by coaches or having representatives of another school show up at your mom's place of work,or indeed, not having a moment of rest because reports want to know your every move long before you graduate high school. Between things like this and the tweets from fans of various schools, it is little wonder that you keep hearing from some of them that they simply want to be done with recruitng after a certain point. Some of them seem like they harbor no excitement towards being recruited beyond the initial phase or so, and after reading this, I don't blame them.