How Do We Fix the Dirty Culture of College Recruiting?

[ShotgunDawg]

A boring Tuesday seems like a good time to have this discussion.

With what we have seen at Ole Miss, Louisville basketball, these assistant college basketball coaches today, & then realizing that somehow Alabama manages to land most of the top high school football players in the country every year, I believe it's become apparent that the current recruiting model in college athletics doesn't fit in 2017 where there is more money in the sport & desire to win than at any point in history.

At this point it feels as if, not only has the playing field become extremely uneven for the schools themselves, it's even made coaching or working in college athletics an undesirable career field due to coaches & administrators basically being forced to either cheat or get fired.

So my question for discussion is: How can this be fixed?

- A draft in which players that enter into the draft are eligible to paid? If there is a draft, how many rounds?

- Does limiting scholarships help?

- An official ranking service in which teams could only sign a total number of stars?


There are no dumb answers in this thread. I'm looking for creativity & ideas.

[msstate7]

I think beating auburn Saturday night is the only solution**

Unless the NFL and CFB popularity fails, there's no fixing it. Pay players and someone will pay more

[Doggie_Style]

In any endeavor involving humans there is going to be a tendency toward corrupt practices. Schools like OM should be severely punished as a deterrent. Paying players is the worst idea ever. It would end college football as most school would not be able to afford it. Scholarships provided are compensation for players efforts. Also, under title IX, an equal number of women athletes would have to be paid. Where would it end? Maybe one day college football will look a lot like baseball as the top talent plays for a developmental league instead.

[JoseBrown]

I think beating auburn Saturday night is the only solution**

Unless the NFL and CFB popularity fails, there's no fixing it. Pay players and someone will pay more

Definitely, probably and for sure you're right.

[Spiderman]

A boring Tuesday seems like a good time to have this discussion.

With what we have seen at Ole Miss, Louisville basketball, these assistant college basketball coaches today, & then realizing that somehow Alabama manages to land most of the top high school football players in the country every year, I believe it's become apparent that the current recruiting model in college athletics doesn't fit in 2017 where there is more money in the sport & desire to win than at any point in history.

At this point it feels as if, not only has the playing field become extremely uneven for the schools themselves, it's even made coaching or working in college athletics an undesirable career field due to coaches & administrators basically being forced to either cheat or get fired.

So my question for discussion is: How can this be fixed?

- A draft in which players that enter into the draft are eligible to paid? If there is a draft, how many rounds?

- Does limiting scholarships help?

- An official ranking service in which teams could only sign a total number of stars?


There are no dumb answers in this thread. I'm looking for creativity & ideas.

There has been cheating from day one. Only deterrent is go scorched earth every time someone is caught. Even for small stuff. Have to make the risk too great to take.

[ShotgunDawg]

There has been cheating from day one. Only deterrent is go scorched earth every time someone is caught. Even for small stuff. Have to make the risk too great to take.

I actually like that the FBI is dipping their toe in this.

Even the FBI just investigates 1 case every 3-5 years in college recruiting, it will create an enormous deterrent. It's one thing to get a show cause, it's another to commit a felony & go to the clinker.

Coaches won't go along with it if there is a chance of criminal charges

[Mimi's Babies]

I actually like that the FBI is dipping their toe in this.

Even the FBI just investigates 1 case every 3-5 years in college recruiting, it will create an enormous deterrent. It's one thing to get a show cause, it's another to commit a felony & go to the clinker.

Coaches won't go along with it if there is a chance of criminal charges

I was told that OM cheating dated back to 1960 -- according a an OM booster.... (a life time booster)

[dawgs]

I actually like that the FBI is dipping their toe in this.

Even the FBI just investigates 1 case every 3-5 years in college recruiting, it will create an enormous deterrent. It's one thing to get a show cause, it's another to commit a felony & go to the clinker.

Coaches won't go along with it if there is a chance of criminal charges

Yeah, I think this is what you gotta hope for. Freeze can lie to the NCAA and worst case scenario is he retires early on the millions he’s made while cheating. Freeze lies under oath and his ass goes to jail. That’s why the burner phone stuff just came out in the ole miss saga.

[GoToHellOleMiss]

There has been cheating from day one. Only deterrent is go scorched earth every time someone is caught. Even for small stuff. Have to make the risk too great to take.

This

[BrunswickDawg]

I don't know that there is a fix, other than making penalties so severe that it keeps schools in check. Like serious death penalty type penalties. You cheat, your program gets shut down and comes back as a DIII non-scholarship program for 5 years. Ultimately, there is so much money wrapped up in college athletics that I don't think you can stop it.

[lefty96]

Sit back and watch the FBI work. . .

Those wire fraud and conspiracy charges will be hard to beat. . . you can be every coach in the country is nervous.

[Ifyouonlyknew]

There is no way to fix it. This has been going on since the beginning of collegiate athletics. The best way is allow the players to be paid but that won't happen because the NCAA wants to keep up this charade of college sports being amateur athletics. You're argument makes it seem like only a few schools are only paying kids when that's just not true. Everybody does it just varying degrees. You can't be upset when you're doing something shady & others decide to take it farther than you. That's just the game being the game. Either adapt or stop playing or quit whining. If you get caught well you knew the consequences going in.

[JoseBrown]

There is no way to fix it. This has been going on since the beginning of collegiate athletics. The best way is allow the players to be paid but that won't happen because the NCAA wants to keep up this charade of college sports being amateur athletics. You're argument makes it seem like only a few schools are only paying kids when that's just not true. Everybody does it just varying degrees. You can't be upset when you're doing something shady & others decide to take it farther than you. That's just the game being the game. Either adapt or stop playing or quit whining. If you get caught well you knew the consequences going in.

It is also in the best interests of the Olympics for our college student-athletes to remain amateurs. If they are paid, then the track stars, volley ballers, soccer, swimming....won't be allowed to participate in the Olympics representing the USA. If only football players are paid I'm sure other countries would lobby for any college student athlete to be professional. And if you pay football players what's gonna stop every sport from being paid. I'm saying all this just to point out there are other interests in keeping college athletes considered amateurs.

[Tbonewannabe]

It is also in the best interests of the Olympics for our college student-athletes to remain amateurs. If they are paid, then the track stars, volley ballers, soccer, swimming....won't be allowed to participate in the Olympics representing the USA. If only football players are paid I'm sure other countries would lobby for any college student athlete to be professional. And if you pay football players what's gonna stop every sport from being paid. I'm saying all this just to point out there are other interests in keeping college athletes considered amateurs.

You do realize that most Olympic athletes are paid now? The ones who aren't paid are in a sport where they just don't get paid. The Dream Team in basketball isn't possible without paid athletes. This was a farce anyway since Russian and China have had basically professional athletes for a long time.

[JoseBrown]

You do realize that most Olympic athletes are paid now? The ones who aren't paid are in a sport where they just don't get paid. The Dream Team in basketball isn't possible without paid athletes. This was a farce anyway since Russian and China have had basically professional athletes for a long time.

Why of course they are paid in ways that maintain their amateur status.... They are not paid until they turn pro. The Dream Team had to eventually happen, because every other countries basketball players were playing in professional leagues. We finally caught up to them. The extreme majority of Team USA athletes are not professional until they decide to give up their Olympic time.

[Tbonewannabe]

Why of course they are paid in ways that maintain their amateur status.... They are not paid until they turn pro. The Dream Team had to eventually happen, because every other countries basketball players were playing in professional leagues. We finally caught up to them. The extreme majority of Team USA athletes are not professional until they decide to give up their Olympic time.

The Rio Olympics is the first Olympics that has no requirement for amateur status for any sport. So there were some sports that still wanted you to be an amateur but now everyone is welcome to compete.

[confucius say]

Deterrence is the primary way. Combine mandatory audits conducted by NCAA and harsh penalties, this will go away.

You get busted, automatic 10 year show cause. Deterrence for coaches. You get busted for numerous (3 or more) level ones, automatic 10 years with no scholarships. Deterrence for university and promotes oversight.

[confucius say]

There is no way to fix it. This has been going on since the beginning of collegiate athletics. The best way is allow the players to be paid but that won't happen because the NCAA wants to keep up this charade of college sports being amateur athletics. You're argument makes it seem like only a few schools are only paying kids when that's just not true. Everybody does it just varying degrees. You can't be upset when you're doing something shady & others decide to take it farther than you. That's just the game being the game. Either adapt or stop playing or quit whining. If you get caught well you knew the consequences going in.

Mandatory audits. Harsh penalties for coaches and even harsher for universities. Problem solved.

[Ifyouonlyknew]

Mandatory audits. Harsh penalties for coaches and even harsher for universities. Problem solved.

The NCAA takes 3yrs to complete an investigation. They're short-staffed as it is. You think they're going to spend millions of dollars to create a staff just to perform audits on hundreds of universities? Not gonna happen.

[QuadrupleOption]

The NCAA takes 3yrs to complete an investigation. They're short-staffed as it is. You think they're going to spend millions of dollars to create a staff just to perform audits on hundreds of universities? Not gonna happen.

Millions would be peanuts to the NCAA. The NCAA generated $876 million in revenue in 2012 (from their website). Yes, that's not profit (they claim all but 4% goes back to member institutions). Still, if they spent $30 million a year on an auditing staff it wouldn't make much of a dent in what they pull in.

The money is there. The will to do it? Not so sure.