Recruiting…..The Dirtiest Business in Sports
The recruiting process from high school to high school seems to generally be the same.
“First people (recruiters) started coming to my games, and then they started talking to my coaches. And that’s when my coach told my mom that I could be real good if I kept working at it. So it was a big eye opener for me, to keep working hard.”
But he said that he saw the dirty recruiting earlier than most players, which forced him to make his collegiate choice early.
“I was offered money to go to a school close to home, but my mom wasn’t interested in it. So it was pretty easy for me to back away from it.”
He says his mother works to help him attend USC and cover some expenses, but said he can also see why some players in high school are forced to accept money.
“Coaches try to keep their jobs, so they have to go after the best players -whatever they can do to offer their players money to keep their program going good. Those families need the money too because they’re struggling, and they can’t afford to send their kids to school.”
But unlike some of the other players interviewed, this athlete considers families being compensated as fair recruiting practices.
“I’m kind of in the middle,” he explained. “I don’t think you can just offer a kid money just to play a sport as a minor. (But at the same time) I think it’s fair for the family to get the benefit because it is costing them to have their kids in school.”
In his second year at USC, he states that he’s now been around long enough to realize that agents are everywhere. Although he comments that athletes all know about the NCAA rules, he says that the NCAA tends to stay away from a big investigation.
“I don’t think there will be a crackdown because a lot of schools do it. It’s hard to find out if some guy has a sports agent because you can give money to a grandparent who can give it to the player and people will never know."
But he says it’s not just the NCAA, and players that know that dirty recruiting exists. He says coaches know too.
“The coaches hear everything. They have been through the process.”
He further explains that when it comes right down to it, most of what players, coaches, and the NCAA hear is just speculation.
“As a team we never talk about who is getting paid or who is taking money. You can see the shoes and clothes that someone wears, but they could get the clothes from anywhere.”
Even when “bought” players such as OJ Mayo and Reggie Bush are exposed, he said not much every comes of it. Like each of the other players who were interviewed, he says he doesn’t really know why for sure.
“I don’t think they (the NCAA) looked into it because there was nothing they could do to OJ. They knew he was going pro the second he stepped on campus."
Each of the players interviewed had plenty to say on the topic of athletic recruiting, and the attention and adulation that comes with it. But this athlete added an insightful comment - that what most people don’t realize is it’s not all glory, and in large part, can be a burden.
“Recruiting is stressful, all the coaches calling your house at one time. That’s why as soon as my Junior year hit, I hurried up and made my decision to come to school. All the phone calls, and stuff like that is annoying. We had to get our phone number changed three times. It makes it stressful.”
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