In the recruiting game, recruiters and coaches often assume that your only interest is to play in intercollegiate athletics. This attitude of theirs (and possibly yours also) can become the gravest penalty for you. Far too many recruiters seem bent on selling their school based primarily on the supposed benefits of playing on their team. This happens at all levels in the NCAA, NAIA, and NJCAA, and it happens whether or not the school offers athletic grants. Recruiters may also dangle some choice bait concerning the wonderful social life, and, if they're fortunate enough to work at a campus blessed by nature, they'll provide a glowing description of the glorious climate and geography in which their school basks. (Recruiters who aren't so blessed with climate and geography are not above lying about it if they are recruiting athletes who don't know any better.) Some recruiters are also likely to toss in a comment or two, usually directed toward parents, about how wealthy alumni provide well-paying jobs to ex-athletes from their alma mater. (This is one promise that rarely materializes.) But in their sales pitch recruiters far too seldom point to the college's academic reputation, to the quality of the education that can be gained there, or to the value of a degree from their school.
The recruiters who take an approach that is entirely tuned toward athletics do so because that is what they believe sells a college to young athletes. Unfortunately, they are often right. You will be far better off in both the short and the long run to look for more than athletic opportunities and a social life from college. Base your evaluation of a college on its athletic program but equally on how well recruiters and coaches push the academic side of their school.
QUESTIONS TO ASK RECRUITERS
- Ask each college's recruiters for a printed list of the recruiting rules that their association uses. If they won't give you one, or make excuses, take that as a sign to begin doubting their knowledge, and maybe even their honesty.
- Although under present rules they can't promise you an athletic scholarship for more than one year at a time, ask for some names of athletes who were kept on scholarship after their eligibility for competition expired but who still had to take more courses to graduate.
- Ask whether your athletic scholarship will also cover summer courses.
- Ask what proportion of athletes playing on the past three years' teams in your sport actually graduated. (The proportion of graduated athletes in the athletic department as a whole may be misleading, since the emphasis that each team's coach places on graduation will differ.)
- Ask whether the college has counseling or tutoring program for athletes that is conducted by trained personnel other than coaches. (Some coaches may be very bright and really care about your academic progress, but you still will want professionals trained in counseling and academic advising available to help you.)
- Ask about housing arrangements. Even though you might want to live in an athletic dormitory, ask whether you are required to live there or to room only with other athletes. (Your interests are likely to broaden during your years in college.)
- Ask what connection each recruiter has to the school. It is better for you to talk with a coach and best to talk with the head coach.
- Ask whether the athletic program has ever been on probation or penalized by its governing association. If the recruiters have something to hide, they might get upset by this question. If their recruiting approach is honest, they'll probably appreciate your concern.
Once you enroll at a college, you become its athletic property in certain respects. You will do better to enroll at a school where those responsible for the athletic program respect you as a complete person and where they care about your academic needs.
CHEATING IN THE RECRUITING GAME: REWARDS AND PENALTIES
The "Rewards" of Cheating
The "rewards" of cheating in the recruiting game are obvious and superficially very attractive. By offering unauthorized freebies and other types of inducements to its prospective athletes, a college may attract better athletes, and so increase its chances at a championship, a postseason bowl or tournament, and maybe even sports coverage on TV. To the athletic department and the college, this may mean more income and fame, more fans in the arena, and better campus and community relations. For the coach, it may mean the assurance of holding onto a job, or it may even be a stepping-stone to a better position.
What are the rewards of cheating during recruiting to you, the athlete? They may range anywhere from cash, a car, clothes, an apartment, or use of a credit card, to promises of transportation to and from home, free long-distance calls, or any of the other illegal extras that are sanctioned against in the above rules. Whether you ask for these things or whether they are offered by recruiters, it may not seem like such a bad idea to take advantage of the offer, especially if you know that other athletes are doing the same. The bottom line seems to be that whatever is offered is more than the athlete had before. If the recruiter wants to give it to you, where's the harm in taking what is offered, or even in asking for special treatment? Besides, it's nice to feel wanted and worth something extra. For some athletes, the maximum allowable benefits package (full tuition, fees, room, and board) is the minimum they will consider. Some even bargain between schools to see which will give them more. Digger Phelps, head basketball coach at Notre Dame, recently charged that he knows of schools that offer as much as $10,000 to get a star player to enroll. In response, some coaches said that figure was a little high, others said it was too low. Nobody said it doesn't happen.
If some recruiters are "buying" high school and junior college athletes, they may wind up with a real powerhouse team. Presumably, the higher the price, the better the athlete. The better the collection of athletes on a team, the better the chance that they will bring home a conference title, or even a national championship. That certainly seems like an attractive reward. Being part of a championship team might be nice, even if you weren't one of those who were offered the extra benefits. Money and other illegal extras might entice some very talented athletes onto the squad, but these athletes are often extremely self-centered and care more for themselves than for the team. It isn't unusual for teams with the best talent to fail to win championships, partly because their players lack a sense of team goals. The purpose of cheating in recruiting, of course, is to gain an advantage over the competition by buying better players. But it often works out that those who play the game straight do much better than those who cheat and feel better about it.
Keep in mind that rules exist to help people from being cheated as well as to stop them from cheating. Say, for example, a coach who recruits you puts a little spending money in your pocket, gets you an extra free trip to the school, or finds some way to do something nice for a member of your family (something beyond the rules, like getting your older brother a job). The coach's purpose was to get you to enroll at his or her college. Let's say you bought the coach's salesmanship and become a student-athlete at his or her school. Now that you are enrolled, many of the rules governing college athletics focus on trying to make sure that you are not cheated out of your education by the coach or anyone else. If your college coach cheats in order to get you, what makes you think he or she won't cheat you out of your education once you are under the coach's control? Besides, there are very heavy costs for cheating, whether you do it or are just a member of a team where it is done.
The Penalties for Cheating
First and foremost, of course, cheating on the recruiting rules is ethically wrong, beyond any consideration of rewards and penalties. Unfortunately, this doesn't stop a lot of people from becoming involved in rules infractions. If they understood the penalties more fully, however, they might be less inclined to cheat in the recruiting process.
When a college is suspected of violating recruiting rules, it is investigated by its national athletic association, its conference, or both. If the college is found guilty, the team involved or even the entire athletic program might suffer penalties. Individual athletes directly involved are also likely to pay the price. The most common penalties to the team are prohibitions from participation in postseason contests or from appearances on television and cutbacks on its allowable number of athletic grants. These penalties hurt even those athletes who weren't involved in the cheating and didn't benefit from the illegal extras. Worse, the penalties may be suffered by student-athletes who arrive a year or two later than those who were illegally recruited, since the investigation often takes that long to complete.
Since the fall of 1982, athletes at penalized NCAA schools who were not directly involved in the cheating have been allowed to transfer and play immediately for their new school rather than having to sit out the customary year that is required of college-athletes who transfer for other reasons. Not only does this take the unfair burden from the innocent athletes' shoulders, but recruiters and coaches now have to face the possibility of losing many of their athletes if they are penalized for rules violations with a few. This shows real progress in placing the burden of penalties where it belongs, but it was a long time coming.
But transferring to another school in order to avoid suffering penalties in the athletic side of your college life will probably cost you plenty academically. Credits are often lost when you transfer, or your GPA might be reduced. Also, transferring is likely to add a term or more to the time you will need to complete your degree.
Ideally, you wouldn't want to find yourself in the position of having to transfer because of something your coach or athletic program did. But if you are being recruited in ways which violate rules, it is highly likely that other athletes are, too. Think carefully before enrolling at a school where recruiters show little respect for the rules and guidelines of recruiting. Whether or not you agree with the rules limiting what recruiters can give (or promise to give) to prospects and the amount and kind of contact they may have with you, these rules must be honored.
