ArtBest23
Joined: 02 Jul 2013
Posts: 14550
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 Posted: 09/26/16 4:29 pm ::: Ivy League proposing rules to slow ever-earlier recruiting |
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https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/09/21/ivy-league-announces-proposals-curbing-early-recruitment-athletes
Some of these things have been tried before, I believe, and were basically unenforceable. Which ends up penalizing the honest programs that actually try to follow the rules.
Some are simply bad ideas, such banning unofficial visits before the junior year. Lots of families of teenagers (athletes or not) include visits to college campuses in itineraries of summer vacations after freshman and sophomore years. It may be their only chance to see schools and start making a list. Why should someone who plays basketball not be allowed to stop in and meet the basketball staff or visit the basketball facilities while they're there? A rule aimed at the elite athletes would unfairly penalize the vast majority of players who are not going to have colleges lined up chasing them.
And how are you going to ban early verbal offers? Is there anything really different between making a non-binding verbal offer like happens today, and telling an 8th grader "I really hope you come to my school in 5 years and I can assure you there will be an offer for you on the very first day I can give you one." How are you going to ban the latter?
And if you can't have any recruiting conversations with freshmen and sophomores, it just gives even more influence to the AAU coaches and scouts and the like who can freely talk to players, can pick and choose the college they want to promote (and from whom they get favors or who have deals with the same shoe company), and can tell kids "You should be thinking about going to X. I know they're really interested in you and they'd be a great place for you to go."
I'm not in favor of anything that gives more power and influence to "handlers."
As I mentioned the other day, though, they are right that ever-earlier recruiting is really a problem in lacrosse. I suspect there's more pressure than other sports because kids and parents from the prep schools and wealthy suburban high schools that dominate HS lacrosse want to lock in spots at the Ivies, Hopkins, Duke, Notre Dame, Bucknell, Georgetown, Lehigh, UVA, and other elite colleges that play big time lacrosse and at which admissions are very difficult and in great demand.
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