NCAA may make recruiting rules more strict

[Cheesesteak]

NCAA may make recruiting rules more strict
Posted: Thursday February 12, 2004 8:37PM; Updated: Thursday February 12, 2004 11:30PM
From: SPORTS ILLUSTRATED.COM

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Stories of high school football stars having wild recruiting trips on college campuses have been around forever. Recently, those whispers have turned into front-page news.

Three sexual assault lawsuits in Colorado. A stripper company saying it has provided topless dancers for years at many schools. And the star of Miami's recruiting class is jailed for what he allegedly did during a recruiting trip to Florida.

It's all too much for NCAA president Myles Brand to tolerate at once.

So on Thursday, hours before being part of a panel discussion on values and ethics in college sports, Brand took action, announcing the formation of a task force that will re-examine the organization's recruiting rules.

"The allegations are serious enough and the talk is that it's very extensive," Brand said. "We have to be proactive and immediate about it and not push it under the rug."

Brand said it was "an interesting coincidence" that he took an ethical stand the same day he, Ohio State athletic director Andy Geiger, Texas coach Mack Brown and former SEC commissioner Roy Kramer, the founder of the Bowl Championship Series, took part in the public discussion on the TCU campus.

"But ethical concerns are really at the heart of what the NCAA and college sports are all about," said Brand, who in his previous job as president of Indiana University also took a stand against basketball coach Bob Knight.

"College sports is not a business. It's about educating young men and women in the field and in the classroom. And that has serious ethical implications."

More than 1,000 people attended the two-hour event Thursday night. The liveliest moments centered on the BCS, which was to be expected considering TCU fought most of last season to earn a spot in one of the lucrative games. The Horned Frogs had an uphill battle because they were in a non-BCS conference.

Kramer defused any tension by opening his remarks by saying fans should thank him for all the publicity his system brought the school. It was so well received that Brown opened his remarks by talking about the crowd's reaction.

"He turned a crisis into a positive, and that's what we're here about tonight," Brown said. "So, commissioner Kramer, congratulations. That was unbelievable. I've heard these people cuss you all year."

BCS talk dominated the question-and-answers session, too. Also noteworthy was Brown taking a strong stance against rogue coaches and Brand following up with a jab at the administrators who give those coaches a second chance, saying they "deserve a higher degree of blame."

Geiger and Brand were supportive of the federal judge's ruling that opens the NFL to everyone, regardless of when or if they graduated high school, thus allowing Ohio State running back Maurice Clarett to enter the draft.

They also emphasized that college sports would be better off if the NBA and NFL supported developmental leagues for college-age players who don't want to continue their education.

"No one should go to college just because they want to use it as a stepping stone to professional sports," Brand said.

Earlier Thursday, Brand said he wants the task force to clarify existing recruiting rules, which would help with enforcement. He wants a report in about 60 days, with changes in place by the next recruiting season.

"We're not going to take a year to do it," Brand said. "We're on top of it now."

In the most prominent case, three women are suing the University of Colorado, saying they were raped at or after an off-campus party for football recruits in December 2001.

A newspaper story about Colorado football players allegedly hiring strippers for recruits led to the head of a Colorado-based stripper agency saying his firm has supplied topless dancers at campuses in Colorado, Texas and Nevada.

Miami signee Willie Williams surrendered to authorities Tuesday because of charges stemming from his trip to Gainesville, Fla., over Super Bowl weekend. He's accused of setting off three fire extinguishers in his hotel, grabbing a woman against her will and hitting a man at a bar in a span of five hours.

Brand's response, the most immediate to any situation in his 13-month tenure, is meant to show how serious he and the NCAA are about cleaning up college sports. Geiger called the swift reaction "awesome."

"The enterprise of college athletics is obviously suffering from this," Geiger said. "Let's do our best to get it right and get it right now."

[BUS]

This will be interesting to watch. Are the BCS schools going to quit using the private jets and fancy ( Radisson - right ) hotels.

It's about what qualifies a kid to go to college. Raise those standards - Eliminate freshman participation in any sport. And if you leave for pro draft... you have to pay the school back the for tuition.

[EastStang]

Colorado is death penalty eligible. Do you think they'd get hit with that penalty? NOT. The rules are there, but until the NCAA decides it is worth the effort to kick a few big programs like Colorado in the nads and say, that's it, you're gone, they'll keep getting the same behavior. One sacrificial lamb per decade is not enough either. They need to hit a dozen programs or so, and then it might cause some real changes, or a complete separation of the Division 1-A schools from the NCAA. Either way, it will get rid of the disparity that currently exists between those schools that try to follow the rules and those schools that don't even care what they are. Actually, the Maurice Clarett case might actually entice the NFL to start a meaningful minor league system.

[Mike Damone]

Why does everyone want an NFL minor league system? I want those kids playing college football.

[Cheesesteak]

Posted by Mike Damone:

Why does everyone want an NFL minor league system? I want those kids playing college football.

Some people want to support and watch student-athletes (for example, football players possessing talent or great desire who actually want to use their brain on something more than the playbook) that win and make them proud of their favorite college team/alma mater...players who don't make a mockery of the words - academic institution.

Some people want to support and watch entertainers/athletes (for example, football players who are using their time on campus to develop athletically like a baseball player would in the minor leagues) who happen to wear the uniform of a college they like or graduated from.

There is a big difference.

<small>[ 02-13-2004, 07:57 AM: Message edited by: Cheesesteak ]</small>

[PK]

Since the NFL and the NBA also use the college system for their defacto minor leagues anyway, they should help support it financially...it only seems fair to me.

[OldPony]

I want some ofr whqat Brand is smoking. College football is not a business? That is one of the dumbest things I have heard.

[EastStang]

The NBA is now taking kids straight out of HS or after one or two years of college (which is not worth much to a program). A number of first rounders came from overseas developmental programs. How many college seniors were drafted in the first round of the NBA last year? I'll bet it wasn't many. The NFL on the other hand has only had juniors and seniors eligible until now. Baseball has drafted high schoolers for years and developed them in the minor leagues. Colleges were an option, but not a favored option. As a result, colleges got only those baseball players who wanted a life after baseball, or who weren't drafted. If the NFL would start such a program, it would make colleges able to be more strident in cleaning up recruiting scandels.

[Charleston Pony]

"College football is not a business" ??? Really, how far out of touch with reality is this guy?