Mixed Reaction to NCAA’s Proposed Scholarship Ban to Minors
In light of several recent cases, the NCAA is proposing to ban scholarship offers to minors not yet in their senior year of high school, citing concerns that youths are not prepared to make professional decisions that will affect their future.
Not long ago, naiveté on behalf of players was a non-issue. It didn’t affect the talents of the player, or their opportunities. Nowadays, many athletic prodigies are staked out even before high school, where coaches court with scholarships and professional opportunities. And while some are wise enough to wait until they are old enough to make an informed decision, many aren’t quite as patient or exacting.
Just earlier this year, new USC coach Lane Kiffin offered 13-year-old quarterback David Sills a scholarship to Delaware, which he accepted. And according to the Arizona Republic, when basketball coach Sean Miller stepped up to plate for his team one of his first moves was to offer 6"7' eighth grader Torren Jones a scholarship.
In light of these cases, the NCAA has decided that it wants to cease the pursuit of young kids. NCAA’s Recruiting and Athletics Personnel Issues Cabinet would like to prohibit coaches in just about all sports from scholarship offers before July 1st of a prospect’s upcoming senior year. As of now, the proposal is set for a January vote.
Reaction to the projected legislation is mixed, and sits between supportive and sceptical.
Joe Fenlon weighed in by saying: “I think each individual case is different to be honest. Some kids can handle the circus kind of atmosphere [of recruiting], some kids can’t. I think for some kids …if people recruit them early, it may help those kids pay a little more attention to getting the right grade for their core courses.”
But he also was quick to add that he considers offering scholarships to “seventh- and eighth-graders is ridiculous.”
With two generations of recruiting experience, Hiram Green was quick to dismiss the importance of youth offers. An all-state receiver at Bartow who ultimately signed a basketball scholarship at USF, Green recently oversaw his son Christian sign a football scholarship with FSU.
“I didn’t put too much credence into it,” Green remarked. “It really doesn’t count until the final scholarship’s signed. That’s how I looked at it personally.”
The question remains: what about easily influenced young athletes, especially those whose parents weren’t first-tier professional athletes? What about those parents that are plagued by little to no assets, for which an offer from a university coach comes as a godsend?
Green stated that he thinks those without the proper guidance are sure to be exploited by coaches solely out to improve the rankings of their teams.
And the situation is easy enough to imagine: a 6"6' seventh grader gets an offer in middle school, but stops growing. Then his skills fall by the wayside, if they were ever really there from the beginning. In the meantime, an earnest, near obsessive dedication to sports means that grades slip. Finally the offer dissolves. Offers, after all, are just that: non-binding until prospects sign formal slips of intent as seniors.
Green said firmly: “With the way that athletics has gone now with high schools, these kids get so much so soon, and I think they need to be kids a little more and be allowed to grow.”
On the other hand, some feel that scholarship offers to minors isn’t really a problem. West Virginia Basketball coach Bob Huggins said: "What are you supposed to do if a kid says he wants to come? You have a state like ours where we pretty much are the predominant university, and a kid comes up following Mountaineer sports and says he wants to come. I don't know what we're supposed to say."
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