NCAA Proposal to Ban Youth Recruiting Still Getting Heat
In recent years, college sports teams bent on producing winning teams have scouted younger and younger athletes for would-be prospects they can sign. Yet whereas the practice has already been adapted by many in the United States, it is taking serious criticism after ethical complaints have been made that young players should not be pursued before high school.
A recent example of the phenomenon includes Aaron and Andrew Harrison, twins who play for the Houston Defenders, an American Athletic Union select basketball team. Both were pursued even before they stepped onto a high school campus by college basketball coaches. Their father, Defenders coach Aaron Harrison Sr., estimates that the two have had roughly 20 scholarship offers.
“Their seventh-grade year was when they first started getting a lot of attention,” Harrison said, who has coached the boys since they were 8.
Perhaps foreseeing complicated ethical questions, the NCAA recently proposed legislation that would stop the practice of pursuing middle-school athletes discovered in AAU programs. Division I of the NCAA’s Recruiting and Athletics Personnel Issues Cabinet has endorsed the proposal to ban verbal scholarship offers before July of their would-be senior year in high school.
If passed, the proposal would apply to all sports and could be adopted as early as January or April. Still, some believe it would be impossible to realize.
Rice University basketball coach Ben Braun said: "That rule is going to be impossible to legislate. Kids are going to ask a coach, 'Are you going to save a scholarship for me?' And the coach is going to say yes. No coach is going to say, 'No, we'll talk to you in your senior year,' to a good recruit."
The comment gets at the hard reality of the situation. But many also express fear that the incentive to win has compelled colleges to perceive young players not as maturing, impressionable teenagers, but as business assets. That being the case, the fear is that young athletes may be given false information or taken advantage of.
The term “verbal scholarship” encapsulates the dubiousness of the offer, which is by no means set in stone. At the same time, were a young player to receive a verbal scholarship from a high-ranking college, it would undoubtedly change every facet of the prospect’s life.
Recruiting and scouting services know this and help coaches keep up with the talent. HoopScoopOnline.com, a highly regarded source for analysis and coverage of recruiting and grass-roots basketball, ranks the top players nationally from sixth grade to 12th grade, as well as fifth-year prep-school players. It also offers a subscription service for college coaches.
In July, the NCAA permitted college coaches to attend a certified non-scholastic basketball tournament, where talent could be spotted for recruiting. But more and more ethical concerns are coming to the fore.
"Getting that early offer puts you in the early limelight, and some kids don't know how to handle limelight and accolades at a young age," Tommy Masion-Griffin, himself a young recruitee, said. "It makes it seem like you've already made it. By the time you get (to the) 12th grade, if you haven't worked on your game, then those offers might go away."
Others took a different opinion. "I don't think there is any slippery slope," Lyndon Rose, a former University of Houston basketball player said. "In basketball, you know if a prospect is going to have an opportunity to be really good. If someone offers a scholarship in seventh grade or eighth grade, there's no negativity, it's not binding, and there are no legal ramifications. Sometimes it's better for the school and the prospect because it helps them make sure they're on the right path academically."
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