Web Fanatics Take Recruiting To New Levels

Harry · February 1, 2007

Web fanatics take recruiting to new levels

By DAVE SITTLER World Sports Columnist

1/31/2007

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My fellow Americans, our long national football obsession is nearly over.

No, no, no. I am not talking about this week's seemingly endless countdown for NFL fans to 5:25 p.m. on Sunday. That's the day and time Chicago and Indianapolis will finally kick off Super Bowl XLI (that's No. 41 if you're Roman numerically challenged).

No, the football obsession I'm talking about arrives next Wednesday. Feb. 7 is the first day high school football players can make it official when they sign binding letters of intent with the college of their choice.

And there are several culprits in this obsessive behavior, including fans, parents, players and college coaches.

Sadly, "obsession" is the appropriate word to describe the incredible interest generated every year with football recruiting.

The persistent and disturbing preoccupation over where Johnny All-American is going to play college ball turns normally sane, well-adjusted human beings into raving recruiting fanatics.

Officials of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics were concerned enough about the ramifications from this growing recruiting sickness that they held a panel discussion on the topic last week in Washington D.C.

The reform-minded Knight Commission concentrates on college sports. And the panel, which included Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione, heard some chilling testimony.

The obsession isn't limited to the fans. It's engulfed parents intent on making sure the family's stud athlete gets the proper exposure from his high school coach to attract attention from powerhouse college programs.

Dr. Harry Edwards, who taught for 31 years at the University of California-Berkeley, and is an expert on sports, sociology and racial diversity, was also on the Knight Commission panel.

"There are parents out there who are pulling guns on coaches," said Edwards. "I have seen shootings over a kid getting playing time."

Baylor assistant coach Gary Kinne has lived that nightmare. A high school coach in Canton, Texas, two years ago, Kinne was critically wounded and lost 80 percent of his liver when a disgruntled parent shot him with an AK-47 rifle.

Those parents who are determined to get their son noticed nationally will spend a small fortune taking him to summer football camps around the country.

Edwards said the constant attention top prospects receive means "the elite athletic prospect has become completely commoditized, hedonistic, materialistic and individualistic."

The birth of the Internet has also played a significant role in the explosion of interest and unrest in recruiting. Anyone can create a recruiting Web site, declare himself an expert and proceed to rank players and the schools signing the most blue-chip, five-star prospects.

Recruiting fanatics then go bananas when they read their favorite college teams are not ranked in the Top 10 because the coaches are signing a bunch of two-star rated players.

The fanatics then panic and start filling up Internet message boards with rants about how the coach at State U., should be fired the day after recruiting if he doesn't pull off a fourth-quarter miracle and land some top prospects.

OU is the latest victim of this yearly madness. A headline in one newspaper this week read "It's Not Time to Panic" because the Sooners are not getting their normal amount of five-star commitments and top Texas prep players.

We're talking about a majority of players who won't play a down for OU until two or three years from now.

Former North Carolina coach John Bunting told the Knight Commission of the dangers the Internet has created in recruiting from the standpoint of the player, fan and coach because "anyone can say anything about anybody and not be held accountable."

But the lack of accountability doesn't affect the interest. Bobby Burton, who runs the Rivals.com recruiting Web site, told the Knight Commission he anticipates about 75 million "hits" on his Web site next Wednesday.

Seventy-five million?

My fellow Americans, our long national football recruiting obsession will be over on Feb. 7. But, sadly, it will start all over again Feb. 8.

Arkstfan · February 1, 2007

The cynical fan has noticed that who recruits a kid seems to have a great deal to do with how that player is rated by the recruiting services. There are three reasons for that. http://www.beltboard.com

The whole recruiting industry is rotten to the core.

Harry · February 1, 2007

Great article Arkstfan.

I would like to add that I have a problem with a bunch of guys at Rivals who are constantly calling players and in a sense influencing the recruiting process. High school kids are suddenly put on a pedestal and receiving these calls from the various sites. If you think that in these conversations the sites aren't trying to influence the decisions of these recruits you are crazy. The other thing is, how are these players being identified? If you think that these Rivals sites are figuring out which high school kids to call just off of their own efforts you are wrong. Someone is giving the Rivals sites these names, so the coaches are playing the game as well.

It's also not fair to the kids who should be focusing on academics and not returning calls to a dozen different fan sites every week.

If you are going to allow this, you should regulate it and make it fair. Give each school one or two contacts at legitimate local media outlets and let them gather information on behalf of the school in a nonpartial way. That would streamline the info and keep it fair.

FirefightnRick · February 2, 2007

The obsession isn't limited to the fans. It's engulfed parents intent on making sure the family's stud athlete gets the proper exposure from his high school coach to attract attention from powerhouse college programs.
Dr. Harry Edwards, who taught for 31 years at the University of California-Berkeley, and is an expert on sports, sociology and racial diversity, was also on the Knight Commission panel.
"There are parents out there who are pulling guns on coaches," said Edwards. "I have seen shootings over a kid getting playing time."
Baylor assistant coach Gary Kinne has lived that nightmare. A high school coach in Canton, Texas, two years ago, Kinne was critically wounded and lost 80 percent of his liver when a disgruntled parent shot him with an AK-47 rifle.

Hmm, bit of a stretch by the Dr. Expert if what he's referring to is the Kinne shooting? Jeffery Doyle Robertson was bound to shoot someone, someday. The dude was a complete nutball that had not only threatened coaches but physically threatened another student on campus and was banned from the school or any of it's functions. He was out of work and depressed to the point of suicide. His own wife admitted during his trial that he was violently confrontational and drank at least a beer and a bottle of tequilla per day. Out of the town of 3,500 residents, it seemed everyone interviewed during that time had an oppinion or an example of his hot-headedness, confrontational outbursts and several were not surprised to hear he was the one that did the shooting, which at the time it happened he was also recovering from injuries he sustained from a previous road rage incident. His son was a freshman who sat the bench and no where near to the point of "attracting attention from powerhouse college programs".

Rick

Edited February 2, 2007 by FirefightnRick