Recruits' visits supposed to reflect regular college life
By Jorge Milian
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Sunday, January 09, 2005
Because of the recruiting scandals that stained college football last year, A.J. Trump's official visit to the University of Miami in December was a no-frills affair.
No private plane. No lush hotel. No limo ride. And definitely no multiple-plate lobster dinners like the ones Hurricanes linebacker Willie Williams claimed he ate last year while being wooed by UM.
"We got steak and shrimp," said Trump, a 6-foot-4, 285-pound offensive lineman from Clearwater Central Catholic who has orally committed to UM. "It was a good steak, but not like filet mignon or anything like that. It was an 8-ounce deal."
Trump was also made to sign a form in which he promised not to break a series of rules — sports bars are OK, strip joints are not — laid out by UM's athletic department.
"They're a little more strict," Trump said. "It would have been fun to take visits like everyone else before me with all the lobster you can eat and staying at these ridiculous hotels."
Those days are gone as far as the NCAA is concerned.
Reacting to a series of embarrassing events around the country last year, the Division I Board of Directors adopted a package of reforms in August to rid recruiting of what NCAA President Myles Brand called "the culture of entitlement and celebrity."
The incident that drew the most notice took place at the University of Colorado where allegations were made that alcohol, drugs and sex had been used in football recruiting. One Denver club owner told the Rocky Mountain News that Colorado players hired strippers for recruiting parties.
At the University of Minnesota, several recruits reported they had been taken to strip clubs and served alcohol.
In South Florida, Williams relayed tales of extravagant dinners, parties and chartered planes in a recruiting diary. Later, Williams' extensive criminal history came to light after he was charged in connection with several incidents that took place while on a visit to the University of Florida.
"People felt the culture surrounding recruiting was not what it needed to be," said Florida Athletic Director Jeremy Foley, who served on the NCAA committee that constructed the new policies. "I think some well-publicized situations caused people to focus on what we were doing, and I think when they looked at what we were doing, they realized there were some things that needed to be changed."
Foremost among the changes was the ban of private aircraft to transport recruits. NCAA rules now stipulate that prospective athletes must use "commercial air travel at coach-class fares."
That's not a problem for schools like Miami that are near major metropolitan airports, but it caused debate in places where a recruit might have to take two flights and a long car ride to arrive at his destination.
"That's big, particularly for those 30 institutions that are geographically deprived," said Grant Teaff, executive director of the American Football Coaches Association and a member of the NCAA committee that proposed the new rules. "It puts those schools at a disadvantage."
Take Virginia Tech, for example, where recruits fly into Roanoke, Va., before taking an hour-plus car ride to Blacksburg. There are similar concerns at Clemson, Penn State, Washington State and West Virginia.
''It's different bringing them into our place than it is bringing them into Maryland,'' Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer said. ''There, you can fly them into Dulles or National (in Washington), and you're done.''
Little else about the NCAA's new policy has caused any argument.
Among the other changes is one requiring that recruits "must stay in standard hotel rooms and be offered meals similar to those on campus."
At UM, that means that local resort hotels and Joe's Stone Crab are out and the Holiday Inn and Cracker Barrel are in.
"The real purpose of these rules is to try to have the recruiting visit be as normal as it would be if you were a regular student," UM Athletic Director Paul Dee said. "As a regular student, you probably wouldn't be traveling in a private jet and you would not normally expect to eat in restaurants where you got multiple lobsters at high-ticket prices."
Even some of the smaller fringe benefits of being a football recruit are gone. Schools no longer are permitted to provide personalized jerseys to recruits or flash their names on the football stadium scoreboard.
Miami discontinued its tradition of allowing recruits to run out of the Orange Bowl tunnel into a cloud of smoke.
"Some of the recruits have been disappointed from the standpoint that the some of the guys before them ruined all the fun for them," said Jaime Newberg, a recruiting analyst for Scout.com.
How much of an effect the NCAA's new policies will have is too early to tell. But after last year's escapades, Foley said there was no doubt "the culture of recruiting needed to be changed."
"At the end of the day people were picking the schools they were going to not because they flew on a private plane or what they ate, but for the all the reasons you're supposed to pick it — the academics, the facilities, the playing opportunity, the conference, you name it," Foley said. "I think this allows them to focus on what you should be focusing on as opposed to what I would call the fluff."
By Jorge Milian
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Sunday, January 09, 2005
Because of the recruiting scandals that stained college football last year, A.J. Trump's official visit to the University of Miami in December was a no-frills affair.
No private plane. No lush hotel. No limo ride. And definitely no multiple-plate lobster dinners like the ones Hurricanes linebacker Willie Williams claimed he ate last year while being wooed by UM.
"We got steak and shrimp," said Trump, a 6-foot-4, 285-pound offensive lineman from Clearwater Central Catholic who has orally committed to UM. "It was a good steak, but not like filet mignon or anything like that. It was an 8-ounce deal."
Trump was also made to sign a form in which he promised not to break a series of rules — sports bars are OK, strip joints are not — laid out by UM's athletic department.
"They're a little more strict," Trump said. "It would have been fun to take visits like everyone else before me with all the lobster you can eat and staying at these ridiculous hotels."
Those days are gone as far as the NCAA is concerned.
Reacting to a series of embarrassing events around the country last year, the Division I Board of Directors adopted a package of reforms in August to rid recruiting of what NCAA President Myles Brand called "the culture of entitlement and celebrity."
The incident that drew the most notice took place at the University of Colorado where allegations were made that alcohol, drugs and sex had been used in football recruiting. One Denver club owner told the Rocky Mountain News that Colorado players hired strippers for recruiting parties.
At the University of Minnesota, several recruits reported they had been taken to strip clubs and served alcohol.
In South Florida, Williams relayed tales of extravagant dinners, parties and chartered planes in a recruiting diary. Later, Williams' extensive criminal history came to light after he was charged in connection with several incidents that took place while on a visit to the University of Florida.
"People felt the culture surrounding recruiting was not what it needed to be," said Florida Athletic Director Jeremy Foley, who served on the NCAA committee that constructed the new policies. "I think some well-publicized situations caused people to focus on what we were doing, and I think when they looked at what we were doing, they realized there were some things that needed to be changed."
Foremost among the changes was the ban of private aircraft to transport recruits. NCAA rules now stipulate that prospective athletes must use "commercial air travel at coach-class fares."
That's not a problem for schools like Miami that are near major metropolitan airports, but it caused debate in places where a recruit might have to take two flights and a long car ride to arrive at his destination.
"That's big, particularly for those 30 institutions that are geographically deprived," said Grant Teaff, executive director of the American Football Coaches Association and a member of the NCAA committee that proposed the new rules. "It puts those schools at a disadvantage."
Take Virginia Tech, for example, where recruits fly into Roanoke, Va., before taking an hour-plus car ride to Blacksburg. There are similar concerns at Clemson, Penn State, Washington State and West Virginia.
''It's different bringing them into our place than it is bringing them into Maryland,'' Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer said. ''There, you can fly them into Dulles or National (in Washington), and you're done.''
Little else about the NCAA's new policy has caused any argument.
Among the other changes is one requiring that recruits "must stay in standard hotel rooms and be offered meals similar to those on campus."
At UM, that means that local resort hotels and Joe's Stone Crab are out and the Holiday Inn and Cracker Barrel are in.
"The real purpose of these rules is to try to have the recruiting visit be as normal as it would be if you were a regular student," UM Athletic Director Paul Dee said. "As a regular student, you probably wouldn't be traveling in a private jet and you would not normally expect to eat in restaurants where you got multiple lobsters at high-ticket prices."
Even some of the smaller fringe benefits of being a football recruit are gone. Schools no longer are permitted to provide personalized jerseys to recruits or flash their names on the football stadium scoreboard.
Miami discontinued its tradition of allowing recruits to run out of the Orange Bowl tunnel into a cloud of smoke.
"Some of the recruits have been disappointed from the standpoint that the some of the guys before them ruined all the fun for them," said Jaime Newberg, a recruiting analyst for Scout.com.
How much of an effect the NCAA's new policies will have is too early to tell. But after last year's escapades, Foley said there was no doubt "the culture of recruiting needed to be changed."
"At the end of the day people were picking the schools they were going to not because they flew on a private plane or what they ate, but for the all the reasons you're supposed to pick it — the academics, the facilities, the playing opportunity, the conference, you name it," Foley said. "I think this allows them to focus on what you should be focusing on as opposed to what I would call the fluff."
