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01-23-2005, 12:59 PM
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Strippers, booze and private jets are things of the past. Now colleges and their players seek new ways to impress recruits in the wake of the NCAA’s crackdown.
By: Joseph Person
Staff Writer
TheState.com
A world of fewer frills and thrills greet this year’s recruits
When the clock struck midnight during his Kentucky recruiting trip, Mike Davis’ night on the Lexington town came to a screeching halt.
Lights out. Lock ‘em up in their hotel rooms.
Davis, the highly recruited Columbia High running back, managed to have a good time and still make the Wildcats’ 12 a.m. curfew, which was an hour and a half earlier than his weekend check-in time at home.
“We still have fun,” said Davis, who is visiting USC this weekend. “You just have to have your fun before 12.”
But after some schools took “fun” to the extreme to sway prospects, the NCAA last year implemented a recruiting-reform package in the wake of the Colorado sex scandal.
As recruits across the country visit campuses this month before National Signing Day on Feb. 2, they are finding that private planes, lobster dinners and trips to strip clubs have been replaced by commercial flights, cafeteria meals and tours of the school library.
Under the new rules, Kentucky was required to furnish Davis with a list of dos and don’ts before his December visit. Glenn Holt, a Kentucky receiver who hosted Davis, hinted at what might have been.
Said Davis: “He was telling me like, ‘Man you should have come two years before. If you had come two years before, you would have been happy.’”
ELIMINATING THE CELEBRITY ATMOSPHERE
Recruiting trips have long been 48-hour studies in excess. Top prospects were granted rock-star status — whisked into town on universities’ private planes, shown around campus by attractive student hostesses and treated to the best steaks and seafood.
Those were the supervised activities. At night, coaches paired recruits with players, gave them the NCAA-approved $30 per diem and turned them loose. What happened during those hours were, at best, opportunities for recruits to get a glimpse of the school’s night life or, at worst, alcohol-fueled parties involving athletes and sometimes strippers, as depicted in films such as Spike Lee’s “He Got Game.”
College leaders who tried to dismiss such pop-culture characterizations of recruiting weekends had no explanation for the scandal at Colorado, where prostitutes reportedly were hired to entertain prospects and rape allegations were made by women attending an off-campus party with players and recruits.
Willie Williams, a top linebacker prospect from Miami, provided further evidence of over-the-top recruiting practices in a diary he kept for The Miami Herald of his trips. Williams wound up at Miami, but not before getting arrested twice while visiting Florida’s campus.
Reaction to the Colorado scandal was swift. Congress got involved, and the NCAA appointed a task force to recommend changes designed to eliminate the celebrity atmosphere surrounding recruiting visits. In August, the NCAA’s Division I management council approved the following six changes:
• By Dec. 1, schools had to file written policies prohibiting inappropriate or illegal behavior in recruiting, including the use of alcohol, drugs and sex as recruiting aids. Though not required, some schools set curfews.
• Schools no longer can use private planes or charters to transport recruits, who must fly coach class on commercial flights.
• No use of limos or extravagant vehicles such as Hummers to transport recruits.
• Recruits and their parents must stay in standard hotel rooms and eat meals in line with those available on campus.
• Hostess groups are allowed only if they work with all prospective students, not strictly athletes.
• No personalized jerseys, scoreboard presentations or game-day simulations (i.e., South Carolina’s “2001” entrance or rubbing Howard’s Rock and running down The Hill at Clemson).
In addition, the task force recommended reducing the number of official visits from five to four and allowing schools to cover the airfare for one parent or guardian to accompany recruits on visits. The NCAA’s management council will discuss those proposals this spring.
Dave Roberts, USC’s recruiting coordinator for five seasons under Lou Holtz, likes the idea of paying airfare for a parent. He believes having mom or dad around would help keep recruits in check.
On the other hand, Roberts thinks the NCAA went too far in restricting hostess groups such as the Carolina Classics. He said the notion that female hosts send the wrong message about sexual expectations was “ridiculous.”
Clemson recruiting coordinator David Blackwell said not having hostesses available to lead tours has added to the coaches’ workloads.
“We’ve always been around for that stuff, but it just puts a little more on you,” he said. “For example, if you’ve got a (coach) with multiple kids (visiting), it’s harder to hand off to somebody.”
PRIVATE PLANES GROUNDED
Mullins High coach Denver Cromer joked that his school is “so far out in the woods” that the news of the revised NCAA recruiting rules had not yet reached him. Reaching Mullins on a small aircraft is no problem.
Clemson’s private plane, which features the Tigers paw on the tail, has touched down at the tiny Marion County airport a couple of times this winter so Clemson coach Tommy Bowden or offensive line coach Brad Scott could meet with Mullins offensive lineman Jamarcus Grant, a Tigers commitment.
But getting recruits out of Mullins without the use of private plane will take a little longer. It’s a 70-minute drive to Myrtle Beach, where many flights require a connection. “This (rule change) is going to cause us an obvious problem,” Cromer said.
Officials at schools without a major airport nearby, such as Mississippi State, argued that the ban on private planes put them at a disadvantage. Roberts and Blackwell said USC and Clemson used their planes sparingly, but they came in handy in transporting recruits to campus following Friday night basketball games.
Although Roberts admitted USC sometimes fired up its plane simply to keep up in the recruiting game of one-upmanship. “(If) so-and-so from the SEC is picking him up in a private plane,” Roberts said, “then you have to do the same thing.”
The new rules are meant to more closely approximate the experience of a college freshman, not a visiting dignitary.
SCALED-DOWN WEEKENDS
The rules changes arrived a decade after the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics first recommended cleaning up recruiting. Former North Carolina chancellor William Friday, one of the original Knight co-chairs, said the commission heard “testimony of abuses” in recruiting 10 years ago. He believes the emergency legislation enacted in August is a promising start.
Davis, the Columbia High tailback, has been briefed on the rules before each of his four visits, which have featured far less pomp than in the past. A year ago Davis might have found a personalized, baby-blue jersey waiting for him when he visited North Carolina’s locker room at Kenan Stadium. Instead, he received an itinerary on which someone had drawn a picture of a Tar Heels jersey featuring Davis’ name and No. 25, his high school number.
As for the meals, Davis said the lobster has been conspicuously absent. “It’s still nice,” he said, “but I think the players before me got better.”
The unstructured time at night when recruits and players are paired is the toughest for coaches and administrators to manage. Hosts must sign forms saying they will not indulge in alcohol, drugs, gambling, strip clubs or other criminal activities with recruits.
“I think you try to educate them as best as you can,” Roberts said. “There’s 20,000 students at the University of South Carolina, and I’m sure their parents educated them the best they can. But I’m sure some of those kids are still out.”
Roberts believes USC’s 1 a.m. curfew is a good idea.
“I don’t know if you can stop people from doing certain things, but at least you can slow it down,” he said.
Auburn freshman tackle and former Spring Valley standout Leon Hart said he would be surprised if recruits and their hosts followed the letter of the law.
“It’s good to make it a rule and write it down in the rule book, but rules are always going to get broken,” Hart said. “So I don’t think everybody’s going to follow them.”
Davis has his fifth and final visit scheduled for next weekend at Maryland. He has had no limo rides or suites in five-star hotels. But he has had fun.
“What’s the point of going on an official visit, if you’re not going to have fun,” he said.
Staff writer Jon Solomon contributed to this report. Reach Person at (803) 771-8496 or jperson@thestate.com
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/10712065.htm
Strippers, booze and private jets are things of the past. Now colleges and their players seek new ways to impress recruits in the wake of the NCAA’s crackdown.
By: Joseph Person
Staff Writer
TheState.com
A world of fewer frills and thrills greet this year’s recruits
When the clock struck midnight during his Kentucky recruiting trip, Mike Davis’ night on the Lexington town came to a screeching halt.
Lights out. Lock ‘em up in their hotel rooms.
Davis, the highly recruited Columbia High running back, managed to have a good time and still make the Wildcats’ 12 a.m. curfew, which was an hour and a half earlier than his weekend check-in time at home.
“We still have fun,” said Davis, who is visiting USC this weekend. “You just have to have your fun before 12.”
But after some schools took “fun” to the extreme to sway prospects, the NCAA last year implemented a recruiting-reform package in the wake of the Colorado sex scandal.
As recruits across the country visit campuses this month before National Signing Day on Feb. 2, they are finding that private planes, lobster dinners and trips to strip clubs have been replaced by commercial flights, cafeteria meals and tours of the school library.
Under the new rules, Kentucky was required to furnish Davis with a list of dos and don’ts before his December visit. Glenn Holt, a Kentucky receiver who hosted Davis, hinted at what might have been.
Said Davis: “He was telling me like, ‘Man you should have come two years before. If you had come two years before, you would have been happy.’”
ELIMINATING THE CELEBRITY ATMOSPHERE
Recruiting trips have long been 48-hour studies in excess. Top prospects were granted rock-star status — whisked into town on universities’ private planes, shown around campus by attractive student hostesses and treated to the best steaks and seafood.
Those were the supervised activities. At night, coaches paired recruits with players, gave them the NCAA-approved $30 per diem and turned them loose. What happened during those hours were, at best, opportunities for recruits to get a glimpse of the school’s night life or, at worst, alcohol-fueled parties involving athletes and sometimes strippers, as depicted in films such as Spike Lee’s “He Got Game.”
College leaders who tried to dismiss such pop-culture characterizations of recruiting weekends had no explanation for the scandal at Colorado, where prostitutes reportedly were hired to entertain prospects and rape allegations were made by women attending an off-campus party with players and recruits.
Willie Williams, a top linebacker prospect from Miami, provided further evidence of over-the-top recruiting practices in a diary he kept for The Miami Herald of his trips. Williams wound up at Miami, but not before getting arrested twice while visiting Florida’s campus.
Reaction to the Colorado scandal was swift. Congress got involved, and the NCAA appointed a task force to recommend changes designed to eliminate the celebrity atmosphere surrounding recruiting visits. In August, the NCAA’s Division I management council approved the following six changes:
• By Dec. 1, schools had to file written policies prohibiting inappropriate or illegal behavior in recruiting, including the use of alcohol, drugs and sex as recruiting aids. Though not required, some schools set curfews.
• Schools no longer can use private planes or charters to transport recruits, who must fly coach class on commercial flights.
• No use of limos or extravagant vehicles such as Hummers to transport recruits.
• Recruits and their parents must stay in standard hotel rooms and eat meals in line with those available on campus.
• Hostess groups are allowed only if they work with all prospective students, not strictly athletes.
• No personalized jerseys, scoreboard presentations or game-day simulations (i.e., South Carolina’s “2001” entrance or rubbing Howard’s Rock and running down The Hill at Clemson).
In addition, the task force recommended reducing the number of official visits from five to four and allowing schools to cover the airfare for one parent or guardian to accompany recruits on visits. The NCAA’s management council will discuss those proposals this spring.
Dave Roberts, USC’s recruiting coordinator for five seasons under Lou Holtz, likes the idea of paying airfare for a parent. He believes having mom or dad around would help keep recruits in check.
On the other hand, Roberts thinks the NCAA went too far in restricting hostess groups such as the Carolina Classics. He said the notion that female hosts send the wrong message about sexual expectations was “ridiculous.”
Clemson recruiting coordinator David Blackwell said not having hostesses available to lead tours has added to the coaches’ workloads.
“We’ve always been around for that stuff, but it just puts a little more on you,” he said. “For example, if you’ve got a (coach) with multiple kids (visiting), it’s harder to hand off to somebody.”
PRIVATE PLANES GROUNDED
Mullins High coach Denver Cromer joked that his school is “so far out in the woods” that the news of the revised NCAA recruiting rules had not yet reached him. Reaching Mullins on a small aircraft is no problem.
Clemson’s private plane, which features the Tigers paw on the tail, has touched down at the tiny Marion County airport a couple of times this winter so Clemson coach Tommy Bowden or offensive line coach Brad Scott could meet with Mullins offensive lineman Jamarcus Grant, a Tigers commitment.
But getting recruits out of Mullins without the use of private plane will take a little longer. It’s a 70-minute drive to Myrtle Beach, where many flights require a connection. “This (rule change) is going to cause us an obvious problem,” Cromer said.
Officials at schools without a major airport nearby, such as Mississippi State, argued that the ban on private planes put them at a disadvantage. Roberts and Blackwell said USC and Clemson used their planes sparingly, but they came in handy in transporting recruits to campus following Friday night basketball games.
Although Roberts admitted USC sometimes fired up its plane simply to keep up in the recruiting game of one-upmanship. “(If) so-and-so from the SEC is picking him up in a private plane,” Roberts said, “then you have to do the same thing.”
The new rules are meant to more closely approximate the experience of a college freshman, not a visiting dignitary.
SCALED-DOWN WEEKENDS
The rules changes arrived a decade after the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics first recommended cleaning up recruiting. Former North Carolina chancellor William Friday, one of the original Knight co-chairs, said the commission heard “testimony of abuses” in recruiting 10 years ago. He believes the emergency legislation enacted in August is a promising start.
Davis, the Columbia High tailback, has been briefed on the rules before each of his four visits, which have featured far less pomp than in the past. A year ago Davis might have found a personalized, baby-blue jersey waiting for him when he visited North Carolina’s locker room at Kenan Stadium. Instead, he received an itinerary on which someone had drawn a picture of a Tar Heels jersey featuring Davis’ name and No. 25, his high school number.
As for the meals, Davis said the lobster has been conspicuously absent. “It’s still nice,” he said, “but I think the players before me got better.”
The unstructured time at night when recruits and players are paired is the toughest for coaches and administrators to manage. Hosts must sign forms saying they will not indulge in alcohol, drugs, gambling, strip clubs or other criminal activities with recruits.
“I think you try to educate them as best as you can,” Roberts said. “There’s 20,000 students at the University of South Carolina, and I’m sure their parents educated them the best they can. But I’m sure some of those kids are still out.”
Roberts believes USC’s 1 a.m. curfew is a good idea.
“I don’t know if you can stop people from doing certain things, but at least you can slow it down,” he said.
Auburn freshman tackle and former Spring Valley standout Leon Hart said he would be surprised if recruits and their hosts followed the letter of the law.
“It’s good to make it a rule and write it down in the rule book, but rules are always going to get broken,” Hart said. “So I don’t think everybody’s going to follow them.”
Davis has his fifth and final visit scheduled for next weekend at Maryland. He has had no limo rides or suites in five-star hotels. But he has had fun.
“What’s the point of going on an official visit, if you’re not going to have fun,” he said.
Staff writer Jon Solomon contributed to this report. Reach Person at (803) 771-8496 or jperson@thestate.com
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/10712065.htm