Forget for a moment all those recruiting trips you have heard about, the ones that involve strippers, free booze and the kind of weed that’s not found on a football field.
Imagine a university that requires recruits to follow an itinerary detailing the weekend’s activities. Imagine a school that makes an assistant coach responsible for that recruit’s whereabouts. Imagine a parent accompanying the future student-athlete on his or her visit. And imagine grave consequences for a host that strays from the plan.
Against the backdrop of the University of Colorado, where football coach Gary Barnett has been suspended with pay in the wake of allegations of wild recruiting tales and sexual assaults involving his players, you might find the above scenarios hard to believe. Schools haven’t been that diligent about recruiting since, when, before Bill Bradley went to Princeton?
Don’t be so sure.
Those policies are already in place at DePaul. Other universities, such as Notre Dame, have strict rules banning alcohol for prospective student-athletes. If they aren’t followed, a recruit can lose his or her scholarship offer.
Still it’s schools such as Colorado, Minnesota and Brigham Young that have garnered recent attention for recruiting that involved sex and alcohol.
For that reason, the NCAA has decided to form a task force that will examine schools’ recruiting policies and consider implementing new guidelines. The members of that task force, which NCAA Division I Vice President David Berst will chair, will be announced Monday.
While Notre Dame athletic director Kevin White said he would be “the last guy” to add more regulations to the massive NCAA rulebook, he makes an exception in this case.
“I think there’s enough noise in the system where it really warrants thoughtful and careful review,” he said. “If this task force digs down deep, and I believe it needs to, we will unearth a number of very challenging, if not disconcerting, issues that relate to recruitment.
“We have an enormous responsibility . . . and we take it seriously.”
Athletic directors say the NCAA has had few rules governing recruits’ visits. A recruiting weekend is supposed to reflect typical campus life.
“Obviously, that standard’s not working, based on some of the things we’ve read about recently,” said DePaul athletic director Jean Lenti Ponsetto. “We’ll probably have to get a set of standards for what’s appropriate on a recruiting visit.”
Ponsetto, a member of the men’s basketball issues committee, has strict guidelines for recruiting trips to DePaul.
An assistant coach is responsible for each recruit, and that coach accompanies the recruit and student host to some meals.
“I think that sets the tone that there’s supervision,” Ponsetto said. “You’re not showing up [for a visit] on Friday at noon and we’ll see you again on Sunday before you go.”
The recruiting coach submits a written itinerary of events to DePaul’s compliance officer. Nighttime activities often include bowling or a visit to a comedy or jazz club.
“We need to know,” Ponsetto said. “I don’t want to deal with somebody’s parent on Monday or Tuesday, who tells me about some inappropriate thing our student-athletes did.”
With Lincoln Park bars within walking distance of campus, Ponsetto knows there will be temptations.
“And I’m not naive enough to think they still won’t go to some of those parties [with alcohol],” she said. “But I think we give very clear messages to our kids about what’s appropriate and what’s not.
“And I have a policy with our kids: If you get thrown in jail, don’t call me. Call your mom and dad. Even though I’m closest to campus, I won’t be the one coming to bail you out. It indicates that there will be a consequence along the way.”
DePaul encourages parents to join their child on recruiting trips. Ponsetto said that on at least 80 percent of visits, at least one parent accompanies the high school student.
“It might happen here more often because it’s Chicago and people still think that Al Capone lives in Cicero,” she said.
While the NCAA won’t pay to fly a parent on a recruiting trip, it allows schools to reimburse for a second hotel room and provide meal money.
Recruiting analyst Tom Lemming said that if the NCAA were truly serious about cracking down on football recruiting misadventures, it would try to get parents more involved.
“Then you wouldn’t have kids taken to illegal bars and strip clubs,” he said. “The focus would be more on academics.”
Lemming said women have been used to lure big-time recruits for decades. Many southern schools have women serve as recruiting hosts.
“But I think it has gone overboard,” he said. “I hadn’t heard much about the escort services until recently.”
It all centers on competition to sign recruits. The battle is so intense at southern schools, Lemming said, that they all feel desperate to one-up each other.
“When your head coach tells an assistant, `You better get this kid,’ there are going to be rules broken,” he said.
In 2002, Alabama was banned from postseason play for two years for violations that included players hiring strippers to entertain recruits on campus. A Denver-based company called Hardbodies Entertainment told the Rocky Mountain News that it has sent strippers to entertain recruits at Colorado State, Houston, Northern Colorado, Rice, UNLV and Colorado.
Sometimes that recruiting style can backfire. Last year, Minnesota’s top football recruit, Lydon Murtha, rescinded his oral commitment after he was taken to a strip club during a campus visit. He signed with Nebraska.
But Lemming believes that kind of decision is rare.
“A lot of kids base their decision on girls, the excitement created during the visit and their chances of making the NFL,” he said. “Parents want the academics. They bring in a measure of reality.”
