NCSA College Athletic Scholarships Blog

An important new trend is emerging in the world of major college football recruiting.  The top players in the country are starting to flock to elite 7 on 7 passing tournaments with the hope of displaying their talent for college coaches.  Sports Illustrated’s Andy Staples on the new events:

Flenory, a former New Hampshire defensive back, readily admits he would love to create an offseason football circuit similar to the one that rules basketball recruiting. On the basketball circuit, Nike’s Peach Jam tournament is the crown jewel. The tournament in Tampa may as well have been called the Guava Gridiron, because it was organized exactly the same way: all-star teams from different regions — in this case, Alabama, Georgia, the Carolinas, Mississippi and the larger metropolitan areas in Florida — taking part in pool play followed by a single-elimination tournament.

Flenory, the son of former Duquesne basketball star B.B. Flenory, said his professional idol is Sonny Vaccaro, the godfather of grassroots basketball. “I love what he did,” the younger Flenory said. “I think he’s a genius.” After several conversations during the nascent stages of Flenory’s grassroots football operation, Vaccaro came away impressed with the 25-year-old. What impressed Vaccaro most was Flenory’s desire to help players who weren’t already big-name recruits. “He’s basically an outsider,” Vaccaro said. “He started from scratch, and he did it the right way. And he did it without being a big name and without having a big-name player.”

Of course this could be seen as a bad thing by some.

Illinois coach Ron Zook, who pointed out that most high-school coaches are not allowed to coach seven-on-seven tournaments because of state association rules against extra practices. Zook worries that diminishing the influence of high school coaches combined with the NCAA’s stringent restrictions on contact between prospects and college coaches will make it even more difficult for college coaches to make informed recruiting choices. “Once you begin to take the high school coaches out of the mix, then we’re getting into the same thing as basketball,” Zook said. “The NCAA must feel that what goes on in basketball is OK.”

Of course there are fundamental differences between 7 0n 7 camps and the summer basketball circuit.  For one 7 on 7 isn’t real football.  More importantly, football coaches aren’t even allowed to attend the events while their contemporaries in college basketball have access.   With these important differences in place will the summer circuit ever replace or compete with the camp circuit?  It’s extremely difficult to make a definitive decision.  What is certain is that we have yet to hear the end about AAU football.

However, the emergence of the tournamentts is one more sign of the competitive nature of major college athletics recruiting.  Recruits will continue to always look for an edge.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 31st, 2009 at 12:00 pm and is filed under College Football, WEBSITE. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.