A Recruiting Controversy Reminds Us What is Really Important
December 9th, 2009 - byEvery so often a recruiting controversy involving potential NCAA violations surfaces and a large amount of attention is paid to immoral recruiting practices. The latest is at the University of Tennessee where Coach Lane Kiffin has again landed in hot water. This time the controversy is swirling over the misuse of University Hostesses and their potential illegal contact with recruits.
Interviews with multiple recruits and their family members revealed that the N.C.A.A. has strong interest in Tennessee’s use of recruiting hostesses, students who are part of a formal group at the university that hosts all manner of prospective students at campus visits, including athletes. It is not clear whether the university sent the hostesses to visit the football players.
In one case, hostesses traveled nearly 200 miles to attend a high school game in South Carolina in which at least three Tennessee recruits were playing.
Marcus Lattimore, a running back who made an unofficial visit to Tennessee but said he would not enroll there, said multiple Tennessee hostesses attended a game at James F. Byrnes High School in Duncan, S.C., in September. He said they brought signs, including one that read, “Come to Tennessee.”
“I haven’t seen no other schools do that,” he said. “It’s crazy.”
The hostesses are considered representatives of the university, which would mean they could not recruit players off campus. Therefore, the visits may be considered violations of N.C.A.A. recruiting rules.
Two of Lattimore’s teammates, Brandon Willis and Corey Miller, have orally committed to Tennessee. Lattimore described the hostesses as “real pretty, real nice and just real cool.” He said he thought they had “a lot” of influence in Miller’s and Willis’s commitments to Tennessee.
Because of their influence on recruits, the recruiting hostesses have become popular with Tennessee fans. Bryce Brown, the country’s top running back recruit last year, who is a freshman at Tennessee, was pictured on a social networking site last year with a hostess. Other Tennessee hostesses have publicly conversed with prospects through Facebook and MySpace.
Making a decision on the validity of the allegations is the NCAA’s problem, but I wanted to focus on the idea of an athlete choosing a school based on a hostess. Choosing a college is one of the biggest decisions of a young person’s life. Basing that decision on something as superficial as a hostess attending a high school game could be a major regret later in life. Earning the right college degree from the right university that allows you to succeed in life should always be the number one concern of any student. Here is to hoping that this story reminds athletes how important this decision will be.
