The hot topic at the group's issues forum was the explosive growth of 7-on-7 football teams and events, the influence of non-scholastic coaches in these programs and the possible ramifications on recruiting. Some players are joining 7-on-7 all-star teams and traveling long distances to events, which can leave their high school coaches and counselors feeling left out of the recruiting process.
"High school football needs to be high school football and stay high school football," says coach Mickey Conn of Grayson High in Loganville, Ga. "People trying to leech onto this thing need to stay out of it. These kids need to be with their teammates and build their (high school) teams during the summer and play with each other."
About 200 representatives of state high school athletic associations from around the nation heard Marcus Wilson, an NCAA assistant director of enforcement, discuss the topic, NFHS executive director Bob Gardner said. This comes amid growing concern that 7-on-7 is starting to resemble the summer basketball model, which years ago changed how high school basketball players are recruited by colleges.
Gardner said the worry among administrators is the entity appears to be "snowballing."
"The recruiting process is getting to be like basketball, with more of an emphasis on summer events, travel teams and outside influences and less regard for the school and the school coach. That has not been good for basketball, and I don't think it would be good for football."
Participation in a 7-on-7 event — an all-passing game with skill position players — is not a violation of NCAA regulations. There is no rule limiting the number of teams a player can be on or events he can participate in. College coaches, though, are prohibited from attending the events, per NCAA rules.
But the receipt of any illicit benefits or preferential treatment from outside parties could jeopardize players' college eligibility, said Rachel Newman Baker, NCAA managing director of enforcement. NCAA investigators have spent a good portion of the summer traveling to various 7-on-7 events, Newman Baker said.
"A lot of it is about connecting the dots. Who is affiliating with who? Who works with who? What prospects are close to third parties?" she says.
There have been high school-team-based 7-on-7 leagues and events for years. Most high school coaches don't have a problem with those.
The traveling all-star teams, however, are a different matter, and some high school coaches are working on their own to try to limit outside influences. It's a matter of educating players and parents, they say.
"Our state coaches association has talked about trying to come up with almost a coaches' seal of approval with all these different events because guys are charging $50, $80, $100 at combines, telling kids they're going to get all these looks (from colleges), and they're not," says Frederick (Md.) coach Vince Ahearn. "Colleges want the game tape and want to see a kid in camp."
Biff Poggi, the longtime coach at Gilman High in Baltimore, prohibits his players from competing for all-star teams, which he likens to "old-time gladiator acts" going from place to place.
"It's very undisciplined, and there's a lot of stuff that has nothing to do with football going on," Poggi says. "They peddle kids to colleges, and they say they are giving them exposure and are acting as mentors. But a lot of these kids don't need any more exposure."
There is money to be made in 7-on-7 events even for high school teams.
Booker T. Washington (Miami) recently earned $10,000 for its booster club by winning the Battle by the Beach 7-on-7 tournament in New Smyrna Beach, Fla. The Tornadoes defeated Treasure Coast (Port St. Lucie, Fla.) in the title game. As the runner-up, Treasure Coast won $5,000.
The cash was put up by a New Smyrna Beach-area organization that raises money for youth and high school sports in the area.
Washington coach Tim Harris said the money helped defray expenses for a trip to play in an event the following week at Walt Disney World near Orlando and also will pay for shoes, sweat suits and equipment.
"It was a great incentive for the kids to work for something (where) they can actually see the result," Harris says.
Will SEC rule start trend?
As concern has grown, the Southeastern Conference passed legislation at its spring meeting this year which bans all non-scholastic 7-on-7 events from the league's campuses. The SEC still will allow events for high school teams.
"The premise of this legislation is to anchor football recruiting in an academic environment," commissioner Mike Slive says. "This spring, we were asked by our schools to specifically put the 7-on-7 issue on the agenda (for the meeting).
"We're going to propose this nationally and ask the NCAA to pass it. There are those who believe (recruiting) should be part of the academic experience and mission and should all occur within the academic environment. It will be very interesting to see if there is national support. We hope it will help."
Added the NCAA's Baker, "I do feel confident that we're on the front end of this and we can have a positive impact. … I think the membership will have a pretty engaged time (looking at the issue) in the next year."
But all-star events could still be held off campuses. An inaugural one was sponsored in late June by IMG Academies in Bradenton, Fla., which operates summer camps, weekend programs and year-round academies in various sports for athletes.
Twelve teams participated in the event, which was put together by Chris Weinke, the director of IMG's football academy. Weinke won the Heisman Trophy as quarterback for Florida State in 2000.
"We didn't want to make it too big to start off," Weinke says. "My philosophy was to provide a good product and invite all-star teams to start, but we will move into all-star and high school team events moving forward."
Recruiting at heart of debate
Don Clayton, coach at Cinco Ranch in Katy, Texas, and incoming president of the Texas 7-on-7 State Board of Directors, said his state's coaches got into 7-on-7 as a conditioning vehicle, not a money maker. The state coaches association holds its own 7-on-7 event, now in its 12th year. It includes 25,000 athletes.
While the Texas state 7-on-7 event involves only high school teams, that doesn't prevent other non-scholastic groups from having similar events or stop high school teams from playing in events outside the state tournament.
Badger Sport/New Level Athletics held a 7-on-7 championship earlier this month at SMU in Dallas. The event was won by 1925 Productions, an all-star team from California, coached by former Southern California and NFL players Keyshawn Johnson and Brian Kelly.
The pair also has put on a series of 7-on-7 events through their business, Big Man on Campus (BMOC). Not all the events are scholastic-based.
Kelly says he doesn't invite recruiting services to be at his events but sees little wrong in steering players toward one school or another.
"It scares me to see what the kids often base their decisions on," says Kelly, who said players don't consider enough factors when selecting a college. "That's one of the reasons that we're doing this. We want them to make good decisions."
Kelly said the 7-on-7 events put on by BMOC don't bring in a lot of money, possibly $20,000 a year total. However, they help build the brand of BMOC, which includes camps, personal training and a potential reality TV program that revolves around high school players making a college choice.
"We're building something," Kelly said. "The real money is in getting sponsorships from companies such (as) Nike, Under Armour or Gatorade. If you do it right, corporations are going to want to get attached to your brand."
Badger Sport/New Level Athletics is run by former New Hampshire player Baron Flenory, whose operation has been under scrutiny since reports surfaced in March that Oregon had paid Flenory more than $3,700 for recruiting information. The payment was cleared by the school's compliance office as being within NCAA rules at the time. However, the NCAA ruled that Badger Sport/New Level Athletics can no longer receive payment from schools for recruiting information if it wants to continue to stage events on campuses.
Flenory, who says his firm has put on events at UNLV, Pittsburgh and Rutgers among other colleges, believes he has been "unfairly portrayed," and denies that he steers players to certain colleges. "That's an absolute no," he says. "We want to be as transparent as possible. We believe in travel 7-on-7 as the best thing for recruits in terms of the camp process."
However, Flenory says he has a hard time understanding how high school coaches can feel threatened by his operation because players still have to play regular high school football in pads and helmets with its blocking, tackling, rushing and special-teams play to be legitimately evaluated for recruiting purposes.
"You can't tell me a high school coach who has been active in a kid's life is going to be cut out of the process
No comments:
Post a Comment