Lots of parents these days think their children are the greatest athletes of all time. They believe their 3-year-olds should be able to play tee ball with the 6-year-olds, or that their kid’s travel soccer team should be playing up two years because they are “too good for the competition.” For those types of parents out there, a new NCAA rule will simply inflate their egos even more, as seventh-grade male basketball players were recently defined as “prospects” for college recruiting.
The same rules that codify how coaches can interact with high school players now govern seventh- and eighth-graders, as well. The rule previously included ninth-graders and up, though it prohibited coaches from working at basketball camps where “prospects” are playing. As college coaches began exploiting the chance to make impressions on talented players that weren’t governed by NCAA rules, regardless of the fact the kids were only 12 years old, the NCAA decided to step in and extend the prohibition.
On the surface, this move by the NCAA might seem smart to some people. Those who believe college coaches are manipulative monsters will applaud the NCAA for keeping them away from impressionable middle school students. But that’s not reality. Rather, this rule just makes it legal for all college coaches to start recruiting kids as early as seventh grade. If people think coaches are bad people for stalking 18-year-olds and texting them to come play at ABC University, how can they honestly believe the rule will make this better now that 12-year-olds can be treated the same way?
This rule change takes something small away from coaches — the ability to work seventh and eighth grade camps — but in turn gives them free range to contact these young players the same way they recruit 11th-graders. Whereas high school juniors might be bribed with Escalades, the newly eligible “prospects” will now mysteriously find their favorite juice boxes in their middle school lockers.
It was bad enough when scouting services began posting their lists of the “Top 25 Eighth Graders” and when schools like Kentucky started extending scholarships and receiving commitments from kids in middle school. Now, as if it’s not weird enough that 12-year-olds have cell phones, they’re going to start having big-name coaches like Billy Gillespie on speed dial. These kids aren’t old enough to get a driving permit but will now be subject to intense recruiting battles among schools trying to get them to commit to a college program.
“Sports Illustrated” writer Phil Taylor shares my sentiment about the NCAA’s backwards thinking in his Feb. 23 column. The NCAA has tons of dumb rules, and this new rule just adds to the list. In trying to protect seventh-graders, the NCAA gave coaches the ability to recruit them. That is simply counterintuitive. Personally, I fear that this rule might be expanded to include pint-sized athletes in other sports. Can you imagine seeing BCS-conference football coaches at pee-wee league games? It sounds absurd now, but it might not be that far from reality, and that’s a scary thing to imagine.
Fellow Wahoos, if you have brothers playing middle school basketball, let them know to start sending out the homemade highlight reels now. For better or worse — and you know where I stand — Billy Gillespie could be at your front door tomorrow.
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