Illegal Recruitment: A Self-Implosion and Corruption of the NCAA

Abstract

Today’s high school/amateur athletes continue to get bigger, faster and stronger with every collegiate recruiting class. It would be easy to assume with more and more athletes having this type of ability that colleges would be on a more level playing field. That assumption is terribly wrong. The death penalty/capital punishment as defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary can be defined in short as: being sentenced to execution by a court of law for crimes committed (Capital Punishment). In collegiate sports, the death penalty has been enacted once and only once because of the ramifications that it had on the program. Why was the program given such a harsh penalty? Two words: illegal recruitment. Illegal recruitment, in short, can be defined by the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) as athletes receiving improper benefits from colleges, boosters (wealthy alumni donors to the university) or coaches to influence potential athletes to come and play for their respective athletic teams. Another thing destroying the NCAA are professional sports agents and scouts for professional sports teams. They continue to convince these young athletes to become a professional athlete at younger and younger ages. In this world money talks and when an agent or scout puts money in front of these young athletes’ faces, it is very often hard for them to turn it down. Often, these athletes do not come from the best situations, so they want to provide their respective families with the lives they have always wanted. Part of the NCAA’s mission statement is to provide fair opportunities to all athletes at all levels and illegal recruitment, as well as professional scouts and agents, are contributing to a tear down of not only a destruction of the NCAA’s mission but also selfimplosion of the NCAA as well. With student- athletes wanting more, it gives these boosters, scouts and agents giving these illegal gifts, that support bigger universities, more opportunities to recruit high profile athletes with ease, which is giving smaller colleges and universities no chance to compete (especially at the division one level) and is causing corruption in the NCAA and is not keeping the playing field level.