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Glitz, glamour fading
from recruiting process
By RALPH D. RUSSO
AP Sports Writer
NEW YORK — As one of the
top high school football players in the country, Dajleon Farr took
recruiting trips to LSU, Miami, Nebraska and Oklahoma.
He toured the campuses,
checked out the facilities, met some of the players and coaches and got
a 48-hour feel for life as a student-athlete at a football powerhouse.
But he didn't get to see
his name in lights. As of last year, that's against the rules.
``I remember watching that
in ``The Program,'' and I was like, I can't wait until it's my turn to
take my trip and I'll see my name on the scoreboard and get to run out
on the field,'' said Farr, a tight end from Houston's North Shore High
School.
High-profile scandals
involving football recruits at Colorado and Miami prompted the NCAA to
take what it called emergency action last summer.
No longer are schools
allowed to woo prospects with rock star treatment. Fancy hotels, ritzy
restaurants and private planes are now off limits. So are personalized
jerseys and the use of simulated game-day activities, like the ones Farr
saw in the movie ``The Program,'' a 1993 film about a fictitious
scandal-ridden college football team.
The NCAA also now requires
schools to file a written recruiting policy with their conference or the
NCAA.
NCAA vice president David
Berst, who chaired the panel that came up with the reforms, said the
goal is to change the philosophy of recruiting and stamp out the
``culture of entitlement,'' as NCAA president Myles Brand referred to
it.
``I think it remains to be
seen if it has any long-term benefit of reducing the celebrity of the
recruiting weekends,'' Berst said. ``You shouldn't win the recruiting
war by a lobster tail. You should win by an academic major, as foreign
as that concept may be to some.''
American Football Coaches
Association executive director Grant Teaff said most of the reforms have
been well received by coaches.
``I haven't heard one word
of complaint,'' he said. ``Though we may get that after signing day.''
He said many schools don't
have the type of perks available to them — five-star hotels and
restaurants, for example — that the NCAA outlawed using. But some do,
and opposing coaches were happy to see the playing field leveled.
``I can't imagine offering
our recruits five-star hotels or restaurants,'' new LSU coach Les Miles
said. ``If staying where they have a hot tub in the room is important to
them, this isn't the place for them.''
New Mississippi coach Ed
Orgeron was recruiting coordinator and defensive line coach for Southern
California. He said the new restrictions did little to change how USC
ran recruiting visits and he doesn't anticipate them being a problem at
Ole Miss.
``I really feel there's
more focus on the weekend on things that really matter, such as
academics and athletics,'' he said.
Rutgers coach Greg Schiano
was disappointed that he had to stop taking recruits on the Scarlet
Walk, following the path the Scarlet Knights take on game day into the
their new stadium, where the prospects' names would be displayed on the
scoreboard.
``It think that's big, a
kid getting a feel for being a part of the program for 48 hours,'' said
Schiano, entering his fifth year with Rutgers.
Teaff said the reform that
prompted the most protest from coaches was prohibiting college's from
using chartered or private planes to transport recruits. About 35
Division I-A schools don't have a commercial airport near by, Teaff
said. It saves time for those schools to use charters, but as Teaff
pointed out, ``There's no private planes to get you there when you
become a student.''
``Coaches can use reality
to an honest benefit,'' he said.
The NCAA's new rules were
a response to two highly publicized embarrassments to college football.
Colorado was accused of
using sex and alcohol to entice recruits. The scandal was set off by
lawsuit filed by a woman who said she was raped by CU players or
recruits in 2001.
At Miami, the Hurricanes
offered a scholarship to a player who was already on probation when he
was charged with hugging a woman without her permission and setting off
hotel fire extinguishers while on a recruiting trip to the University of
Florida. Miami eventually let star high school linebacker Willie
Williams enroll.
Farr has given a verbal
commitment to Miami and is expected to make it official Wednesday. As
for missing out on his Hollywood moment as a recruit, he wasn't all that
disappointed.
``It wasn't a big deal,''
he said. ``I'll get that eventually.''
National signing day is
Wednesday.
02/23/07 11:02 AM
©2005
The Associated Press and Bonesville.net. All
rights rights reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Bonesville.net contributed to this report.
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