Ably filling her role as ESPN’s designated legitimate sportswriter, here’s a must-read on proposed major changes in hoops recruiting from Dana O’Neil. The consciences of many coaches will be reassured by the impending NCAA rules, aimed square at the underbelly of payola recruitment as conducted through summer league coaches, assorted hangers-on, and various ne’er do-wells. Other coaches, however, may be breathing more heavily. From O’Neil’s article:
[t]aking more than their offered inch, some of the third parties have turned college basketball into a world of shakedown-for-profit, a land where peripheral people use players as pawns in a high-stakes game for profit.
It is quid pro quo at its best — or maybe more accurately, at its worst — and has led to a crisis of conscience for some coaches who are tired of being forced to play dirty to survive.
“It’s never been voiced to me, but there’s an unwritten rule: You want my kid, you pay the price,” said Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel. “You just know it because people have that reputation, and the problem is, if you don’t do it, someone else will.”
Original Story:
http://hoopraker.com/2009/10/28/ncaa-...
