The Paying Of College Student Athlete A Good Idea or Bad Idea?

As the college basketball season wound down to a close earlier this year, millions of fans watched the Cinderella dreams of Virginia Commonwealth (VCU), and then Butler, falter under the pressure of better talent. In the end, Connecticut, a longtime round ball powerhouse, cut down the nets in Houston and gave their 68-year old coach Jim Calhoun his third championship.

For Calhoun, the celebration was the culmination of a trying season, which saw his Huskies finish ninth in the Big East. After thirty-plus years of coaching, Calhoun could probably live for another season with a ninth-place finish, but his reputation was tarnished more by charges of recruit tampering within his program, which turned out to be true, resulting in a three-game suspension for next year.

But Calhoun almost didn't stick around for next season. His contract with U. Conn paid him a handsome $2.3 million salary in 2010-2011, plus bonuses with added hundreds of thousands more. Calhoun is a rich man and a Hall of Famer who probably didn't need to face the embarrassment of watching someone else coach his team next year.

However, his base salary paled in comparison to the $3.8 million paid to Kentucky's John Calipari or the $3.575 million shelled out to Florida's Billy Donovan. In fact, all three men were paupers next to Louisville's Rick Pitino who earned over $7.5 million this year, mostly due to a $3.6 million bonus which he earned for.. wait for it.. completing three years of his contract. There is another $3.6 million waiting for him in 2014, assuming he can simply do his job.

It was newsworthy when VCU's Shaka Smart saw his salary quadruple from 325K to 1.3 million over eight years, but in reality, his salary would still be lower than 26 of the coaches from the NCAA tournament.

Oh yes, this does not necessarily count the money coaches make from "camps," shoe deals and TV/radio shows.

Basketball coaches are not alone. Many football coaches enjoy seven figure salaries, free country club memberships, complimentary cars, use of the university plane and such to walk the sidelines of proud football schools like Michigan and Ohio State. In a true story of irony, Buckeye coach Jim Tressel and several of his players fell under the watchful eye of the NCAA sanctioning committee when it was learned that the players may have sold memorabilia for as much as…………...wait for it again.. $2,500.

Oh Mother of Pearl, the humanity!!!

For what it's worth, a university which can produce a football team worthy of making one of the five BCS bowls stands to rake in almost $20 million.

One of the best movies ever made regarding this topic is 1994's underrated "Blue Chips," starring Nick Nolte, with Shaq and Penny Hardaway playing two of the players recruited into a clean program gone dirty after a 15-17 season at the fictitious "Western U." In one memorable scene, a disgusted Nolte, as coach Pete Bell, leaves his watering hole after the appearance of "Happy," a corrupt booster and "friend of the program" who has been selected to make sure that Nolte's three recruits get what they want. As Bell chastises Happy in the parking lot for buying players into the Western programs, an equally disgusted Happy (J.T. Walsh) retorts with a cry that echoes even today. "We owe it to them Coach…………..we OWE it to them!!"

But do we?

In theory, I am sickened by the disparity between what coaches and players receive for their part in being part of a successful college program. Coaches such as Calipari and Pitino seem to leave their trail of destruction behind at every stop. Calipari has been to the Final Four three times, but the first two were vacated after allegations of NCAA violations were found to be true. Bob Huggins of West Virginia left the University of Cincinnati after a DUI charge, and it was later rumored that none of his players graduated.

How does the NCAA respond? By stating that players receive free tuition, books, as well as room and board. Period.

As ably noted by Sally Jenkins in a recent Washington Post article, there is more. Players receive "world-class professional training, the showcase in front of prospective employers, the medical care, the free head-to-toe Nike or Adidas gear, the plush travel and nice hotel rooms..." I might also add the collectable memorabilia (like the kind the Ohio State players sold) and in the case of a BCS football game, swag bags full of watches and other knick knacks.

Originally, I was all for paying college athletes, but Jenkins' article made me engage in deeper thought. Most of the schools in question cost $25-40 thousand a year to attend, as many of the players are from out of state. The athletic gear is worth thousands of dollars a year (i.e. basketball players can expect a brand new pair of $150 kicks every month, never mind the sweats and other apparel). And you can bet that the U. Conn's and Ohio State's of the world do not send their players to the Super 8 to rest for a big game. Their hotels need to include lots of room for the high charged and high balled alumni who tote their vast wealth from city to city to follow their team. Talk about a networking opportunity???

Here's the other problem. We're talking about two sports. Women's basketball is close to becoming the third and completing the trifecta, but I'll wait to see what happens after Pat Summitt and Geno Auriemma retire. From the two sports, not everyone is enjoying in the profits. It was interesting to see point shaving charges leveled against a sports betting business that ran in cahoots with the University of San Diego basketball team. I don't recall USD being on the national radar before this.

Problem number two. Most college athletic programs don't make money. Even with football, considered to be the biggest cash cow, only about a dozen or so of the 117 Division I-A (BCS) schools turn a profit. Just doing a quick math check. If 80 players are making an extra $25,000 a year, we're talking about $2 million.

Maybe a few schools could suck it up, but it would affect the budgets of the lower rung teams. A fair share of the money generated goes to help the swimming, cross-country, water polo and gymnastics programs at a lot of these schools. Should they lose the $2 million? And where is the dividing line? Is it just male football and basketball athletes earning the money?

That would put a major league dent in Title IX, and the next sound you hear will be the lawyers knocking each other over en route to the courtrooms around America, ready to sue the big bad NCAA.

And lest anyone forget that this is just Division I. Obviously, the Division II and III schools would lose out even more because they already have to be flexible with financial aid for their athletes.

My own feeling on the subject is that paying athletes would only widen the gap between the have and have-not schools, thereby erasing the chance us fans have of watching the rise of a program such as Boise State football and Butler basketball. Of course, with the NCAA Executive Committee running things, the concept of paying athletes will never reach fruition. Less money for the bigwigs. Probably why we don't have a playoff system in the BCS. Unfortunately, the current system isn't free of corruption either; otherwise, these thoughts wouldn't be discussed so often.

Do You Know What You’re Doing?

Most high school coaches don’t know what they are doing when it comes to getting their players recruited for college. 

They are not professional college recruiters. They’re not even professional coaches. Would you leave your future in the hands of someone who does not know what they are doing as far as getting student athletes recruited for college? I wouldn’t and you shouldn’t either. 

If most parents are not sure what the college recruiting process is all about, then how can a high school coach understand this process? They don’t teach how to be a college recruiter in college and there aren't any classes you can take.

 

The college recruiting process is just that--a big process with a lot of little things you must do almost every day.

Remember, most high school coaches will never have the time for recruiting or fully understand the college recruiting process.

THE POWER OF POSITIVE FOCUS

I can think only one thought at a time.  When I focus on one thought, I displace all others from my mind.  Focus enables me to displace unwanted thoughts.  I displace negative ones with positive ones and limiting ones with unlimited ones.

Focus selects the programs that I run in my mind.  When I select a program using the power of focus, I take control of my mind.  Since I can run only one program at a time, when I run a positive one, the negative ones vanish.

I use the power of focus to push my mind in the direction of my dreams.  The magic of focus is not hocus-pocus, and it’s not a trick.  It’s the real thing.  Focus unlocks the door of change and makes it possible to run positive programs in my mind.

How To Choose The Right College Recruiting Service

It can be extremely frustrating trying to figure the ins and outs of marketing yourself as a young athlete to college sports recruiters without appearing desperate. Hunger for success and desperation are two completely different concepts that have a very thin line separating them. In this article I will outline key factors to consider when targeting college sports recruiting services.

What is your relationship to the athlete you are exposing? Is it yourself, your child, or student athlete. Seldom will a coach be walking around endorsing a single athlete, and this is what many young athletes fail to realize ahead of time. Yes a coach will always uplift his team collectively but singling out athlete may be frowned upon, and finding the time to send film and statistics to college sports recruiting services is almost impossible for most coaches.

So if not the athlete themselves, it is crucial to have someone or a system in place that working as a marketer and or voice for the athlete. Coaches are the ones doing most of the college recruiting, and their time is scarce.

So when you are preparing yourself or a student athlete to be exposed to higher education, professional, or semi professional recruiters keep that in mind.

Another very crucial part of targeting college sports recruiting services is organization and goal setting. Sit down and make a list of five to ten prospective colleges or universities you or the athlete you are promoting would like to attend. From this point map out different avenues that can be used to showcase your athletic talent.

For example film from games you've played in, authenticated high school sports rankings, and awards you have received. Be sure to compile a variety of these things to build your sports stats profile, this will reinforce credibility.

This is a commonly overlooked aspect of targeting sports recruiting services, researching competition of the athlete or athletes you may be promoting. If you are going to grab the attention of a leading college sports recruiter, you better be thinking like one. The material you choose to create an athletes sports profile with should be based on all of these considerations.

Lay your athletes stats out on a table along side his or her competition and ask yourself what piece of information do you need to provide, that will result in a recruiter choosing your athlete over their competition. When you successfully answer that question repeatedly, make sure you deliver a sports profile that can survive that test.

College Recruiting Does Matter

The college experience, for many people, amounts to the most significant years of a person's life. When you're in college you discover who you want to become and you pursue it to your full potential. And for many high schooners, the dream of being recruited to a college team can provide them with scholarship opportunities that will help them enjoy that experience even more.

The college recruiting process is detailed and difficult, and hiring a professional to guide you through this time can help you attain a top college preference.

When you are trying to be accepted to a school, you simply apply, go through the interview process, and then wait. But with college sports recruiting, the process is much more in-depth, and requires a lot more participation from both the athlete and the school.

Your extraordinary talent can give you the means to be accepted to a college sports program; expertise from a firm that wants to get you into the sports program of your choice can help you actually get there.

The college sports recruiting process can be a frightening venture if it isn't well-managed and implemented. Professionals can help you organize a plan and pursue your dreams with you eagerly. Below are a number of tips on how to get ready for your college years and make the best out of your chances on admission to your top college preference.

Just the Facts:

Assembling detailed facts about your sports career is significant for creating a creditable application. Structuring an informational profile about yourself as an athlete can help colleges start hunting for you. You can start this as early as ninth grade; keep track of your athletic achievements and make a profile.

When the time comes to find a sports recruiting agent you will be well prepared. By the time you are ending your junior year though, your sports portfolio should be a well-planned, disciplined project.

Aside from getting together the facts on your sports career, start browsing colleges. Look at sports programs and keep information on the ones which you are interested in. The more you know about a school, the easier it will be to decide which programs are right for you.

Be Organized and Thorough:

Maintain a precise profile that is neat and professionally formatted. Make your profile easy to read so that a college coach can peruse it without straining to find the facts about your career.

Highlight relevant information for college sports recruiters. Maintain a copy of your standard profile to send out to every school you are interested in - and then personalize 5-10 profiles to be sent to your favorite college sports programs. These steps can help you catch the eye of a football recruiter or a basketball recruiter.

Sports scholarships such as baseball scholarships, tennis scholarships and football scholarships can help ease the financial burden of college - and make the most out of your college years.

Create this profile (and maybe even a video) primarily to describe yourself to the coach. Explain how you would fit the team. Make everything clean and to the point; give the coach every reason to give you a call.

College recruiting, athletics recruiting and sports recruiting can be very exciting and very intimidating. It needs a disciplined yet flexible approach - and hiring a professional to guide you through the process can be immensely valuable.

Sports Injuries Are A Bitch

Sports injuries occur far too frequently. Unfortunately, most athletes today are adding to their risk of injury rather than reducing their risk of injury. Many people believe injuries occur because muscles are tight; while this is true many people perform stretching to make the muscles less tight.

But the stretching done today by athletes is only adding to the risk of injury. Many reasons cause injury in sports, but the number one reason injuries occur is because the athlete is not able to absorb force.

The typical athlete will stretch either before, during, or after training or a game in order to stay flexible and "prevent" injury. But typical stretching today follows the guidelines of static stretching where the muscle is lengthened to a certain level and kept lengthened for an extended period of time.

Unless the muscle being stretched is contracting, only the tendons and ligaments are being stretched. When the tendons and ligaments are being stretched they become much weaker and thus more susceptible to injury.

With most of the sports injuries occurring today being tendon and ligament related, could typical stretching be a cause? The answer is yes if the muscles are not properly able to absorb force.

When an athlete runs, thousands of pounds of force are applied with each step, so the body needs to be able to absorb all of that power. But if the muscles cannot handle the extreme levels of force, the tendons and ligaments must be called on. Since the tendons and ligaments are significantly weaker than muscles, injuries then occur more frequently to the tendons and ligaments.

The goal must be to get the muscles to be able to absorb the force as to not impact the tendons and ligaments.

The athlete with long, loose, and flexible muscles will not only be able to absorb more force (less injuries) than the tighter athlete but will also be able to function better, thus be a better athlete. Stretching the proper way will allow the athlete to elongate the muscles. Elongating the muscles will allow the athlete to absorb more force because elongated muscles are a lot stronger than short and tight muscles and also can handle more force through larger ranges of motion.

This elongating of the muscles can be done by stretching contracted muscles. Unless the muscle is being contracted it is not capable of being stretched. Rather than stretching tendons and ligaments which ultimately results in weaker tendons and ligaments, the athlete will be elongating the muscle properly which will allow all the impact to be taken in by the muscles.

This will undoubtedly prevent the large number of tendon and ligament injuries seen today. The elongated muscles will be able to properly absorb the forces of athletic movements which will allow the tendons and ligaments to not be impacted.

During a typical hamstring stretch the athlete will sit on the ground and place their feet in front of their body. The athlete then will attempt to touch the toes with the goal of stretching the hamstrings.

During typical stretching, the hamstrings will not be contracted, thus they will not be stretched, and rather the tendons and ligaments that connect muscles to bones will be getting weaker.

If the athlete drives the heels into the ground during this stretch the hamstrings will then be contracting. With the hamstrings being contracted, the hamstrings will then be elongated and the tendons and ligaments will go un-impacted.

Not only will this new type of stretching prevent injury from occurring but will also speed up recovery time significantly.

After an injury has occurred, the surrounding muscles are very tight. If the athlete stretches these muscles properly, the body will then go back to absorbing force correctly which will allow the injury to heal much quicker.

This stretching method can be applied to any stretch of any muscle as long as the muscle intended to be stretched is elongated.

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Not Doing What You Should Be Doing and Stop Blaming Others!

As a college recruiter, I am contacted by high school athletes and parents every day looking for information or help with the college recruiting process. My role is to offer my opinion on matters that relate to recruiting and then it’s up to that athlete or parent to use that information however they see fit.
 

What happens in most cases is that parents and athletes want to do what they think is best without giving it much thought.

I always tell parents to get a DVD made that shows highlights of games and full game action. So when the student athletes or parents are asked by a college coach if they can see the tape or DVD then they are ready to mail one. There are parents who don’t understand what I tell them and they’ll wait until the last minute to get the DVD made and mail it out. Big mistake parents!

Parents, you’re going to have to invest into the college recruiting process. When I advise some of the parents on this, it seems that they don’t hear me! Many parents sit back and wait to see what is going to happen in the recruiting process when they should act on the recruiting process.

These parents hold off because they don’t want to spend any money on anything, hoping that the college recruiting process will take care of itself. Another big mistake parents!

Many high school student athletes will also delay taking the SAT or ACT tests until the last minute thinking that they will score well on their first try. Big mistake everyone!

There are more high school student athletes who are not going to a Division 1 college program. These players need to get busy with the process of getting their names out there, but they don’t.

The point is that many athletes and parents are not doing what they should be doing and when things don’t work out they start blaming others!

Stupid Mistakes Made In Getting Recruited.

College recruiting is not an exact science. Most parents, student athletes and anyone else out there will never understand how the process works. But there are basic things that many people do that are stupid in the overall college recruiting process.

Did you know that many high school student athletes never return the questionnaire that was mailed to them by an interested college program? Now that’s stupid!

Many parents and student athletes will only focus on 2 or 3 college programs and will leave it all up to only those programs and will not look at the huge number of other college programs out there! It’s the old ‘putting all of your recruiting eggs in one basket’ and when you drop that basket, and please know you will drop them, then what do you have? Now that’s stupid!

Every college program is different. Every college coach is different. Every college campus is different. Every state is different so why not look at hundreds of college programs? Make them come to you, not you going to them!

Many parents will spend their money on everything as it relates to college recruiting. They will buy just about everything out there. Parents will spend money on worthless camps, books, tapes, equipment and so on and many will do this because they don’t know any better. Believe me parents, there are people out there who want your hard earned money and will sell you anything because they know that you don’t know what you’re doing! Now that’s stupid!

I hope I have offended all the parents out there who don’t understand the recruiting process because so many parents and student athletes have made many stupid mistakes and getting a second chance does not always happen.

Do your homework! Find out what are the best camps to attend. Save your money for recruiting visits. You will need gas money, hotel money and you need to eat. Save your money!

Just be smart, that’s all I’m saying!

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What I Should Blog About Next ?

Don't Get Left Behind In The College Recruiting Process

High school juniors, sophomores and freshmen: now is the time to get the college recruiting process going! Get it started now or you could end up like so many seniors right now still looking for a college program.

Many high school seniors are all over the Internet looking for the answers to their college recruiting concerns and sadly there are no answers.

Do your work now high school players! Get ready to be recruited now!

I hear it all the time from parents-that they did everything to help their student athlete get recruited for college but still it did not work. I think it’s really all about not doing enough of all the right things in the recruiting process.

Why do some high school players who have the same talent get recruited over another player? The answer is getting the exposure, where are you playing during the summer, having a DVD, are you writing to college coaches, do you have the grades, and can you play at the college level?

Getting left behind in the college recruiting process is not cool but sadly, it does happen all the time.

Know this: you are not going to get what you want out of a college program if you wait too late in the college recruiting process. Many high school players all feel that if you’re good, college coaches will find you and that’s not true.

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I’m A Senior What Are My Chances of Being Recruited

Right now, there are quite a few high school seniors who do not have any idea whatsoever where they will be going to college in the fall. Many of these talented high school athletes have made many mistakes in the college recruiting process and now they're going to be in a situation where they may end up going to a school that they've never heard of all because they got the wrong advice or was led down the wrong path of college recruiting. Many senior athletes who are still looking for a college program are now beginning to understand that they could have or that they should have done more. Too bad for them!

Who's to blame when all has gone wrong in the college recruiting process? Are the high school coaches to blame because they are the ones who closely work with the players? A high school coach is supposedly the one who has all the answers in dealing with the college recruiting process. What if a high school coach gets it wrong and a very good high school student athlete is left hanging in the wind of the college recruiting process? Many parents believe that it is a high school coach’s job to get their players into college and because of that, many parents will hold off in doing their own recruiting.

Are the parents to blame? Should they have done more from the very beginning of the college recruiting process?  The parents are the ones who hold the money and they have the power to make something happen on their own without anyone's help.

I hear stories all the time from slow-motion moms and dads who’ve said things like “I wished we had started or I wish we had more time!” These parents are weak and are slow to understand how critical the college recruiting process is. They are also under the belief that someone out there will do the job for them in getting their son or daughter recruited for college.

Are the high school student athletes to blame on their failure to secure college placement? What more could a high school player have done to increase their chances of college recruiting success? Sure, these players could have been better players, better students with two or more summer camps, done more in the community, made better first impressions, played harder, mailed out more DVDs, contacted more colleges with handwritten letters, made phone calls to college coaches, went on more visits to colleges, worked harder on their game--longer than the next athlete. The list of things high school players could do to increase their chances of college placement is long.

Every year as we hit March, April, and May I get emails from desperate parents about their kids and desperate players about their future and overall it is funny to me because the information is out there about starting a college recruited process very early but many hardheaded athletes and parents are too lazy to get this information on their own. Most of the time it is shocking to me to hear that a very talented high school player is losing out in the never-ending battle of college placement.

Now don't get me wrong, the college recruiting process is not easy and it is very time-consuming and, at times, can be very confusing. From the parent’s prospective it is easier to let someone else do the dirty work. Then as spring hits the parents and the student athletes realize that all has gone horribly wrong in their weak efforts to make something happen in the recruiting process.

Make no mistake; the college recruiting process is never to be taken lightly. The college recruiting process for high school athletes has only so much time to get the job done and if you think you can start the process at the beginning of your senior year in high school or during your season, you are setting yourself up for failure.

For those of you who are freshmen, sophomores and juniors, right now is the time to get started in the college recruiting process if you are to have any hopes of winning that college scholarship and the seniors out there—you are way too late! Too bad!

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How To Get Recruited For College Sports

As a college recruiter, I parents are always asking how to get my son or daughter recruited for college? My answer is: exposure. I believe the more college programs that see you play and that know where you are as a student athlete will ultimately increase your chances of being recruited. Now, that’s the simple solution.

The problem with this simple solution is consistency on the part of parents. The parents have to be the ones who make it happen in terms of making resources available to their student athlete in the family.

Camps cost money; equipment and supplies cost money; taking standardized tests cost money; travel expenses is money. Those are just some of the resources that parents can make available to their student athlete in their family.

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