The NCAA Has Too Many Stupid Rules; Just Ask Mike Krzyzewski!

I was reading a story about Duke’s basketball coach, Mike Krzyzewski, stating that he may have violated a sacred NCAA rule.  Coach Krzyzewski was at an AAU basketball tournament in Orlando, Floridarecruiting top prospect Alex Poythress of the Georgia Stars AAU basketball club.  The violation may have happened when coach Krzyzewski offered a scholarship to Alex Poythress before the tournament was over.  According to the rules, you cannot offer a scholarship until the tournament is completed.

Now, the problem I have with the NCAA is that there’re so many rules and regulations that it’s almost impossible to keep up with each and every one and it’s impossible to not ever break any. 

College coaches almost have to walk around with a compliance officer glued to their side making sure they’re not violating the many ridiculous rules by the NCAA.  It’s almost like before you can talk to a player or recruit a player at a tournament you have to consult with a compliance officer before you can do anything.  It’s very ridiculous and it slows down the recruiting process.

I understand there has to be rules and regulations to protect the players from coaches who may not have their best interests in mind.

The NCAA is a joke; they have rules that are 50 years outdated.  This is not the 1950s or 1960s where college sports was totally different; the players were different and the world was different.  This is the more modern world now where the players are extremely different and the world is extremely different but the NCAA is stuck on old and stupid.

The NCAA should focus their attention on the real criminals out there; those coaches who clearly violate major rules.  Like paying players money or paying some fake recruiting service thousands of dollars to persuade players to their program.  There are a lot of college coaches who only care about winning games, making a lot of money and nothing else.

There are a lot of college coaches who would do whatever it takes to recruit players, even if that means breaking the rules which is exactly what they’ll do.  The NCAA will catch these rule-breaking coaches long after they’ve made their millions, won a lot of ballgames or maybe a championship before any kind of punishment is handed down.

Big-time college athletics has changed and the players should be paid because the coaches are getting paid. The fans are buying tickets and jerseys at these games and the players see none of that money.  I can understand why players leave college basketball or football after one year when their eligibility after three years is up; because it does not pay to be a college athlete for four years when everyone else is getting paid and not them!!

Coach K, is one of the greatest college basketball coaches of all time. The fact that some kind of rule violation may or may not have taken place is the issue.  A coach with an incredible reputation for winning is now being accused of rule violations and this just tells me how ridiculous the NCAA really is.

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Third Party Resources And The College Recruiting Process

If the high school coach and the parents are not involved in the college recruiting process, more than likely it’s a third party.  Third party resources plays a major role in the college recruiting process whether you like it or not.

College recruiting services are the obvious choice of being a third party and resources.  Recruiting services have been around it seems forever and play a role in connecting student athletes with college programs.  The reason recruiting services exist, I believe, is because of the lack of attention to detail by some high school coaches.

“7 on 7 Football” is a third party resource that is now playing a huge role in the college recruiting process for high school football players.  Just like AAU basketball, “7 on 7 Football” is giving student athletes an alternative outside their high school coach to gain major exposure in the college recruiting process.

A long time ago, the high school coach had all the control and the power when it came to recruiting.  The coach was responsible (so we thought) for getting information about his student athletes out to college coaches.  The problem was too many high school coaches were using their power as a way of control over student athletes and parents.  The high school coach was the only choice for recruiting.  There were no other alternatives for parents and student athletes.  You either had to deal with the high school coach or you were not going to college to play ball.

I believe what has changed the recruiting process is that the players are now starting recruiting services or have developed their own club teams like AAU basketball, travel baseball and 7 on 7 Football.  The players from years ago realized that there was a major disconnect from high school coaches to college coaches when it came to exposure for these high school student athletes.

High school athletics across the country is a big deal; it can make or break a young athlete’s future and could have an impact on their education, so the players from years back stepped up and got involved and created alternatives for student athletes and parents.  Gone are the days where student athletes relied heavily on high school coaches for everything and anything recruiting.

A “Monopoly” basically means you have control over everything and that’s how it’s been for a long time with high school coaches.  I believe third party resources, used the right way, can be a major benefit to student athletes and college coaches.  This will eliminate the total control and domination over student athletes by high school coaches.

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Is AAU Basketball More Powerful Than High School Basketball?

I found a great question the other day on Twitter about how AAU basketball has more power and control when it comes to college recruiting.  Here’s the actual question:

Quote from Twitter Coach Alton Clark “Can someone please tell me why AAU/CLUB basketball is now more of a focal point than HS basketball in college recruiting?”

I believe the reason why AAU basketball is more important than high school basketball when it comes to recruiting is the number of games the players are involved in during the summer months.

In addition to that, there’s more attention paid to AAU basketball by college coaches and it’s much easier for college programs to evaluate a large group of ballplayers than to attend one individual high school basketball game.

During the high school basketball season, the statistics count, the games count, people pay money to see these players play and this is the time where players are developing their overall basketball skills.

High school basketball has some value because there are many things in high school basketball that count and that matters but, with that being said, fewer and fewer college programs are coming out to individual games to see players.  I don’t think it’s cost effective for a college program to travel 4 or 5 hours to see one player play their sport.

AAU basketball also has a greater advantage because of the number of players all under one roof and it’s easier for college coaches, who have limited budgets, to see players play in one space.

From a fan of high school basketball, the games count because you know who is playing against who, you know all of the players and you can read about what they’re doing in the newspapers and follow their statistics.  With AAU, basketball is generally a summer event with all of the games taking place in one gym during a weekend or a week to host the event.  There are no real statistics kept, you really don’t know all of the players and there’s very little coverage about the event in the newspapers.

From a recruiting perspective, AAU basketball is more powerful and will continue to be more powerful than the regular high school basketball season.

One of the most important things about AAU club basketball is that it gives an opportunity for many athletes in different age groups the chance to play all the time and to get better.  The bottom line is for players to always improve their game, to get better and to gain the attention of college recruiters for the future.

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AAU basketball and the exposure

AAU basketball and the exposure for recruiting you’re going to get are critical in getting to the college level.

The reason why AAU basketball is so successful is because of its ability to bring in college coaches to evaluate high school athletes all in one place.  The days are long gone where college coaches would come and recruit players at high school games.

The expense and the travel make no sense to evaluate just one player. Coaches at an AAU event can see hundreds of players all in one place. That’s the power of AAU basketball.

You could be a high school player who is getting no help or no exposure while playing high school basketball but playing AAU basketball and participating in tournaments can help you gain huge exposure overnight.

There is still a place for high school basketball of course but the rules of recruiting have changed as to how players are recruited by coaches therefore, players and parents must change also.