Let’s pretend your high school refused to release your grades to universities across the country.
They don’t want these institutions distracting students from their studies. As a result, your SAT and ACT scores will be the sole reason you attend college.
Now, tell me why anybody would enroll there.
My next question is, why would a high school create these unfair rules?
This same thing is going on in college football. After a recent string of allegations involving players receiving improper benefits from agents, coaches have thrown around the idea of banning NFL scouts and team representatives from practices to avoid any trouble or distractions.
Alabama became the first school to actually act upon the threat.
But this shouldn’t become a trend, because it isn’t going to work.
I understand that Nick Saban, Urban Meyer and the rest of the coaching community want to distance themselves from these “scumbags,” as Meyer refers to them, but in the end it’s going to hurt these storied programs.
When high school athletes are in the process of choosing a college to attend, they want to go to the place that gives them the best chance at making the jump to the NFL.
Alabama’s ban could cause a shift in power.
Middle-of-the-road football programs are going to be the ones to reap the benefits from it. Instead of going to Alabama, where game days are your only shot at grabbing the attention of NFL scouts, top athletes with dreams of playing professional football are going to choose the schools that allow them full exposure.
The ban is pointless.
An exchange of money is not going to happen at practice where coaches are all over the field monitoring players.
Let’s be real. The problem happens through texts messages and at nightclubs at 2 a.m. Coaches can’t monitor this, unless they want to take away phones too.
Instead, they need to do better than this half-hearted attempt to stop the problem and just accept the fact that it’s impossible to prevent. The only thing that can be done is to inform the players and then trust their integrity.
But I’m not naive. I’m well aware that integrity is hard to find in NCAA sports today.
