Fans and NCAA Recruiting: Things are Getting Out of Hand
By Mark Knight
Fandom and recruiting is now out of control. 17 year old kids are making the biggest decisions of their life and consequently are being destroyed for it. For many fans, being a fan is now more important than anything, it outweighs human compassion, it outweighs rational thought. The thought process of these erratic fans is, “I am a fan of _______ University, thus I only care about one thing = that University.” This has gone too far.
A video made popular by ESPN has expressed this exact feeling by a MOTHER of a recruit.
This video is embarrassing for the mother, embarrassing for the recruit, and embarrassing for
recruiting in general. This is when your fandom has gone too far. When you care more about your favorite school than the happiness of your son.
Doug Pacey of the Tacoma News Tribune has recently published an article that is creating quite the stir in the Seattle area, because local recruits are stating the “nastiest” of fans are a reason to not attend UW. Read that article here.
Fans following recruiting is nothing new, they have been doing this for years. Fans interacting with recruits is also nothing new. Fans have found ways to interact with recruits even before social media. They would go to their games if a fan was in the area or lived near by. Myspace came along and changed this interaction, as now fans had a way to find recruits. Facebook then added a new dimension. Finally, twitter changed it all. You no longer had to be a friend or even a follower to send a message to a recruit.
This type of open communication brings out plenty of good people who want to post awesome things about their university, but it also brings out the venomous fans. The ones that will bash the other schools on the list and then bash the recruit when they don’t choose this fan’s favorite school.
Let me be clear, in the words of Alex Akita, “Frankly, if you’re irrationally upset about where a 17-year-old kid is gonna go to college, you need to get a life.”
I have spoken with many recruits from all over, and regardless of what fans think, they hear and see what fans say. Anthony Bennett a 5-star recruit from Findlay Prep was irate with fans of Pittsburgh when they were bashing on his friend Khem Birch for transferring out. Bennett is now down to 5 schools and Pittsburgh is not in it. Is it related? I wouldn’t be surprised.
The article by Pacey is not just a UW problem but a general recruiting problem. However, venomous fans of UW have recently turned recruits away, thus the article.
In reality, it is an NCAA violation for fans, boosters, or alumni to even contact potential recruits. This could bring down NCAA violations on a program. GRANTED, the NCAA does not crack down on this, unless it gets out of hand. Refer back to this article from earlier in the year.
The fact remains, recruits come and go, and most often 1 recruit doesn’t change the landscape of your program. Sure, you can be disappointed with a specific recruit not coming to your favorite university but don’t take that to the interent. Punch your pillow, scream at the mirror, just don’t post something stupid on twitter.