For those who want change, what would your rule be? Is it enforceable?
Let's say you cannot make an offer until Sept. 1 of a player's junior year. How does a coach handle that? Make 12 offers and take the first 6 that accept? Is that what parents/players really want? You have no assurance that you'll get an offer until Sept. 1. How do you plan your life if you don't know what you really have and don't have?
Or let's say the offer can't be official until Sept. 1, aren't we back in the same place?
"I can't make you an official offer until Sept. 1 of your junior year, but just so you'll know, you'll get an offer.''
"OK, I can't officially accept your offer until Sept. 1 of my junior year, but just so you'll know, you'll get a yes.''
How do you stop it? Do you limit the amount of contact between coaches, recruits? How are coaches/players going to make better choices for their futures if recruiting/contact is limited?
All absolutely valid questions.
I don't have a full answer, here are some ideas - and some of this is across the board for all NCAA sports. There re obvious issues with the below, but I believe even with these issues to work through this would still be a better situation than today's free-for-all:
- Get rid of partial scholarships. They suck for everyone.
- Increase the # of scholarships to 18-20
- No offers or promises of offers until they Sept 1 of their Junior season
- 1 year complete coaching staff suspension for making an offer or a promise of an offer of any kind before then.
- Change contact limitations. No personal calls, no personal texts, no personal emails, no IM's, no social media following, no weekly check ins, no whatever until they are Juniors
- However allow as much personal contact as you like at specified events - examples such as Nationals, State Championships, Various multi-college camps, skills camps, national team formation and other defined events. BUT NO OFFERS until Junior year. Every event has to be multi-college attended because nothing stops you cheating like another person there making sure you aren't getting an edge over them and colleges are happier as the # of targeted events they should attend for recruiting purposes.
#1 reason this wont work (apart from those who will try to cheat the system): the $$$$ showcases, recruiting services and others are currently making. The above takes a lot of $$$$ out of people's pockets.
Deciding what college before your Junior year isn't a burden - that is what most non-athletes are doing for the most part.
14U should still be developing players - not the current prime market for recruiting activities.