The Signing Day Circus

Is National Signing Day overrated? These are kids – they still have a lot of growing to do and evolving of their skills – yet, people sit in front of their computers watching it at work as if their lives depended on it. As if the recruits that their schools get will be the difference between a National Championship Game and the Emerald Bowl. But USC tends to sign a few recruits in the top class every year, and that’s just where the Trojans ended up this past year.

Lets look at the 2006 class, and see how the top ten recruits out of high school ended up:

1. Percy Harvin – Vikings first round pick, NFL offensive rookie of the year
2. Andre Smith – Bengals first round pick
3. Chris Wells – Cardinals first round pick, split time with Hightower
4. Gerald McCoy – expected to be a first round pick in this year’s draft
5. Sergio Kindle – expected to be a first round pick in this year’s draft
6. Matthew Stafford – Lions first round pick, started for the Lions
7. Vidal Hazelton – sat out a year after transferring from USC to Cincy
8. C.J. Spiller – expected to be a first round pick in this year’s draft
9. Allen Bradford – returning to USC
10. Mitch Mustain – backup QB at USC

Look like the scouts pretty much hit it on the head. But on the other hand where did Boise State, TCU, and Cincinnati fair in National Signing Day over the past few years? Not one top 30 recruit in 2006, 2007, 2008 or 2009; yet the schools each had very successful seasons. And even though Jimmy Clausen may have been the number one recruit in 2007, he wasn’t the change agent that Notre Dame was hoping he would be. Just because your school doesn’t have one of the top recruits, doesn’t mean that it’s time to throw in the towel.

Little Caesars Pizza Bowl

Read Full Post »

Image is Everything

The NBA has an image problem.

Dress codes are not going to help the NBA’s image when players are accused of having multiple guns in the locker room. Does David Stern realize that it isn’t what athletes wear, it is the actions of a handful of player bringing down the image of the league? And unlike the NFL, which treats criminal behavior as such, the NBA tries to minimize it.

Saying former referee Tim Donaghy was a rogue is not going to help the NBA’s image when he chronicles clear cut referee manipulation and is backed up by an FBI investigation. I finished reading Personal Foul, written by Donaghy, in less that 48 hours; it was very well written and tough to put down. If what Donaghy says is true, then there are clear cut cases where referees changed the outcome of the games – or planned to, expressing that makeup calls would be made in future games if it were necessary to remedy officiating mistakes. If what he says is an exaggeration, or worse made up, then there are still too many referees that are far too inconsistent and need to be completely retrained; however, people (including, Mavs owner Mark Cuban) have been saying for years that certain coaches, players and team get special treatment and it seems less like exaggeration and more like fact.

The NBA has an image problem.

I’m sure that statement comes as no surprise to most, except perhaps to David Stern. The actions of a few players and the actions of the refs have been driving away fans for years and something has to change. And, perhaps, Stern is where the change needs to begin.

Read Full Post »

Punishing the Coaches as much as Student Athletes

While taking Amateur Sports Law in school I really disliked how the NCAA exploited student athletes then used the fact they they were students first (academic integrity) and it preserved balance to win cases. It burned me that in a lot of cases, despite the courts finding that there is an unreasonable restraint on the athletes, academic integrity and competitive balance outweighs the restraint.

Right now, Brian Kelly leaving Cincinnati  for Notre Dame has me reliving some of my frustrations.  Football players are recruited by coaches – they get sold into a program and a certain style of coaching – so when those coaches leave for another school, why are we punishing the athletes? I’m sure in some cases, the tipping point for their decision is the history and legacy of the program, but if you don’t like the coach, you’re not playing there.

Let the athletes who signed on to the program because of Kelly get to go play somewhere else without losing a year now that their coach abandoned them, or change it so that the coaches are deterred/punished by sitting out a year, like the athletes. Now I understand that the courts do not like these type of anti-compete clauses because it unreasonably prohibits employment – so structure it so that it doesn’t unreasonably prohibit employment, or argue that it is reasonable because it protects competitive balance. The NCAA clearly knows how to leverage that argument.

Read Full Post »