Very interesting article, though as it noted the early recruiting is more an issue in the exploding women's sports like soccer and field hockey that do not have enough talent being developed (or in soccer's case, a lot gets lost to knee injuries) to fuel the colleges' need for players. Had to kind of chuckle that UNC's Anson Dorrance who apparently was one of the originators of this early recruiting trend is now moaning about it since his bench is now filled with players who didn't pan out 6 years later, and after winning 20 of the first 28 NCAA soccer championships, UNC has won only 1 of the last 4.
But it definitely is a problem in so many ways, for the middle-schoolers and underclassmen who are having breakdowns trying to handle all the coaches, for the players who get recruited early but don't develop to the level where they can actually play for a team like UNC, and for the colleges that feel compelled to leap into an insanely early recruiting process and then often end up with players they don't really want. You can imagine the bad feelings all around.
And of course the NCAA just sits on its hands and says there's nothing it can do because nothing can be enforced. As if that waste of an organization would make an effort to at least try to develop standards that might not be 100% enforceable but would at least discourage these abuses and maybe lead to a 95% better atmosphere.
The NY Times also had another notable long article today about the UMass men's basketball program and the "glory days" of Calipari and its current return to quality level. The writer Zach Schonbrun leaves out any mention of UMass having to vacate its FF appearance because of Calipari's infractions. That's like having an in-depth article about the UNC football or basketball programs that leaves out any mention of the academic cheating scandal.
