The illegal recruitment and intrusiveness of athletic scouts, and their recruiting technique with regard to pursuing prospect student athletes has been a major problem in athletics ever since it became an industry that generated a profit.  However, recently there has been a significant spike in what is known as the underground recruitment industry due to multi – billion dollar deals with major television stations who are fighting to televise the collegiate sports events.  This has a direct correlation with the growing illegal recruitment industry, because where there is an increase in potential money to be made there will also be an increase in competition.  The problem, however is not that there will be more coaches, scouts, and boosters who will be attempting to partake in the illegal techniques it is that the NCAA will not change their porous rules and regulations regarding the situation, that make it exponentially easier for this type of recruiting to occur.  This is why the NCAA must add new rules as well as change existing rules in order to minimize the industry that has erupted in recent years.  

There are various ways that the many athletic coaches and scouts attempt to avoid the NCAA’s rules and regulations.  Prominent sports writer Jed Hughes, who writes for the world – renowned bleacher report, used the legend and championship winning coach John Calipari, who is the current head coach of the University of Kentucky Wildcats, as a prime example of a coach who pursues players by indirectly influencing their decision via other parties.  Hughes reports that Calipari has been building strong connections with minor league coaches by donating significant sums of money to the individual team in order for the coaches to guide their top players to sign with the University of Kentucky.  This article demonstrates how college coaches have been able to find loopholes in the laissez-faire regulations that guide the recruiting process through indirect donations that have a direct correlation to the university landing top prospects.  This is a significant problem that the NCAA must address because it is turning college athletics into an underhanded business venture for many of the individuals who are seeking a financial profit instead of an honest competition between programs.  The NCAA must create rules that extend to interacting with third parties if they wish to diminish this tactic of influencing student – athletes.  

Underground recruiting has plagued athletics ever since those who choose to partake in the immoral technique discovered that they could have an illegitimate “leg – up” on the competition by essentially buying better players for their team and then reaping the benefits of the team’s winnings.  In this issue many focus on the morality of the method, which agreed is an important issue, however many forget to focus on how the prospect athletes are affected by the recruiting process, considering they are the ones who are at the focus of the scenario.  Matt Maher, who is a prominent writer for the University of Texas, wrote an article that focused on the degree to which college scouts in many cases harass their potential recruits.  In the article Matt Maher states that text messaging in recruiting was originally supposed to distant the player from the scout simply because it does not require any in person interaction, however it has had the complete adverse effect.  The NCAA did not anticipate the volume in which scouts are able to text the recruits.  It has become so absurd that many players have stated that they feel as though they are being harassed by the scouts, and are now not even able to hide from them.  Texting has made finding loopholes in the system exponentially easier, because it is so much harder to track a virtual text than and actual face to face conversation..  Instant messaging has made an exponential difference in the recruiting process by allowing recruiters to overcome any geographical boundaries that had previously been an issue.  It has also allowed recruiters to contact prospects at any time or at whatever volume they deem necessary. This adds a new dimension to the argument because it displays how rules must be changed as well as added to adapt the new and rapidly evolving world that is based around technology.  This is because the technology that can be useful, has been abused by aggressive and illegal recruiters who have taken advantage of the utility by invading on the privacy of the athletes, while understanding that it is easier to offer illegal temptations to recruits via telephone and instant messaging.

The most important step when attempting to solve a problem is identifying the underlying the cause in order to fully comprehend the crux of the issue.  In this specific problem, that is the recent spike in underground recruiting, there is a particular reason that explains volumes about why the spike is occurring.  Tyler Pasko, who is a credible writer for the popular sports paper, The Phoenix, articulated a perfect explanation for the dramatic increase in illegal recruiting in his article, “College Athletics: Business or Experience.”  This article describes how the recent spike in revenue that the NCAA as well as universities have experienced due to record breaking deals with many world – renowned television broadcasting stations has put significant pressure on the various athletic programs to attract young talent.  This has in turn made the underground illegal recruiting process significantly more profitable for the potential recruits who have been accepting absurd amounts of cash and other gifts in return for their agreement to play for the university.  An example of this is the recent headline that reported that the University of Michigan gave Chris Weber an astounding reported $600,000 to play basketball.  This article does an excellent job of describing the situation surrounding what motivates coaches to go to such drastic levels of bribery and influence to attract top level talent to their universities.  This knowledge will help the NCAA exponentially when brainstorming how to approach the situation.  This is because they now understand where the motivation to participate in the activity arises from so it will be easier to target the central point of the issue and cut most of the illegal recruiters off at the beginning of the process before they corrupt the prospect athletes.

After the problem is identified, a significant amount of action is required by all parties involved to change outcome of the situation.  In this case it is understood and accepted by the NCAA, universities, and all student – athletes that there is a serious problem that is growing rapidly due to increasing liquidity involved in the scheme.  However, the even bigger problem is that the individuals who are benefitting from the underground recruiting are also heavily involved with the rules and regulations regarding the recruiting of prospect student athletes.  Alexander Payne, who writes about the legal interpretation of athletic policies for Vanderbilt University, authored about this exact topic entitled, "Rebuilding The Prevent Defense: Why Unethical Agents Continue To Score And What Can Be Done To Change The Game."  This article focuses on the legality of how many college scouts as well as university donors take advantage of the weak preventative laws that surround the current recruiting process. Payne begins the article by addressing the porous rules that allow for the prospects and scouts to take advantage of the various loopholes, however later in the article he suggests specific rules that would prevent from the exploitation.  He states that the biggest problem that the NCAA would face in passing the regulations is in fact a major portion of the NCAA itself.  This part is composed of those who have invested heavily in the recruiting of high caliber prospects, who either directly or indirectly support the underground recruiting. 

 While approaching this topic many people forget to analyze possibly the most integral part of the recruiting process.  This is the point of view of the players who are being pursued relentlessly by coaches, scouts, and donors across the nation.  Steven Spiegel directed a Real Recruiting Documentary that completely captured the opinions of the student athletes first hand from those who are currently going through the process.  It interviews many prospects and how they approached the process as well as the various ways that college scouts approached them.  The one common theme that all of the student – athletes agreed upon was that the scouts all made the lives of the athletes significantly more stressful, and that the majority of the scouts made various promises from direct financial gain to exotic material means.  This documentary not only adds a different perspective because it is presented in the physical form of a video, but also because it captures the emotions of individuals who are actively involved in the process, and how it has impacted their lives.  The video also helps to humanize the students, because in the previous sources frequently scouts and writers both write about athletes as if they were simply commodities that are only used for their athletic means.  The video brought its viewers back to the reality of the situation which is that these prospects are normal teenagers who have been put in the spotlight simply because they have a talent that adults can benefit from.

 