Persuasive tactics can be too tempting, so an NCAA task force will review the rules as schools revisit the way they host visits.
By BRIAN LANDMAN and ANTONYA ENGLISH
Published March 7, 2004
Eric Rutledge spent his limited free time on an official recruiting visit to the University of Florida hanging out with his student-athlete host at a couple of popular Gainesville clubs, the Royal Blue and The Palace.
He danced. He talked. He mingled.
There wasn't a Gators coach or administrator in sight.
"The whole point of the recruiting process, whether people think it's fair or not, is that it's a persuasion thing," said Rutledge, a standout running back from P.K. Yonge.
"The point is to show you some fun and see if you want to come here. It's all about, "If I show this guy an exciting time this will be a place that's high on his list.' Sometimes, guys put the fun over the actual program, and that's not a good thing. But there's nothing illegal about it; that's just the way it happens. You take somebody out and they're having the time of their life, then that's going to be somewhere that's high on a guy's list."
Sometimes there is something illegal or at least scandalous about that unsupervised block of time, a handful of hours on Friday and Saturday nights during a 48-hour official visit.
Three women have sued the University of Colorado, alleging they were raped by football players or recruits in 2001. No charges have been filed.
Strippers commonly were used as recruiting tools there, according to an owner of a striptease service in Denver, and alcohol apparently flowed liberally. Similar allegations have surfaced since at Alabama, Oregon State, Minnesota and Arizona State.
Closer to home, heralded Miami Carol City prospect Willie Williams racked up three criminal charges during his stay in Gainesville. Williams, who signed with the hometown Hurricanes, could land in jail for violating the probation from his most recent of 10 previous arrests. Miami, Florida State and Florida officials say they didn't know about his lengthy rap sheet.
No one knows how widespread the problem is, but the unseemly conduct has prompted NCAA president Myles Brand to appoint a 17-member task force to examine the official visit and recommend new rules.
"Obviously, the image of what we're doing in this area isn't very good for some legitimate reasons," said Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley, one of the task force members. "My concern ... is to review what's being done and see if there's a way to do what we're doing better and reign in some of these recruiting issues."
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Florida State sophomore tight end Matt Henshaw is bright, witty and well-mannered. He's the ideal ambassador for the program, which makes him an obvious choice to host recruits as he did when Land O'Lakes quarterback Drew Weatherford visited Tallahassee in late January.
NCAA rules allow a host $30 a day to spend entertaining a prospect. At FSU, a host also is limited by a list of don'ts that he is required to read and sign:
1) Do NOT provide a prospect with material gifts; 2) Do NOT transport a prospect more than 30 miles from campus; 3) Do NOT allow in-person recruiting conversations between a prospect and an alumnus and/or booster; 4) Do NOT consume alcoholic beverages and then drive; if a prospect is a minor, do NOT offer or make present a situation where alcoholic beverages are served; 5) and Do NOT use illegal drugs.
"What we're trying to sell to the kids is, "Away from the football field, you can have a good time,"' Henshaw said.
But the time available to sample the social scene is limited.
Henshaw and Weatherford weren't cut loose from meticulously planned functions with coaches and athletic department officials until about 10 p.m. on Friday and 9-ish on Saturday. Weatherford said he was back at his hotel a few hours later.
"That occupies a very small percentage of their 48-hour window," Florida State athletic director Dave Hart said. "But that's the area that creates the most potential for the types of things we're reading about, for stepping over the line."
That can occur at a fraternity party. A dorm gathering. A club.
As a host, Henshaw recognized that.
"I wanted to keep a low profile and not get him in a crazy situation where tons of people are surrounding him and saying, "Why don't you have this beer? Why don't you take this shot with me?"' he said.
For some, it's hard to say no.
Rutledge, a Gainesville native, had been to both clubs before his visit. His host, sophomore wide receiver Vernell Brown, said a stop at those haunts was purely optional. Rutledge agreed to go, cognizant that football players do stand out.
And leery of that.
"Here, when you go in (a club) it's like they know who you are immediately," Rutledge said. "That's not always good because I've seen it cause jealously over girls and things like that. It's not like the players go in and start anything, but when you walk in you've got all these big, old guys, and people know right away."
And then there are the women.
"I guess you can say you can (easily draw girls), but sometimes what you draw is not really what you're looking for because you know when they know you're a football player and they walk up to you just because of that," he said.
That's a temptation that can lead to trouble, especially when mixed with alcohol and, in some cases, the pressure schools feel to sign top-shelf recruits.
"I'm not going to mention any names," Weatherford said, "but some schools just give you the feeling they'd do anything to get you there - lie, cheat, steal."
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The task force has a daunting job.
It will debate sweeping reform measures, such as the possibility of requiring criminal background checks, setting a limit on the money schools can spend on recruits for dinner and delineating the functions schools can offer to dazzle a recruit.
Brand has charged it to finish its work by the time the Division I Management Council meets on April 20, which would allow any changes to be in place for the next recruiting cycle.
"If we are successful with this project, and I think there is broad support for action," NCAA Division I vice president David Berst, the task force chairman, wrote in an e-mail to the Times, "the efforts will expand to the broader recruiting regulations."
With Congressional hearings scheduled this week as well, the pressure for meaningful reform will be intense. Some of the suggestions the task force likely will discuss to set higher "standards of appropriate conduct and accountability," as Berst wrote, include:
* Ban club-hopping. University of Colorado president Betsy Hoffman said Thursday that will be the law at her school. Even private parties will be a thing of the past for prospects. But not all clubs or fraternity parties are dens of iniquity, and whether they're banned or not, high school seniors will wonder about such social outlets.
* Establish coaches/parents as chaperones. If the problems occur mostly when the recruits are unsupervised, why not provide supervision? Colorado will in the future. But once the athletes enroll, they aren't going to be watched 24-7, and some think this change would be for PR only.
* Set curfews. Coaches like to say, "Nothing good happens in the wee hours of the morning." That's usually true. Colorado, however, was one of the few schools with a curfew (1 a.m.) for prospects on their official visits. Hoffman said that will be moved up to 11 p.m. so everyone will be in to watch the news.
"It's incumbent upon each institution and the profession to say, "Let's see what we're doing and see if there's a better way to do it,"' said Foley, whose school has appointed a committee of administrators to recommend changes to UF's intercollegiate athletic committee. The group already has met twice.
Ultimately, the best, sometimes last, safeguard to prevent something from going horribly wrong is the student-athlete host. The task force might look for that individual to assume more accountability.
"We talk to them extensively, generally right before the recruiting season and then the night prior (to an official visit)," South Florida coach Jim Leavitt said, adding he cautions his hosts to be smart.
That's a common refrain.
"We've all been 18-22 years old, and we've all made mistakes in that time or before that or after that," FSU recruiting coordinator John Lilly said. "I don't think anyone in America would be telling you the truth if they said, "We know nothing's ever going to happen.' There's always that possibility. ... But I really do believe our players are going to do the right thing."
It boils down to trust.
"Considering they are high school students, we have to use our better judgment when taking them out to different sites and letting them indulge in different activities," said Brown, the Florida host. "We try to do whatever it takes to keep down a whole lot of confusion and keep people out of a lot of trouble."
- Times staff writer Pete Young contributed to this report.
