Early Scholarship Offers and the NCAA

INTRODUCTIONOver the last few years, many NCAA Division I universities have begun offering athletic scholarships to progressively younger studentathletes. Today, it is increasingly common for high school sophomores to receive such offers,1 and a few institutions have pursued and even received commitments from seventh and eighth graders.2 These young recruits are, of course, very highly regarded athletes with special talent to offer universities. Given the competitive pressures of college sports, it comes as no surprise that coaches rush to identify and recruit the most talented players. And from the student-athlete's perspective, there is much to gain from taking a school's offer. If a child has grown up dreaming of playing football for the University of Southern California or basketball for the University of Kentucky, why not accept the dream when a coach offers it?3 Indeed, if the recruit decides not to accept the offer right away, it may not be there when he or she is a senior.These benefits may explain why universities and underclassmen make commitments to each other, but the deals also involve considerable risk to both sides.4 Sixteen-year-old high school sophomores will physically and mentally change before enrolling as eighteen-year-old college freshmen. They probably do not know much about the differences between schools. Even if students learn about the particulars of the university that offers them an athletic scholarship, their decision to accept involves considerable guesswork about the kind of college experience they will desire. Granted, recruits may care most about playing their chosen sport for a top college team, but even here there are no guarantees. If recruits do not develop to their full athletic potential, they may not play regularly, and the university will have prematurely squandered precious scholarship money on players who do not truly contribute to the school's athletic program.These risks indicate that universities and student-athletes alike would be better off if they waited until a recruit's senior year to make commitments to each other. Universities would know more about the student's athletic and academic ability, and students would have the benefit of greater maturity and knowledge about their interests. This seemingly common sense result does not occur, however, because universities consider athletic success serious business-both literally and figuratively. Michigan surely wants to beat Ohio State for bragging rights, but more importantly Michigan wants its football and basketball teams to win because those victories hold the key to lucrative post-season competition. A school whose teams participate in a major post-season football game and the NCAA basketball tournament can collect as much as $120 million in gross revenue.5 Such success would be highly unlikely unless a school enrolls a sufficient number of skilled athletes to compete on its behalf. Schools therefore pursue the most valued recruits briskly, hoping to identify them and lock them up before the competition gets there.6 This in turn pressures student-athletes to find and accept scholarship offers because they understand that opportunities will grow progressively scarce as more and more early commitments are made.7Offers of athletic scholarships to underclassmen violate the NCAA's core values. The NCAA Constitution clearly states,Student-athletes shall be amateurs in an intercollegiate sport, and their participation should be motivated primarily by education and by the physical, mental and social benefits to be derived. Student participation in intercollegiate athletics is an avocation, and student-athletes should be protected from exploitation by professional and commercial enterprises.8Early recruitment-particularly early commitment-violates this provision because it elevates athletics over education. Few underclassmen are ready to choose a college, and many have not even taken the necessary standardized testing that most colleges require. …