Disturbing Trend in CF Recruiting

[OrangeUte]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/04/sp...h.html?_r=1&em

This is an article about a football development camp for 7th and 8th graders, and a broadcast of their Football University Youth All-American Bowl....

Too much about this bothers me!

Kids need to be left alone by college recruiters until they are juniors in high school. they need to be able to be kids. this kind of exploitation is ridiculous. i follow recruting for utah and byu casually through this board and the sltrib's recruiting blog... beyond that, i don't know much about what's going on.

Just like those summer leagues have ruined college basketball, i fear that shit like this will ruin college football. even if it's just a perception, college football still needs to be about student-athletes and school pride. you take that away and you take away what makes college football special.

[TripletDaddy]

Am I being naive in thinking that most of this would go away if the kids didn't have loser parents that wanted this as much as the grimy agents?

Seriously, for those that are parents here....how do your kids even participate in these things without your consent and financial aid? How could agents and recruiters get to your kids and hound them unless you were already aware of it? How could your kid be on the financial take in high school without your noticing it?

There is nothing wrong with being recruited or sought after. But all the bad stuff......I put as much blame on the parents (or lack thereof) as I do on the agents and promoters.

[Donuthole]

Am I being naive in thinking that most of this would go away if the kids didn't have loser parents that wanted this as much as the grimy agents?.

That is absolutely the bottom line. These parents fall in love with the idea that their child has been invited to an "elite" camp, and suddenly start forking out $40 an hour (not to mention travel and accommodations) so their 13 y.o. can get coaching from professionals. And if the parents said "thanks but no thanks" there would be another parent somewhere chomping at the bit when their kid gets the fall-back invite.

[OrangeUte]

on the bright side, it sounds like karl malone's son is a stud athlete!

i think ddd hit the head of the nail squarely. parents need to invest in their kids but this is a bit ridiculous!

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

I am sending my 6 year old to the Christian Okoye training camp next month, you think it is a bad idea?