Recruiting Seventh Graders

For all you seventh graders, if you get a call on your cell phone from a college basketball coach offering you a PS3, don't be surprised. Yes, it's true, college recruiters are bribing middle school students with expensive gadgets just to play for the university's team. NCAA recruiters watch these young basketball stars during basketball camps at ages as young as twelve. They scout middle school students for one reason: winning. In every sport it's all about winning, no matter what happens. If they get 7th graders to commit to their university at an early age, they won't be able to apply to a different college.

Now remember, once you decide on what college you're going to play for, there's no backing out of the offer. You can't apply to a different college because you already committed to play there when you were young. Recruiters obviously want you to be on their basketball team. They could really care less about your grades. If you have all D's in your academics, they would still allow you to play for their team. Therefore, once they accomplish this, you help them win and that goes to winning an NCAA Championship.

Lets say for example that Billy Wright was a distinguished shooting guard. He grew up in California and had college recruiters following him. He got a call from a recruiter one day and he bribed Billy. The next day, there was a brand new ''Birdhouse'' skateboard on his doorstep. He then committed to playing at USC. When Billy turned 22, he decided he didn't want to play for USC instead, he decided to apply to Arizona. Billy couldn't do this so he had to attend USC. So, my point is don't make promises on where you're going to college, because you never know when you might change your mind. Now this example isn't true, but it does have a point.

Has the NCAA pushed its limits and gone too far? What do you think of recruiting 7th graders? How would your parents react if you got a call from a college recruiter? Would this help the coaches have a stronger lineup?

Sources: ''How Low Can Coaches Go?'' By Phil Taylor.