College Offers

[50defense]

'Tis the season for college offers. This is the time of the year where many basketball and football fans start the posts about college offers. It is important to remember that not all offers are the same. A Committable offer has no obligation attached to it for either the kid or the school. Many kids get these "offers" which are just points contact that have to be notified to the NCAA for compliance reasons. Others have posted before about being aware of the imaginary college sports scouts who bought a t-shirt at the mall and pretend to be associated with a school.

Beware of the poachers and hangers-on.

Summer leagues and 7v7s are a good way to get your name out there but no one gets an offer for these events without a regular HS season. This is not true in all sports but especially true in Football.

[PRESSMAN]

'Tis the season for college offers. This is the time of the year where many basketball and football fans start the posts about college offers. It is important to remember that not all offers are the same. A Committable offer has no obligation attached to it for either the kid or the school. Many kids get these "offers" which are just points contact that have to be notified to the NCAA for compliance reasons. Others have posted before about being aware of the imaginary college sports scouts who bought a t-shirt at the mall and pretend to be associated with a school.

Beware of the poachers and hangers-on.

Summer leagues and 7v7s are a good way to get your name out there but no one gets an offer for these events without a regular HS season. This is not true in all sports but especially true in Football.

Check this out:

http://mdhigh.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1371673

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_S...rican_football)

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...aii/index.html

[50defense]

Press,
just got back from hearing the lax coach at Navy speak to this horrible trend in college athletics. Very sad indeed. Thanks for the links.

Notice that these offers are not binding nor committable.

[harcohorns]

The senior QB at Massilon(OH) was offfered in 8th grade by Stanford.. Harbaugh saw him at a camp when he was living out west. That was 5 years ago.. point being verbals have been going out to the younger players for a while just the verbals werent publicized.... its just being covered by the media so much now .. alot of old timers don't like it but personaly I think its fine.. I think the media is going over board though. I guess they got bored going after college scandals that they are going after high school ball now.. I am not talking about the rivals or maxpreps type guys but the tabliod type reporters spinning stories to fit their agenda..Like when they tried to make Next Level and the CHC asst coach into some street agent AAU type thing.. the problem is now people who buy into these stories think all 7on7 is like AAU and dirty... its rediculous..

[Outside Looking In]

The senior QB at Massilon(OH) was offfered in 8th grade by Stanford.. Harbaugh saw him at a camp when he was living out west. That was 5 years ago.. point being verbals have been going out to the younger players for a while just the verbals werent publicized.... its just being covered by the media so much now .. alot of old timers don't like it but personaly I think its fine.. I think the media is going over board though. I guess they got bored going after college scandals that they are going after high school ball now.. I am not talking about the rivals or maxpreps type guys but the tabliod type reporters spinning stories to fit their agenda..Like when they tried to make Next Level and the CHC asst coach into some street agent AAU type thing.. the problem is now people who buy into these stories think all 7on7 is like AAU and dirty... its rediculous..

NLN was pushing the limits in many ways with their actions. And to think that AAU and 7 on 7 are not dirty or shady in some way is very naive of you to think. To me no player and I mean no player that has not played a down of football should not be offered any typr of scholarship. Now that is ridiculous.

[harcohorns]

NLN was pushing the limits in many ways with their actions. And to think that AAU and 7 on 7 are not dirty or shady in some way is very naive of you to think. To me no player and I mean no player that has not played a down of football should not be offered any typr of scholarship. Now that is ridiculous.

Rediculous how? If a college coach sees a kid and sees something he likes in him and wants to verbally ask him to consider his school what is wrong in that?
Really it doesn't effect you or I in any way so why the outrage?..

Too me I think it inspires the kid to work hard in school and train as he knows he has a legit shot.. Too many kids give up and drop out and turn to the streets because they feel they have no hope, future or the odds of making it are too long.. These folks that are working with these kids and getting them exposure, instilling hope, confidence, and work ethic are doing good work... NLN is doing good work...The haters are just gonna have too hate I suppose

[Outside Looking In]

Rediculous how? If a college coach see a kid and something he likes and wants to verbally ask him to consider his school what is wrong in that?
Really it doesn't effect you or I in any way so why the outrage?..

Too me I think it inspires the kid to work hard in school and train as he knows he has a legit shot.. Too many kids give up and drop out and turn to the streets because they feel they have no hope, future or the odds of making it are too long.. These folks that are working with these kids and getting them exposure, instilling hope, confidence, and work ethic are doing good work... NLN is doing good work...The haters are just gonna have too hate I suppose

I guess we have different philosophies. And you really do not think NLN paying for trips among other things is not a bit shady? Come on now. The AAU basketball circuit is the most corrupt thing I have seen in a long time.

[2K10Terp]

Press,
just got back from hearing the lax coach at Navy speak to this horrible trend in college athletics. Very sad indeed. Thanks for the links.

Notice that these offers are not binding nor committable.

The offers are not binding nor committable because they are verbal. Offers are only binding if a National Letter of Intent is signed accompanied by a finanical aid agreement. The NLI is the only form of a binding contract and even still the student athlete must get accepted into the university before that is valid. Nonetheless, the young man still has a verbal offer from Boston College and he can also provide a verbal commitment. For example, David Sills from ECA. (http://sports.espn.go.com/los-angele...ory?id=4888515)

Also, are you suggesting the horrible trend is young men getting collegiate scholarship offers to early? What is wrong with it? What makes it better for them to get a offer a year or two or three later? How does it negatively impact you or the recruiting circuit?

Another note, It does seem as if there is a lot of animosity towards the NLN group based off of pure assumptions. Regardless of what many may think those young men are impacting lives in a positive manner. (Not directed to you 50defense) This appears to be a classic case of many not liking what they don't understand.

[Outside Looking In]

The offers are not binding nor committable because they are verbal. Offers are only binding if a National Letter of Intent is signed accompanied by a finanical aid agreement. The NLI is the only form of a binding contract and even still the student athlete must get accepted into the university before that is valid. Nonetheless, the young man still has a verbal offer from Boston College and he can also provide a verbal commitment. For example, David Sills from ECA. (http://sports.espn.go.com/los-angele...ory?id=4888515)

Also, are you suggesting the horrible trend is young men getting collegiate scholarship offers to early? What is wrong with it? What makes it better for them to get a offer a year or two or three later? How does it negatively impact you or the recruiting circuit?

Another note, It does seem as if there is a lot of animosity towards the NLN group based off of pure assumptions. Regardless of what many may think those young men are impacting lives in a positive manner. (Not directed to you 50defense) This appears to be a classic case of many not liking what they don't understand.

Tell me what I do not understand.

[2K10Terp]

Tell me what I do not understand.

You do not understand what is going on with NLN. Going by what you stated it appears that you are clearly implying or assuming NLN is doing shady business. So I ask if you do not have any proof and can only make statements like "things may be a bit shady" (based on what facts???) stop attacking the credibility and character of that company. May I ask you what trips did NLN pay for?

[Outside Looking In]

You do not understand what is going on with NLN. Going by what you stated it appears that you are clearly implying or assuming NLN is doing shady business. So I ask if you do not have any proof and can only make statements like "things may be a bit shady" (based on what facts???) stop attacking the credibility and character of that company. May I ask you what trips did NLN pay for?

There was an entire expose on Outside the Lines. Not just NLN, but a lot of these organizations.

[92 Card]

There was an entire expose on Outside the Lines. Not just NLN, but a lot of these organizations.

That piece was a joke, as is most of everything ESPN has done in the past 10-15 years. It was far cry from being an investigative journalism masterpiece. The way it was pieced together was factually incorrect. It was a hack, gotcha piece. They would not have been able to pun more than 1/2 of that crap if they were a credible news organization.

As for the NCAA... PLEASE! They are the biggest bunch of self serving, hypocrites out there, period.

[eaglesinsider]

I'm not a fan of the "AAU-ization" of HS football. Similar organizations ruined HS basketball to the point where what you do for your travel team is more important than what you do for your HS team. The same is true to a degree with lacrosse.

Luckily, despite the best efforts of some people, that can never fully happen with football because the only place you can get full contact hitting is during your high school season. I really don't care how fast you are or what numbers you put up in 7-on-7. I'd rather a kid spend the offseason with the teammates he will play with in the fall than travelling around with a bunch of kids from all over the place.

I have nothing against kids going to camps and getting their name out there, but I hate these "travel" 7-on-7 teams, especially the ones that operate during the school year. There's no need to go to Alabama to throw the ball around. They are misguided at best and exploitative at worst.

I'd rather see these kids diversify and focus on playing other sports. Track, lacrosse, wrestling, HS is your last chance to play a secondary sport most likely. Not only that, but playing different sports works different parts of your fitness and help you become a better overall athlete.

Research is still inconclusive, but early returns are showing that only playing one sport year round increases your chance of injury, because you are working the same muscles with the same stresses over and over. If a kid is a good player, he'll get noticed eventually, without travel teams.

I may not see eye to eye with Biff Poggi on much, but I fully agree with his philosophy of not letting his kids play for travel teams. He's quoted in this USA Today article from last summer:
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/preps...football_n.htm

Frederick's coach is quoted in the same article: "Our state coaches association has talked about trying to come up with almost a coaches' seal of approval with all these different events because guys are charging $50, $80, $100 at combines, telling kids they're going to get all these looks (from colleges), and they're not... Colleges want the game tape..."

Lest you think it is just Maryland coaches who take issue, here is a more recent article from January from Michigan:http://www.freep.com/article/2012012...iting-services

Here are some highlights, including a quote from the Michigan State HC Dantonio:

Some college coaches who participated in Friday's discussion at the MHSFCA annual clinic even referred to e-mails from recruiting services as "spam" that they immediately delete.

"The college coaches in general do not support 7-on-7 camps that are run independently of their high school," Dantonio said. "The college coaches are going to talk to the high school coaches predominately."

"The college coaches don't look at the 7-on-7 elite groups, they don't look at the combines, they don't look at the recruiting services," Merx said. "They look at the stuff that comes from the high school coach."

[2K10Terp]

There was an entire expose on Outside the Lines. Not just NLN, but a lot of these organizations.

Yes I saw the piece and read that article but unlike you I have also spoke to athletes of the NLN program and parents. What you do not know is what information ESPN failed to include just to make a story (parents/players speaking highly of NLN) or how they manipulated a lot of that information to make it controversial.

You can hear parent/ student-athlete perspective of the program here. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4G4vl00iwY).
You are also proving my point you do not know a lot about NLN but just what you heard from (ESPN). I consistently check on the program and have spoke with parents and their athletes about the program only to find out nothing but positive things.

Words of advice...Believe none of what you hear, half of what you see!

[Big Sky]

Yes I saw the piece and read that article but unlike you I have also spoke to athletes of the NLN program and parents. What you do not know is what information ESPN failed to include just to make a story (parents/players speaking highly of NLN) or how they manipulated a lot of that information to make it controversial.

You can hear parent/ student-athlete perspective of the program here. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4G4vl00iwY).
You are also proving my point you do not know a lot about NLN but just what you heard from (ESPN). I consistently check on the program and have spoke with parents and their athletes about the program only to find out nothing but positive things.

Words of advice...Believe none of what you hear, half of what you see!

Maybe you should take your own advise!! I am a parent of a NLN. It is like everything in life. There are positives and negatives. They have dedicated their life to be in Business to help athletes. They do a good job. It is a business. Some times they make money other times it cost them money, They give it everything they have. I am sure they will fine tune things and continue to get better as time goes on.

[GREYHOUND ALUM]

I'm not a fan of the "AAU-ization" of HS football. Similar organizations ruined HS basketball to the point where what you do for your travel team is more important than what you do for your HS team. The same is true to a degree with lacrosse.

Luckily, despite the best efforts of some people, that can never fully happen with football because the only place you can get full contact hitting is during your high school season. I really don't care how fast you are or what numbers you put up in 7-on-7. I'd rather a kid spend the offseason with the teammates he will play with in the fall than travelling around with a bunch of kids from all over the place.

I have nothing against kids going to camps and getting their name out there, but I hate these "travel" 7-on-7 teams, especially the ones that operate during the school year. There's no need to go to Alabama to throw the ball around. They are misguided at best and exploitative at worst.

I'd rather see these kids diversify and focus on playing other sports. Track, lacrosse, wrestling, HS is your last chance to play a secondary sport most likely. Not only that, but playing different sports works different parts of your fitness and help you become a better overall athlete.

Research is still inconclusive, but early returns are showing that only playing one sport year round increases your chance of injury, because you are working the same muscles with the same stresses over and over. If a kid is a good player, he'll get noticed eventually, without travel teams.

I may not see eye to eye with Biff Poggi on much, but I fully agree with his philosophy of not letting his kids play for travel teams. He's quoted in this USA Today article from last summer:
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/preps...football_n.htm

Frederick's coach is quoted in the same article: "Our state coaches association has talked about trying to come up with almost a coaches' seal of approval with all these different events because guys are charging $50, $80, $100 at combines, telling kids they're going to get all these looks (from colleges), and they're not... Colleges want the game tape..."

Lest you think it is just Maryland coaches who take issue, here is a more recent article from January from Michigan:http://www.freep.com/article/2012012...iting-services

Here are some highlights, including a quote from the Michigan State HC Dantonio:

Some college coaches who participated in Friday's discussion at the MHSFCA annual clinic even referred to e-mails from recruiting services as "spam" that they immediately delete.

"The college coaches in general do not support 7-on-7 camps that are run independently of their high school," Dantonio said. "The college coaches are going to talk to the high school coaches predominately."

"The college coaches don't look at the 7-on-7 elite groups, they don't look at the combines, they don't look at the recruiting services," Merx said. "They look at the stuff that comes from the high school coach."

Gilman, Good Counsel and DeMatha all bar their players from playing with outside 7 on 7 teams. I don't have a problem with NLN at all and like what they do but I think it's more important for kids to play with their high school team and develop a brotherhood.

I have been on enough teams and around even more to have seen them implode because of a lack of brotherhood. Football is the ultimate team sport and a lot of these travel 7 in 7 teams are about indivuality and getting offers. Kids are trying to be seen and shine. When this happens a lot of the time the team is forsaken for self.

I too agree with you about year round one sport athletes. I am a huge fan of playing more than one sport. Especially for football players. I just don't think it's safe. My own son played indoor football last year(against my wishes, his mother won out on that). I just think it puts kids at serious risk at a very early age.

But more schools are asking their football players to at least run track which I think is very important. CHC had a host of kids on their track team for the 1st time that I can remember. Trevor Williams ran a very fast 200 for a first year track guy. Can only imagine what he would have ran and the sort of player he would have been had he run all 4 years. McDonogh's track team was full of football players. Can't believe how fast the Myers and Hawkins kids are as frosh and at their size. They will be hell to deal with in the future.

[92 Card]

Gilman, Good Counsel and DeMatha all bar their players from playing with outside 7 on 7 teams. I don't have a problem with NLN at all and like what they do but I think it's more important for kids to play with their high school team and develop a brotherhood.

I have been on enough teams and around even more to have seen them implode because of a lack of brotherhood. Football is the ultimate team sport and a lot of these travel 7 in 7 teams are about indivuality and getting offers. Kids are trying to be seen and shine. When this happens a lot of the time the team is forsaken for self.

I too agree with you about year round one sport athletes. I am a huge fan of playing more than one sport. Especially for football players. I just don't think it's safe. My own son played indoor football last year(against my wishes, his mother won out on that). I just think it puts kids at serious risk at a very early age.

But more schools are asking their football players to at least run track which I think is very important. CHC had a host of kids on their track team for the 1st time that I can remember. Trevor Williams ran a very fast 200 for a first year track guy. Can only imagine what he would have ran and the sort of player he would have been had he run all 4 years. McDonogh's track team was full of football players. Can't believe how fast the Myers and Hawkins kids are as frosh and at their size. They will be hell to deal with in the future.

I agree with you 100% about football being a brotherhood. I think NLN is that too. In my opinion, it does not take away from school chemistry. I saw a group of young men at CHC who played as a group of brothers with a very strong bond on and off the field. NLN does not take away from the bonds formed with schoolmates and they do not play in tournaments at the same time as the schools. Calvert Hall had a good number of kids who played for NLN and they made it to the Kiper 7 on 7 National Championship game last summer. The same group of young men who were a play away from winning the first ever MIAA A conference championship game.

[Outside Looking In]

I'm not a fan of the "AAU-ization" of HS football. Similar organizations ruined HS basketball to the point where what you do for your travel team is more important than what you do for your HS team. The same is true to a degree with lacrosse.

Luckily, despite the best efforts of some people, that can never fully happen with football because the only place you can get full contact hitting is during your high school season. I really don't care how fast you are or what numbers you put up in 7-on-7. I'd rather a kid spend the offseason with the teammates he will play with in the fall than travelling around with a bunch of kids from all over the place.

I have nothing against kids going to camps and getting their name out there, but I hate these "travel" 7-on-7 teams, especially the ones that operate during the school year. There's no need to go to Alabama to throw the ball around. They are misguided at best and exploitative at worst.

I'd rather see these kids diversify and focus on playing other sports. Track, lacrosse, wrestling, HS is your last chance to play a secondary sport most likely. Not only that, but playing different sports works different parts of your fitness and help you become a better overall athlete.

Research is still inconclusive, but early returns are showing that only playing one sport year round increases your chance of injury, because you are working the same muscles with the same stresses over and over. If a kid is a good player, he'll get noticed eventually, without travel teams.

I may not see eye to eye with Biff Poggi on much, but I fully agree with his philosophy of not letting his kids play for travel teams. He's quoted in this USA Today article from last summer:
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/preps...football_n.htm

Frederick's coach is quoted in the same article: "Our state coaches association has talked about trying to come up with almost a coaches' seal of approval with all these different events because guys are charging $50, $80, $100 at combines, telling kids they're going to get all these looks (from colleges), and they're not... Colleges want the game tape..."

Lest you think it is just Maryland coaches who take issue, here is a more recent article from January from Michigan:http://www.freep.com/article/2012012...iting-services

Here are some highlights, including a quote from the Michigan State HC Dantonio:

Some college coaches who participated in Friday's discussion at the MHSFCA annual clinic even referred to e-mails from recruiting services as "spam" that they immediately delete.

"The college coaches in general do not support 7-on-7 camps that are run independently of their high school," Dantonio said. "The college coaches are going to talk to the high school coaches predominately."

"The college coaches don't look at the 7-on-7 elite groups, they don't look at the combines, they don't look at the recruiting services," Merx said. "They look at the stuff that comes from the high school coach."

Thank you!

[Big Sky]

Gilman, Good Counsel and DeMatha all bar their players from playing with outside 7 on 7 teams. I don't have a problem with NLN at all and like what they do but I think it's more important for kids to play with their high school team and develop a brotherhood.

I have been on enough teams and around even more to have seen them implode because of a lack of brotherhood. Football is the ultimate team sport and a lot of these travel 7 in 7 teams are about indivuality and getting offers. Kids are trying to be seen and shine. When this happens a lot of the time the team is forsaken for self.

I too agree with you about year round one sport athletes. I am a huge fan of playing more than one sport. Especially for football players. I just don't think it's safe. My own son played indoor football last year(against my wishes, his mother won out on that). I just think it puts kids at serious risk at a very early age.

But more schools are asking their football players to at least run track which I think is very important. CHC had a host of kids on their track team for the 1st time that I can remember. Trevor Williams ran a very fast 200 for a first year track guy. Can only imagine what he would have ran and the sort of player he would have been had he run all 4 years. McDonogh's track team was full of football players. Can't believe how fast the Myers and Hawkins kids are as frosh and at their size. They will be hell to deal with in the future.

I disagree. Dematha, and GC has played 7on7 all stars , for the past 3-4 years. They just stop once the spring ball starts with the school.

[GREYHOUND ALUM]

I disagree. Dematha, and GC has played 7on7 all stars , for the past 3-4 years. They just stop once the spring ball starts with the school.

Outside of the state team that also Gilman kids played on, GC and DM no longer allows players to play with Programs like NLN. They started the ban last summer. Brooks did an interview in one of the papers about this ban.