2020 Recruiting Thread

[FearlessF]

My brother was a professor at Mississippi St. when Jackie Sherrill was there.

My brother would be surprised to see MSU on this list.

Apparently, things change....

[Cincydawg]

How often do recruits go somewhere because of some form of payment?  Any notions?  Obviously is happens, but is it rare or fairly commonplace?

I can imagine a LOT of ways to do it without much risk of being caught.

[FearlessF]

boy, we all have ideas, but we'd all be VERY curious as to the truth about paying players

[Mdot21]

How often do recruits go somewhere because of some form of payment?  Any notions?  Obviously is happens, but is it rare or fairly commonplace?

I can imagine a LOT of ways to do it without much risk of being caught.

I personally know an OL that was all but committed to go to Florida until Tennessee offered him some money. He went to Tennessee.

It happens all the time. It’s very easy to do it without getting caught.

I’m not naive enough to think it’s never happened at Michigan. It’s happened at every school. 

There’s 60+ P5 schools that each recruit 20-30 kids a year. There’s no way for the schools to reign in all the boosters or die hard fans with way too much money that they know what to do with. I‘d bet there’s  lots of cases where coaches don’t even know only to find out later or maybe never even find out at all.

[ELA]

I personally know an OL that was all but committed to go to Florida until Tennessee offered him some money. He went to Tennessee.

It happens all the time. It’s very easy to do it without getting caught.

I’m not naive enough to think it’s never happened at Michigan. It’s happened at every school.

There’s 60+ P5 schools that each recruit 20-30 kids a year. There’s no way for the schools to reign in all the boosters or die hard fans with way too much money that they know what to do with. I‘d bet there’s  lots of cases where coaches don’t even know only to find out later or maybe never even find out at all.

I think we all know it happens everywhere, I do wonder how often it influences decisions.  It has to be enough to be worth it, and for a booster to give more than a $200 handshake it has to be a top level guy.  I actually think the draft rules help hold it down in football.  You have to hide it for 3 years, and any punishments, if long enough, take you off NFL radars.  Basketball?  Forget about it.  The kids worth paying aren't even going to class after the semester break, and once you find out they were paid and academically ineligible they have already left for the NBA.

[Cincydawg]

What would be the "going rate" for a 4-5 star recruit?  The recruit is taking a serious risk obviously.

Now, I can see if the father or uncle or someone with influence comes into some gravy.

Directly paying a recruit to sign?  Risky, but probably happens, no idea how often, probably rarely by the coaches.

[Cincydawg]

So, if I'm a big fan with deep pockets and Johnny Fivestars is considering 5 programs, and I learn his Dad sells cars, what's to stop me from offering his Dad a lucrative job selling MY cars if he can get his kid to go to My U?

Valdosta did this years ago with high school players, they would get the Dad a job in Valdosta.

[Mdot21]

What would be the "going rate" for a 4-5 star recruit?  The recruit is taking a serious risk obviously.

Now, I can see if the father or uncle or someone with influence comes into some gravy.

Directly paying a recruit to sign?  Risky, but probably happens, no idea how often, probably rarely by the coaches.

My total guess would be installment payments of $5,000-$10,000 at a time. 

Pretty easy to do that without ever getting caught honestly.

[Cincydawg]

So, what if I promised say $5000 every month to Recruit A to sign, and he signs, and I stop paying?

[Mdot21]

So, what if I promised say $5000 every month to Recruit A to sign, and he signs, and I stop paying?

Probably nothing. 

My guess is the guys who do that keep paying up bc they are diehards with too much money for their own good than they know what to do with who are way too invested in the program. If they are offering some HS kid money to go to their favorite school they probably aren’t going to just stop paying. And they probably tell the kid to tell other top kids about the little set up in order to sign more top recruits.

[mcwterps1]

I had an employee who played FullBack who started at Georgia Southern. He was recruited by Clemson, and talked about a church where money is funneled through to get recruits cars, PS4's, money, or other "gifts".

He went to uSC.

He got a call from a former S&C coach now at Arizona State, working on furthering his education, and working under Herm Edwards.

Pretty cool gig, and I'm happy to have met him.

[Mdot21]

I had an employee who played FullBack who started at Georgia Southern. He was recruited by Clemson, and talked about a church where money is funneled through to get recruits cars, PS4's, money, or other "gifts".

He went to uSC.

He got a call from a former S&C coach now at Arizona State, working on furthering his education, and working under Herm Edwards.

Pretty cool gig, and I'm happy to have met him.

Never thought of that but a church would be an amazing way to funnel money. 

[Cincydawg]

Frankly, there are a ton of ways to funnel money these days.  We haven't even gotten into bitcoin etc.

Somebody puts a lawnmower on eBay for $50,000 and sells.  Or you just show up with cash.

I suspect the universities are mostly "clean", though some may know about stuff and let it ride.

[FearlessF]

Now, I can see if the father or uncle or someone with influence comes into some gravy.

Cam Newton comes to mind
Reggie Bush???