The Fan Ethics of Recruiting

Who will he choose? Where will he end up in the future? Is he really torn between two or is he just playing one off the other? Cheesy reality show this is not,

Who will he choose? Where will he end up in the future? Is he really torn between two or is he just playing one off the other? Cheesy reality show this is not, but it does reflect another reality: The incredible fan interest in collegiate sports recruiting, notably major college football recruiting.

Along with sport comes passion, from the participants as well as the spectators. While in a stadium or on the playing field, that kind of attention is welcome, expected and even encouraged. But when people leave the big stage after competitions, especially amateur student-athletes, the attention doesn’t cease. In fact, when it comes to high school football recruiting, attention often seems to grow when the young man is off the field.

Recently, a star athlete committed to a school other than Michigan State. The young man had visited MSU's campus a couple weeks before and hard core recruitniks read every word someone wrote about him. Later, he commits elsewhere, and unsubstantiated rumors begin to fill fan populated message boards, everything from poor academics or untoward behavior while visiting to whispers that his family might have been looking for kickbacks.

In the digital age we live in, when anyone with a computer and the ability to somewhat spell can reach an audience of hundreds if not thousands and thousands of people, rumors travel like they never have before. And the problem with rumors is, more often than not, they turn out to be complete bunk. Sure, sure, where there's smoke there's fire, we've all heard this before; but what if it's the messenger who's creating the smoke? And what if there are dozens of like-minded messengers? All fanning the smoke with blustering rants about how horrible other programs are and what rotten people athletes who don't go to Michigan State are. Not exactly a dignified conversation.

Nobody deserves to have unsubstantiated rumors eat away at his reputation, let alone kids who are — get ready for this — probably going to act like kids anyway sometimes. In other words, even if there's any truth to the rumors, what good does it do anyone for complete strangers to dissect, analyze and speculate what that may mean about the young man's character or how the reputation of the program he decided to go to is now tarnished for having accepted such an allegedly imperfect human being.

It would all be a bit funny if it didn't have an impact on people. A common caustic response from an overzealous fan says something like the kid should learn to suck it up and take the good with the bad. That sort of sentiment, though, is typically emitted from someone with the intellect of a third-grader anonymously casting stones from a glass mansion.

What's true and what's just angry or disappointed, not to mention immature, fan reaction? The real question, in truth, should be, unless someone closely connected with the young man offers insight into the situation, why does anyone care? Once a verbal commitment is made, and the recruiting of a prospect essentially ends (that's the way it is under Mark Dantonio at Michigan State), there is no more news. So why all the clucking and braying after the fact on message boards and in some established media circles?

There is perhaps no definitive answer to such a question. But without an attempt to put yourself in the shoes of a kid or his family, you're liable to slip into generalizations, personal attacks or just plain stupidity. And that stuff matters: it matters to the young people who read what others have to say about them, it matters to the friends and family of a recruit, and it should matter to the wider community of fans and alumni of a collegiate program. Over and over, recruits tell me a major factor in their recruitment is the reputation and actions of people associated with the schools that are courting them.

In the end, it's all quite easy: Adult fans should understand that rumors don’t need help spreading; that it's a bit unhealthy to obsess over every word a 17-year old utters; that just because an athlete isn't coming to your favorite school, it doesn't mean he's a worthless, rotten, spoiled or overrated prospect; and that just because the spotlight of the media is on them, it doesn’t mean young people are ready — nor, for good measure, should they be — to be publically scrutinized off the field. At least in college you can say athletes are getting a higher education in return, so the extra attention to their extra curricular activities might be warranted. But what do high schoolers get out of it, aside from some hype that could marginally raise their profiles, but will more likely just stroke an ego.

Most recruitniks understand the importance of not badmouthing youngsters, of not unreflectively repeating suspicious rumors, and of always being a good sport, even when your home team loses out on a major commitment. But where we could all improve just a bit more is in calling out those people who decide the low road is the way to go.