College Sports is Big Business part I

Today an article appeared on the Sporting News website about a high school linebacker from Tucker high school, an Atlanta school, who was verbally promised a spot on the South Carolina Gamecocks football team and later told they were no longer interested in him.

First off let me make is clear that I do sympathize with Tucker high school linebacker Jonathan Davis for being led to believe he was going to attend South Carolina only to have it taken away from him. I once had something similar happen to me albeit on a smaller magnitude, however, it was still very hard to digest. What interests me about this story is how naïve the general public is on how young people get treated by the big business of sports. Last I checked college sports is a big business and one of the principal rules of business is if you do not have a written contract you have nothing but empty promises. Is what happened to Mr. Davis fair? No, it is not fair. Often things that happen within big businesses are not fair. I think the real heart of the problem is we must reexamine how college sports are run and pay particular attention to the recruiting process and how athletes are treated.

These young athletes are not professionals (some may go onto become professionals) and should not be thrown into the deep end as soon they leave high school. However, all to often these young athletes who attend big time division one programs are thrust into the spotlight with little or no preparation. I don’t think it is feasible to rapidly change the whole direction of college sports, however, it is possible to put in place a mentoring program for college bound athletes aimed at helping them deal with the stresses of collegiate sports. The National Institute of Sports Professionals (NIS) would like to help by proposing a stronger mentoring program that is focused on preparing high school athletes for collegiate sports. This program will be focused on giving young athletes the necessary skills required to succeed outside of college sports. If you are interested in helping with the mentoring program and joining NIS in its mission to empower young athletes contact Justin Mayer: Normandy1@aol.com.