When the news of recruiting violations surrounding the Colorado
football program came about in the early spring of 2004, I
can’t say that I was surprised.
Incidents involving recruits and the illegal use of campus
spirit groups had long been rumored among the nation’s
largest college football programs.
The image of attractive young women paired with naive,
impressionable football recruits just seemed to be a formula for
failure.
And that’s where the UCLA athletic department saw the
problem.
They foresaw the possible problems involving athlete recruits
and female tour guides, and changed their hiring practices.
They started hiring more males and stipulated a written
agreement that would be signed by all its associates. When the NCAA
responded to the Colorado situation in 2004 and came down with
rules that all schools would have to follow, UCLA had already met
the guidelines.
When other programs were required to change their names and make
major changes to their athlete recruiting processes, UCLA had the
advantage of being ahead of the game.
Granted they weren’t able to fly Malik Hairston on a
private jet for a recruiting trip like Oregon did last season, but
at least their coaches have been able to run clean programs in the
eyes of the NCAA.
For all the scrutiny that UCLA football coach Karl Dorrell has
faced in the last two-plus years, one must give him credit for
ridding his program of the bad apples that he inherited on his
team.
In his two years at the helm, Dorrell has had more than 15
players either leave the team or transfer from the program, but his
recruiting tactics have never been questioned.
And that’s what, according to recruiting coordinator
Michael Sondheimer, has allowed the UCLA program to stay out of the
spotlight in terms of recruiting violations.
“Our coaches definitely sway our players away from that
kind of thinking,” Sondheimer said. “We are fortunate
to have people who stress integrity.”
One of the advantages UCLA enjoys over its counterparts in the
Big 12 and SEC is the limited scrutiny surrounding its football
program.
It’s less pressured to push the boundaries in terms of
pleasing recruits, and its standards for academics are some of the
toughest in the country.
“We are lucky that our program doesn’t face the same
pressure that other schools do,” Sondheimer said. “With
our high academic standards, the caliber of our recruits is
automatically elevated.”
UCLA, unlike its counterparts, has held an extremely hands-on
policy with recruiting in all sports from football to basketball to
cross country. It has tried to avoid the don’t ask,
don’t tell policy that has gotten other schools in extreme
trouble the past few years.
Just in the last year, extremely profitable programs such as
Tennessee, Mississippi State, and South Carolina were sanctioned by
the NCAA for what were considered secondary violations.
The pressure those schools face will never reach UCLA, and the
Pac-10, but with UCLA again in the national spotlight, the
temptations are definitely there.
“Sure, everyone wants to have the advantage over the next
school,” Sondheimer said. “But we want to keep the
integrity of our program.”
Despite the progress UCLA has made, I’m not ignorant of
the reality of athlete recruiting.
UCLA’s Blue and Gold will always include the best-looking
and brightest of UCLA’s student population, but at least its
members will be held to a higher standard.
Football players, or in fact, any athlete, will always be swayed
by attractive looking women, but at least those women will be bound
by contracts to adhere to NCAA standards.
And most importantly, UCLA’s coaches will not place
pressure on its recruiters to resort to illegal tactics to get
students to come to UCLA.
It’s those factors that gives fans and students the
confidence that we won’t see UCLA on ESPN tomorrow morning
for a recruiting scandal.