Tampering has arrived in college football, and it looks like NBA free agency - ESPN

[Iceland12]

It was late December, not yet the end of the season, and already the wolves were circling. An assistant at a high-level Power 5 program knew two of his school's best young players -- one on offense and one on defense -- were being actively recruited by other programs. In fact, he said, it was "unbelievable" how many coaches were reaching out to players on his team's roster.

"The cheaters," the frustrated assistant said, "just keep cheating."

Tampering officially arrived in college football this offseason, leaving coaches to both lament the current state of the game -- and try to keep up.

They know if they wait for a quality player to enter the transfer portal to begin recruiting him, they're too late. So they've been reaching out to third parties and using players as go-betweens. It's a violation of NCAA rules, of course, but enforcement is nearly impossible.

An SEC head coach said that not only is tampering happening, "it happens most of the time."..

Welcome to college football's new 'wild, wild West': The era of tampering

Tampering officially arrived in college football this offseason, leaving coaches to both lament the current state of the game -- and try to keep up.

www.espn.com

 

[MplsGopher_fan]

I think the solution, not only to this, but to the problem of the top 3-4 teams getting most of the NFL talent, would be to ban people from transferring from one P5 team to another P5/G5.

In this case, what non-G5, non-P5 team has enough clout to try and poach P5 players? And in the case of recruiting, would two 4/5* QBs both sign with tOSU knowing that if they are the player that doesn't win the job, their only transfer option is outside P5/G5? I think you wouldn't see so much top talent being so tightly condensed. Right now you can sign with tOSU and try and compete with all the other talent, and the worst case is if you get beat out you can pretty much pick any school you want to transfer to.

 

[Word]

I think the solution,...would be to ban people...

Oh the irony.

 

[PMWinSTP]

Is this sort of like if you have an uncle who is hired an assistant coach and you commit? Or vice versa...you commit and right after, your uncle is hired as an assistant coach?

 

[tikited]

Oh the irony.

Brilliant!

 

[UpAndUnder43]

Are they implying this never happened before this season?

 

[fmlizard]

Transfer portal is mostly great for Minnesota. Gophers can/do get a few transfers up from top G5 and FCS players each year. They also get a few "transfers down" from high prestige programs.

Meanwhile, elite players almost never "transfer up" from Minnesota or similar programs. Some guys who weren't likely to play transfer down. If an elite player is lost from Minnesota before 4 years it's to the draft.

 

[MNVCGUY]

Are they implying this never happened before this season?

Was wondering the same thing. I mean the part posted in the thread specifically references recruiting a guy before they officially enter the portal. I am sure the transfer portal has expanded some of these practices as now players can move far more freely then they maybe could in the past. But I highly doubt that tampering is just now finding its way to college football.

 

[MplsGopher_fan]

Transfer portal is mostly great for Minnesota. Gophers can/do get a few transfers up from top G5 and FCS players each year. They also get a few "transfers down" from high prestige programs.

Meanwhile, elite players almost never "transfer up" from Minnesota or similar programs. Some guys who weren't likely to play transfer down. If an elite player is lost from Minnesota before 4 years it's to the draft.

True, but we're still getting the ones that didn't make it at the helmet schools. If those athletes had to be more discerning about their original choice, maybe they would trickle down to us sooner (signing day) and sometimes we'd get the better ones?

 

[fmlizard]

Was wondering the same thing. I mean the part posted in the thread specifically references recruiting a guy before they officially enter the portal. I am sure the transfer portal has expanded some of these practices as now players can move far more freely then they maybe could in the past. But I highly doubt that tampering is just now finding its way to college football.

By far the most common form of tampering at any level is the least formal and isn't sponsored by clandestine coaches. It's players who know each other from camps, high school, and social media.

Player A "It's not working out at State U"
Player B: "Come play for Big Tech"

 

[UpAndUnder43]

Was wondering the same thing. I mean the part posted in the thread specifically references recruiting a guy before they officially enter the portal. I am sure the transfer portal has expanded some of these practices as now players can move far more freely then they maybe could in the past. But I highly doubt that tampering is just now finding its way to college football.

Thats where I'm at. It has happened for years. An assistant leaves Minnesota and lands at Northern Iowa (our coaches never go up ) and then a kid decides to go to Northern Iowa. Likely that he was texting that coach, or that coach texted players parents or whatever. I am sure it is more widespread but to act like its new is insane.

 

[PMWinSTP]

By far the most common form of tampering at any level is the least formal and isn't sponsored by clandestine coaches. It's players who know each other from camps, high school, and social media.

Player A "It's not working out at State U"
Player B: "Come play for Big Tech"

Is that tampering?

 

[MNVCGUY]

Is that tampering?

I would think it would be, but it would also be nearly impossible to catch and I am sure happens quite frequently.

I am sure this stuff goes on behind the scenes all the time, it is just when teams get sloppy that they get busted for it.

 

[btowngopher]

Why would an assistant coach know of tampering yet not name the cheaters?

 

[4four4]

This goes to show why our country needs Junior Football Leagues and how it's really semi pro football. Getting an education? Nah.

 

[MNVCGUY]

Why would an assistant coach know of tampering yet not name the cheaters?

Something about not throwing stones when you live in a glass house or something along those lines.....

 

[PMWinSTP]

I would think it would be, but it would also be nearly impossible to catch and I am sure happens quite frequently.

I am sure this stuff goes on behind the scenes all the time, it is just when teams get sloppy that they get busted for it.

Didn't Coughlin actively and openly do this...Empire Class?

 

[MNVCGUY]

Didn't Coughlin actively and openly did this...Empire Class?

That was before he was officially part of the team though I would think that would be very different.

On top of that, they were going after fellow recruits who were not affiliated with any colleges yet.

 

[MplsGopher_fan]

Didn't Coughlin actively and openly did this...Empire Class?

He wasn't talking to anyone that was already on scholarship for a different school.

 

[PMWinSTP]

That was before he was officially part of the team though I would think that would be very different.

On top of that, they were going after fellow recruits who were not affiliated with any colleges yet.

What do you mean before officially part of the team?

 

[PMWinSTP]

He wasn't talking to anyone that was already on scholarship for a different school.

Transfer rules were a bit different then.

 

[MNVCGUY]

What do you mean before officially part of the team?

You mentioned the empire class which Coughlin was part of. If he was talking to other recruits while he was also a recruit I don't really see what the issue would be in that.

 

[Iceland12]

By far the most common form of tampering at any level is the least formal and isn't sponsored by clandestine coaches. It's players who know each other from camps, high school, and social media.

Player A "It's not working out at State U"
Player B: "Come play for Big Tech"

Maybe that's another reason the headline compared it to NBA Free Agency. The NBA can't stop players from talking to each other. Probably applies to college players too.

 

[MplsGopher_fan]

Transfer rules were a bit different then.

What transfer was part of The Empire class?

 

[FormerFatOL]

Are they implying this never happened before this season?

It seemed to happen less when undergraduate transfers had to sit out a year.

 

[short ornery norwegian]

Saw a tweet about this. A reporter was stating that mid-major schools are refusing to sign contracts to play "guarantee" games against high-major schools (not sure if this was hoops or FB) because the mid-majors did not want to give the high-major schools a free chance to scout their players and possibly target them for future transfers.

In short, the greater freedom for players to transfer is making schools paranoid.

 

[UpAndUnder43]

Saw a tweet about this. A reporter was stating that mid-major schools are refusing to sign contracts to play "guarantee" games against high-major schools (not sure if this was hoops or FB) because the mid-majors did not want to give the high-major schools a free chance to scout their players and possibly target them for future transfers.

In short, the greater freedom for players to transfer is making schools paranoid.

The reporter you reference is an idiot. They are absolutely signing contracts to play high-major schools. They wouldn't have teams or potentially athletic departments without these games.

 

[Plato]

My perspective is that if the coaches are free agents and move freely to what seems a better job then players should have the same rights.
If a player on scholarship is offered a position on a much better team he should be allowed to leave and join the better team.
The players are not slaves or peons.

 

[MNVCGUY]

My perspective is that if the coaches are free agents and move freely to what seems a better job then players should have the same rights.
If a player on scholarship is offered a position on a much better team he should be allowed to leave and join the better team.
The players are not slaves or peons.

What you are talking about is the entire purpose of the transfer portal and the one time free transfer. As long as a player is in the portal they should be fair game. But teams shouldn't be actively recruiting players that are not in the portal. In that way the players and coaches are different.

 

[MplsGopher_fan]

My perspective is that if the coaches are free agents and move freely to what seems a better job then players should have the same rights.
If a player on scholarship is offered a position on a much better team he should be allowed to leave and join the better team.
The players are not slaves or peons.

What I would like to see is a stop to allowing the coaches to move, as opposed to letting the players move too. For example, a coach can't coach at an NCAA school if he's already under contract at another one. So if your coach just signed a 10 year extension, that's it, he is no longer eligible to coach at any other NCAA school for the next 10 years. He can sit out, he can go to the NFL, but he can't move to another school until that contract expires. And no, we don't let schools "update" the contract to all of a sudden reduce the # of years so he can leave.