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Giving 'em what they want
Published: 5/15/2007 12:51 PM
Last Modified: 5/15/2007 12:51 PM

In regard to how out of hand recruiting has gotten: Perhaps it's possible to put the toothpaste back in the tube, but I'm not sure readers want the toothpaste back in the tube.
Highly regarded football and basketball recruits get way too much attention nowadays and you can blame lots of guilty parties for contributing -- newspapers, television, radio, Web sites and recruiting services.
Jai Lucas' recruitment finally gained closure Monday when he chose Florida. Oklahoma State recruited Lucas for four years and settled for co-bridesmaid status with Kentucky.
In the aftermath, folks are complaining that they are tired of prospects -- not just Lucas, but many kids whose chips are blue -- milking the recruiting process for drama. Somehow, the whole recruiting thing has become not-so-grand theater.
What would happen if all the media banned together and stopped providing information on where a kid is "leaning" or which schools he is visiting? What if we only wrote about recruits when they signed a letter of intent?
It's never going to happen because readers don't want it to happen. As of this writing today, three of the top seven most read stories on the Tulsa World's Web site pertain to the recruitment of Lucas.
The customers have spoken.



Reader Comments 2 Total
Stan (6 years ago)
That sounds great to me. I like sports and enjoy reading about it. But it has gone to far. These kids are put on pedestals and treated like gods. What has happened to the importance of an education. I agree with Coach Knight that college basketball players either choose going Pro or must stay in college for 3 years. I think professional atheletes should be held to a 1 strike and your out rule. If I was up there making millions, I would do what ever is needed to keep that pay check. Our kids are looking up to the wrong people. The way some pro atheletes act and behave is not what our kids need to immulate.
Bill (6 years ago)
I agree that too much emphasis is placed on reporting on recruiting, and I think that leads to fan bases focusing (and griping) about who they lost, rather than who they got!

That said, it's the "arms race" of recruiting that's the part that has got out of hand, not the reporting of it.

As to Coach Knight's idea of making kids stay for three years - all the kid has to do is fail in the classroom (easy for many of them to do) and they are out, no problem. In other words, it ain't gonna work.

Football and men's basketball have become the collegiate equivalent of pro sports, and have to return a certain investment in order to make the collegiate sports machine run. Thus ... it's about the bucks and you're not stopping that train very easily!
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Tulsa World sports writer Jimmie Tramel is a former class president at Locust Grove High School. He graduated magna cum laude from Northeastern State University with a journalism degree and, while attending college, was sports editor of the Pryor Daily Times. He joined the Tulsa World on Oct. 17, 1989, the same day an earthquake struck the World Series. He is the OSU basketball beat writer and a columnist and feature writer during football season. In 2007, he wrote a book about Oklahoma State football with former Cowboy coach Pat Jones.

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