The History of College Football Recruiting

College football recruiting is a a year-round business even though the NCAA tries to limit the amount of time college coaches can talk to high school players. The year-round aspect comes from all of the attention that fans and media spend on teenagers and their ability to carry a football. Men's livelihoods hang in the balance every year as they battle other schools for the best players who will aid them on the field. It is a tricky field to battle and one that many coaches will say is the worst part of their job.

  1. The Early Days

    • For the first few decades of college football, players came straight from the student body. While some players did get scholarships, the majority of players were recruited for their school work not their grid work from the 1870s through the early 1920s.

    The First Hint of Scandals

    • By the 1920s schools began offering player scholarships based on their high school athletic prowess. By the mid-1930s, there were wide spread reports of players getting money, not going to classes and having played professionally on the weekends.

    The Colleges Crack Down

    • In response to these problems, many school dropped football programs or fired corrupt coaches in the 1930s and 1940s. However, the signing of questionable recruits remained and some schools flaunted the rules worse than other despite the best efforts. Top prospects such as Joe Namath in the 1960s said they were plied with all kinds of favors to play for certain schools.

    The Awful Eighties

    • The NCAA finally started cracking down on recruiting scandals in the 1980s as teams gave money, cars and alcohol to prospective players. Numerous national powers including Clemson and most of the old Southwest Conference were stripped of bowl games, television contracts and scholarships. Southern Methodist College essentially had its program wiped out because of recruiting violations in 1988.

    The Rise of The Internet

    • The NCAA put in stricter guidelines in the late 1980s and early 1990s, which cut down on a lot of the cheating. However, the Internet has created a new world for recruiting. Now high school players and college coaches are being graded more than ever because of the hundreds of Websites that keep an eye on recruiting and what players might be going where.

    Social Media

    • The new gray area for recruiting is social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and MySpace that allow players and coaches to talk and share comments, but not be in violation of NCAA rules.