HuskerfaninOkieland
Heisman Trophy Winner
Article brings up a good point. Is all this coverage Alabama is getting on ESPN crossing the line when it comes to recruits?
Bleacher Report
There’s nothing a college football head coach likes more than a little television time for his program, especially when that attention comes from the biggest sports channel in the world.
Coaches love the chance to sell their program and their brand to the public, and ESPN offers them a wide and vast viewing audience. That audience just so happens to include potential high school recruits who are looking for a school to sign with.
All the big name coaches—Mack Brown, Bob Stoops, Lane Kiffin—made the trip up to Bristol this summer for a day of hardcore football promotion.
It’s true the difference of coverage that schools like Florida, Texas, and Notre Dame receive as opposed to less popular teams grows each passing year. It’s only logical that college football fans want to know what's taking place with the biggest teams in the game.
Although even with all that attention, we see the top schools receive each year, we’ve never quite seen a full fledged blitz like the one we're seeing this year for the Alabama Crimson Tide football team. The defending champs have taken over the ESPN airwaves for a week of reality television—Tuscaloosa style!
These types of “Hard Knocks” style shows devoted solely to one team raises the question if this promotion is a bit unbalanced. Are the shows serving as a sort of outrageously grand recruiting tool for Nick Saban and his squad?
Potential recruits are getting the opportunity to see every little facet that the program has to offer. From the faces of the assistant coaches, to the multi-million dollar training facility, to the players getting treated like rock stars at almost every turn.
Does all of this border on too excessive?
After all, this is an amateur sport we're talking about. One where players can’t have their name in a video game or do anything of any kind to self promote themselves in the media. This is a sport that will force it’s teams to self report a violation such as sending out a batch of cookies to a potential recruit.
Yet somehow an elaborate week long reality show is perfectly fine?
This is a time in the recruiting period when head coaches can only have limited if any contact with a recruit, but for Alabama’s Nick Saban, he has the opportunity to reach them all. He’s getting the chance to pitch his school right on national television.
No need for a recruiting trip, here’s what we have to offer. Range Rovers, a top notch weight room, a huge beautiful stadium, and everything you would want as a recruit. Oh and hey, there’s also that matter of having your face plastered on ESPN if you choose to come to Alabama.
These shows are a fascinating look inside the world of big time college football, and they are superb in how they are structured—but is it all just a little too much?
If we are going to allow one school so much free advertising what does that say to everyone else trying to abide by the strict rules of college football recruiting?
It’s a cut throat game in the recruiting world, and right now Nick Saban and Alabama are walking around with the biggest knife.
Bleacher Report
There’s nothing a college football head coach likes more than a little television time for his program, especially when that attention comes from the biggest sports channel in the world.
Coaches love the chance to sell their program and their brand to the public, and ESPN offers them a wide and vast viewing audience. That audience just so happens to include potential high school recruits who are looking for a school to sign with.
All the big name coaches—Mack Brown, Bob Stoops, Lane Kiffin—made the trip up to Bristol this summer for a day of hardcore football promotion.
It’s true the difference of coverage that schools like Florida, Texas, and Notre Dame receive as opposed to less popular teams grows each passing year. It’s only logical that college football fans want to know what's taking place with the biggest teams in the game.
Although even with all that attention, we see the top schools receive each year, we’ve never quite seen a full fledged blitz like the one we're seeing this year for the Alabama Crimson Tide football team. The defending champs have taken over the ESPN airwaves for a week of reality television—Tuscaloosa style!
These types of “Hard Knocks” style shows devoted solely to one team raises the question if this promotion is a bit unbalanced. Are the shows serving as a sort of outrageously grand recruiting tool for Nick Saban and his squad?
Potential recruits are getting the opportunity to see every little facet that the program has to offer. From the faces of the assistant coaches, to the multi-million dollar training facility, to the players getting treated like rock stars at almost every turn.
Does all of this border on too excessive?
After all, this is an amateur sport we're talking about. One where players can’t have their name in a video game or do anything of any kind to self promote themselves in the media. This is a sport that will force it’s teams to self report a violation such as sending out a batch of cookies to a potential recruit.
Yet somehow an elaborate week long reality show is perfectly fine?
This is a time in the recruiting period when head coaches can only have limited if any contact with a recruit, but for Alabama’s Nick Saban, he has the opportunity to reach them all. He’s getting the chance to pitch his school right on national television.
No need for a recruiting trip, here’s what we have to offer. Range Rovers, a top notch weight room, a huge beautiful stadium, and everything you would want as a recruit. Oh and hey, there’s also that matter of having your face plastered on ESPN if you choose to come to Alabama.
These shows are a fascinating look inside the world of big time college football, and they are superb in how they are structured—but is it all just a little too much?
If we are going to allow one school so much free advertising what does that say to everyone else trying to abide by the strict rules of college football recruiting?
It’s a cut throat game in the recruiting world, and right now Nick Saban and Alabama are walking around with the biggest knife.
