Tampering in College Football

Mavric

Mavric

Yoda
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."

A prominent high school coach told ESPN's Tom VanHaaren he has seen it increase to the point that he estimates 60% of college teams are doing it.

"With one player, last season I got four calls from four different conferences," the high school coach said. "'Is he happy? They're not using him like we would use him.' These are SEC, Big Ten and some big-name schools."

A Power 5 coach surveyed the current landscape. It looked to him, he said, like the "wild, wild West."
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ESPN

 
Man this thing has been a crap show. The portal is gonna funnel the best players to the top 4-5 teams every year. I think it’s more of a hindrance than a benefit unless you’re a good-elite player. The biggest gripe on college football as is, is that it’s the same teams winning over and over. Unless Saban retires soon this will make the gap even wider me thinks. Who could have seen this coming? I am shocked I tell you!  :lol:

What a pain in the a$$ for coaches to continue to recruit their own players from poachers. 

 
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Decked said:
Man this thing has been a crap show. The portal is gonna funnel the best players to the top 4-5 teams every year. I think it’s more of a hindrance than a benefit unless you’re a good-elite player. The biggest gripe on college football as is, is that it’s the same teams winning over and over. Unless Saban retires soon this will make the gap even wider me thinks. Who could have seen this coming? I am shocked I tell you!  :lol:

What a pain in the a$$ for coaches to continue to recruit their own players from poachers. 
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The 4 team playoff system is a bigger cause of the same teams winning it every year than the transfer portal is.  

I have yet to really see any of our transfers end of up at a school of consequence and I think there are plenty of cases where the grass isn't always greener with tons of student athletes still sitting in the portal without big name teams jumping at them.

I'd rather see an alteration to post season play that doesnt automatically exclude the champion of one of the so called equal power 5 confefences, possibly 2 of them if Notre dame is solid on any given year.  we prolly could have won 6-7 tites in the 90s under the current system where it literally gives the big brand progrums an opportunity to slip up once and still get in over other teams due to perception and stature of the school name.  

 
gossamorharpy said:
The 4 team playoff system is a bigger cause of the same teams winning it every year than the transfer portal is.  
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Um ... no.

In the seven years of the playoff, the #1 or #2 team has won it five times.  Those teams would have played for the National Championship under the previous setup.

In 2014, #4 Ohio State won it, beating #1 Alabama in the semifinal.  So that year the playoff likely prevented another one of the same teams from winning it.

2017 is the only year where that argument could have merit as #4 Alabama beat #3 Georgia in the championship.  But Alabama beat #1 Clemson in the semifinal so with out the playoff all it (probably) would have done is trade Clemson for Alabama.

 
When a player considers going somewhere else, I'm pretty sure he's doing something similar too, and before a portal announcement.  Not all, but some probably do. 

 
This has been my biggest fear with the transfer portal and then immediate eligibility.  It's just going to become an even bigger s#!t show.

And, the tampering isn't just going to come from the Alabamas, OSUs, Clemsons of the world.  If Iowa or Wisconsin is sees their roster and needs to add an RB, they could possibly be contacting a player from somewhere else to try to win  a division.

 
Mavric said:
Um ... no.

In the seven years of the playoff, the #1 or #2 team has won it five times.  Those teams would have played for the National Championship under the previous setup.

In 2014, #4 Ohio State won it, beating #1 Alabama in the semifinal.  So that year the playoff likely prevented another one of the same teams from winning it.

2017 is the only year where that argument could have merit as #4 Alabama beat #3 Georgia in the championship.  But Alabama beat #1 Clemson in the semifinal so with out the playoff all it (probably) would have done is trade Clemson for Alabama.
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You missed my point entirely.  The other poster referenced the transfer portal being part of the blame for the lack of parity... I disagree with this and would rather point to this flawed system contributing in a much greater fashion to the lack of parity.

I'm not saying abolish the playoff, rather it needs to be expanded because pencilling in alabama and clemson in each year as long as they only have 1 loss is just a flawed system.  Some of these years they didnt even need to win their own division in their conference, yet somehow get a pass to be in the top 4?  Make the playoffs 8 teams with conf champs and the next 3 best in so some of these teams actually have to beat other top notch teams to win it all.

Its not really a 4 team playoff when saban and dabo have a guaranteed spot... thats a 2 team playoff for the other 3 P5 conferences and Notre dame to fight for with the 2 other auto slated in.  

I tire of all the transfer portal b!^@hing on this board. Player transfers have been around for decades, sure its an easier process now but lets not pretend its directly led to any kind of massive shifts in the sport that people love to doom and gloom about.  

 
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