The spring period is officially coming to an end now across the country for hundreds of club programs, as we begin to get set to prepare now for the busy month of June high school basketball. This spring was certainly a unique one for national high school basketball prospects, as the entire spring included only one NCAA certified weekend for events nationally to include NCAA member Division-I college coaches. As a result of this fact, as well as the tremendous growth, importance and popularity of the NCAA Transfer Portal among college coaches at all levels, high school student-athletes across the country, as well as college transfers, are each now suffering at the hands of the portal. The many rule changes made by the NCAA over the past few years regarding transfers, NIL money and the consistently increasing pressure to win at the collegiate level has now made it almost impossible for high school student-athletes to get recruited. This is the reality of the situation.
While many of you are currently going through this experience, have been through it or know someone that has been affected, it is now becoming widely apparent for student-athletes, parents and high school and club coaches that it has become very difficult to gain college recruitment and exposure to college coaches in this current recruiting climate. This has been the case now for several years, as high school senior student-athletes have gone almost unnoticed and unrecruited annually now, according to previous year's standards, when top-rated high school basketball prospects were very highly regarded and had become a commodity for Division-I programs. Gyms in the spring and summer were once filled with Division-I college coaches looking to catch a glimpse of some of the nation's top talent on the club circuit. There were numerous NCAA-Approved Evaluation periods for college recruiting, and, for the top-rated prospects, college offers poured in consistently. Today, the NCAA Evaluation periods are scarce and primarily controlled by the NCAA, for their NCAA Academy's in July, and also for the high school programs in June. Club programs now have one weekend in the spring, and two weekends in the summer (July) to make it happen in front of Division-I college coaches.
The NCAA has been very successful in bringing High School basketball programs back into the equation, and making them a focus again. This move by the NCAA has been really a nice fact, which has helped many high school prospects to get recruited in June. At events nationally such as our colossal Section 7 event here in Arizona, high school prospects are put in a very nice light for college coaches to evaluate them over several days, resulting in maximum college recruitment and exposure. Before the emergence and the development of the Section 7 event by the NCAA, AIA and others, most high school prospects nationally gained their college recruitment through their performances on the club circuit. Today, high school programs and coaches have also now become a strong factor in leading the recruiting charge for their respective student-athletes. This is becoming a nice balance for student-athletes that require a village to support their college recruitment today. No longer is just one person responsible for improving the college recruitment of a student-athlete, but rather today it takes a village to support that goal, as college recruiting opportunities have become much more difficult.
The NCAA has executed their mission of giving more recruiting responsibility and power to the high school coaches. For many years, the club coaches had become the primary contact in the relationship with the student-athlete for college coaches, and many high school coaches, who are already underpaid, chose to avoid the conflict with the club coaches - rather supporting the student-athlete, although the club coach would ultimately control the recruitment. Today, many more club and high school coaches are working together and have strong personal relationships to support their student-athletes. Ultimately, this is and should be the goal, so I really believe the NCAA is doing an excellent job in this arena - bringing high school coaches back into the fold and the forefront. This has also made for much more excitement around high school basketball nationally, throughout the season and the off-season.
While the focus on club basketball by the NCAA had developed over the years, and became a very important issue for the NCAA Enforcement Committee, the new and real issue for the NCAA had also become the tremendous development, growth and excitement around prep schools nationally. Prep schools nationally and locally emerged and took over the recruiting landscape quickly. Consistently, the the nation's top talent began to leave their respective high school programs for high-profile prep school programs. So much that it became a major issue for the NCAA also, and their became more of a reason for the NCAA to certify events for the high school programs. While it is still not perfect and the NCAA will continue to make changes from year to year, I do not expect the NCAA to make any major changes with the current model, as it seems to work well now. More balance will evolve over time in each arena, as high school coaches, club coaches and even prep school programs begin to work together better. Neither of them are going anywhere, as the increasing impact of social media and NIL marketing dollars continue to flood the country, and have made it increasingly difficult for student-athletes and parents to navigate.
While the NCAA has had some major wins in this new recruiting environment, they are definitely and will continue to take some losses as well. The NCAA Transfer Portal was a necessary process that has been extremely successful in creating a vessel for college student-athletes to notify their respective college programs of their desire to transfer academic institutions. Susan Peal, an NCAA Director of Governance, managed the National Letter of Intent program and, in 2011, was integral in developing an online portal to handle requests from student-athletes who wanted to be released from their national letters of intent. While her portal has been extremely successful in reporting these transfers, the rule changes made by the NCAA to allow for immediate college eligibility have turned the NCAA Transfer Portal into a nightmare, as thousands of college athletes across the country enter the portal now annually, and the portal continues to grow to unmanageable numbers.
The importance of the NCAA Transfer Portal continues to soar, as the importance of winning in college sports has now reached an all-time high. The emergence of large amounts of NIL money that is now being thrown at top-student-athletes across the country and transfers, has created an even bigger level of importance and urgency around winning. The game has completely changed as billion of dollars have now been injected into the sports industry through large corporate sponsors, boosters and alumni. While the NCAA looks to figure out how to manage this new sports marketing model, or figure out if it is even manageable at all, high school seniors across the country are suffering mightily in their college recruitment. It has become more difficult than ever before for high school seniors to land a college home, and many more high school seniors today have gone unnoticed and unrecruited than ever before.
Winning college sports programs today win with older, mature and experienced players. That has become a fact in college sports. With so many of the nation's elite basketball prospects also jumping to the NBA after one college season, due to the NCAA's one-and-done rule, college basketball has become much more about winning and dominant teams, rather than the individual. UCONN has proven that, winning the last two consecutive national championships without an NBA projected Lottery pick on the roster. College programs around the country are looking to build their rosters annually with top-rated college transfers that fit what they do, and have already produced. This fact has made it almost impossible for high school seniors still looking to land a college scholarship. Division-I, II and Division-III programs all now recruit the NCAA Transfer Portal.
It has been no more apparent than over the last several years, as annually high school seniors scramble to now find college homes - a process that has become very slow and lengthy for high school seniors, and can go well into the spring of their senior year. For most high school seniors across the country, the opportunities to head directly to the Division-I level have become scarce. Junior colleges across the country have become the norm again for many high school seniors looking to improve their exposure to four-year colleges. Junior college basketball recruiting, at one time, was completely on another level. Many college programs annually built their respective teams with top-rated juco prospects. Junior college exposure events were flooded with Division-I college coaches, while today that is no longer the case. Junior College prospects should still be a commodity for Division-I programs, but the lure to recruit the NCAA Transfer Portal has also largely taken away from the recruitment of top juco prospects. This needs to certainly change, and will take much more development and creation of exposure opportunities and events for today's top juco programs and players. This fight will need to taken on though by the NJCAA, as there definitely needs to be more for Arizona's juco prospects, especially when the NCAA Transfer Portal is driving more high school seniors towards that direction. Much more social media and fanfare needs to take play for today's top junior college prospects and performers.
Overall, the situation we are in currently needs continued work and development to improve. Today, it has become widely apparent that is much more difficult to get a college basketball scholarship for high school seniors. The large amount of NIL dollars today being thrown at college athletes currently has limited rules and governance, and is already out of control. My close personal talks with members of the NCAA Enforcement Committee have revealed to me that no changes will be made in the immediate future by the NCAA. It is what it is, and this is the reality of the situation.
