The University of Colorado is being investigated for offering orgy-parties to its recruits. This came to light after a student admitted to being raped by recruits who were offered sex for visiting Colorado in 2001.
Willie Williams may lose his scholarship to attend the University of Miami after a warrant was issued for his arrest. Williams broke his probation by allegedly hugging a girl in a bar, punching a person in a bar, and setting off three fire extinguishers while on a recruiting trip to the University of Florida.
Every year it is the same thing. Who can offer the best opportunity to a recruit so they will come play football for you? But isn’t this getting a little out of hand?
Thank goodness FAU is still a small school and does not need the high profile players a Division I-A team needs.
Wait, FAU is making the jump to I-A this year and is allowed to have 85 scholarship players on its roster!
Don’t blow a gasket just yet.
FAU is still at the bottom of the barrel for recruiting when it comes to the state of Florida. Yes, FAU signed 23 recruits, its highest number ever, but the Owls are signing second-tier players at the moment. The bigger players will not come to FAU until the Owls are competing with the likes of the Hurricanes and the Seminoles.
Still, it makes you wonder how FAU goes about enticing recruits to join the team.
Senior cornerback Craig Roundtree says, “Our record and jumping to DI-A–everyone wants to play D-IA.”
Players who have just finished their first year at the school normally lead around FAU recruits. To make them feel more comfortable, a player from the recruit’s hometown or of similar position will be assigned so there is an immediate bond for the player.
“If it is someone they really want, [the coaching staff] will assign a player whose name has been in the paper,” says Roundtree.
In the 1988 movie Johnny Be Good, cheerleaders and bands met the main character, a star high school quarterback, when he visited schools. In 1993’s The Program, the recruit was also met by the band and led around campus by a pretty girl.
“That doesn’t happen here,” says Roundtree. “We meet them at a dinner and then show them the dorms and whatever we can–there isn’t too much going on Friday’s here.”
Roundtree also added that most of the recruiting is done by the coaches. It is their job to get the recruits to decide on FAU as their school.
“They do all the recruiting tricks,” adds Roundtree.
Those tricks do not include sex at FAU. Usually they are just promises that do not come true.
“Everything was different when I got here,” says Roundtree. “We were promised cleats that we never saw. Clothes that we never got to keep. Everything that they give us they take back.”
Hopefully that is all FAU has to lie about when a recruit comes to town.
The best things FAU has going for it, Roundtree has already mentioned–its record and its move to a higher division. Both are things Roundtree did not think he would ever see when he began at FAU in 2000–FAU’s first year with football.
Now that FAU is moving up we can only hope that its recruiting tactics will remain the same.
So if you want sex, or cheerleaders who will not remember your name by the time you enroll, go to Colorado or Florida. But if it is a team environment you are looking for, FAU has it and is trying not to lose it.