It had the innocent look of amateur sports.
On Saturday, several local high schools participated in a 7-on-7 football tournament at Amelia Earhart Park in Hialeah. It had everything you would expect. Great catches. Impressive throws. Spectacular interceptions.
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Sadly, that is where the innocence ends.
Saturday’s tournament consisted of players competing for their actual high school teams, meaning there was almost no chance of any NCAA rules being broken.
Problems arise when these events are held during the spring with teams featuring a collection of all-stars led by a non-high school affiliated coach. Tournaments as such are now being closely monitored by the NCAA.
These 7-on-7 events have joined the likes of summer-travel basketball as breeding grounds for breaking the rules.
The corruption has grown so much that the SEC recently banned all-star 7-on-7 tournaments from its campuses.
The rest of the conferences should follow suit because these events are allowing third parties to serve as middle men between the athletes and college coaches.
For so long, we’ve heard about how basketball lost control because the presence of AAU coaches.
They handled the recruitment of star players, not the high school coach. They were how colleges earned that signature from a four-star recruit.
Now, college football has its versions of Sonny Vaccaro sprouting across the county. The latest to make headlines is Willie Lyles, who is the reason for NCAA investigators taking up residence on the University of Oregon campus.
An investigation found Oregon paid Lyles about $25,000 because of his connections to potential recruits. Lyles reportedly gained access to elite players through 7-on-7 tournaments and high school combines.
Cases as such are starting to become more common. Baron Flenory, who organizes national 7-on-7 tournaments, was also investigated by the NCAA because of his ties to a pair of Oregon recruits.
At some point, the NCAA needs to worry about this problem instead of an athlete selling his jersey or Big Ten championship ring.
Although most affiliated with 7-on-7 have the players’ best interest, these relationships can lead to potential NCAA violations once the recruit graduates high school.
Ask any college football coach, and they will say dealing with a third-party during recruiting is his biggest concern.
Once these so-called “street agents” get involved it could lead to a recruit being steered toward a certain school for the right price.
Florida has its share of elite travel teams, led by the South Florida Express. It won last year’s 7-on-7 national championship and is annually comprised of some of the best talent in Broward, Dade and Palm Beach County.
They travel across the country competing in events sponsored by Nike, Under Armour and even the NFL.
Local stockbroker Brett Goetz, who runs the program, has kept his team out of the negative light.
He pays for the trips through fundraising and denies steering players toward a school, even though he’s known to some in the recruiting world as the “Ohio State guy.”
What the NCAA needs to determine is the line of what is considered an improper benefit. Is it a luxury bus tour of the Southeast to play on the campus of every ACC and SEC school?
Until actual guidelines are set, players and college coaches will continue to risk eligibility and NCAA sanctions when it comes to 7-on-7.
