A series of allegations that the University of Colorado used sex to entice talented high school football players to attend the university has shaken the world of college sports over the past month. These allegations, and others of their kind, demonstrate the compelling need for greater transparency and independent oversight in collegiate recruiting.
The charges against Colorado first gained national attention Jan. 28, when a deposition became public in which district attorney Mary Keenan alleged that the school's athletic department used sex and alcohol to lure recruits. As the scandal has unfolded, at least four women have alleged Colorado players or recruits raped them at recruiting parties.
Other allegations include charges players provided alcohol and strippers to recruits. The most disturbing aspect of the Colorado scandal is not the unique extent to which the university may have violated the law, NCAA rules and all standards of taste, but rather that such indiscretions may well be anything but unique.
According to a column written by Associated Press reporter Steve Wilstein, allegations that recruits were provided with drugs, taken to strip clubs, offered sex or committed sexual crimes emerged at schools including Oregon University, the University of Minnesota and Brigham Young University in the past two years.
Currently, the NCAA relies on universities to self-police recruiting tactics.Even when the NCAA becomes aware of allegations, it first allows universities to investigate the claims themselves. Such a system of self-reporting amounts to allowing Colonel Sanders to guard the hen house. Both individual universities and the NCAA possess far too large investments in maintaining the appearance of propriety to effectively police recruiting violations. And even if individual whistleblowers enjoy legal protections, they face the fear of ostracism from officials whose livelihood depends on keeping athletic programs scandal-free. The Colorado case made painfully evident the inability of schools to regulate themselves, when, according to the Rocky Mountain News, the school's athletic director called Keenan's allegations "fantasy assumptions" and the head football coach called them a "lie," prior to pressure from the state's governor to investigate.
Consequently, states should pass laws creating independent agencies to monitor recruiting. Though with regard to many policies, from setting tuition rates to granting same-sex benefits, universities deserve more freedom from state regulation, the peculiar conflict of interest in regulating athletic recruiting requires state intervention.
Such monitors ought to have access to any recruiting trip event, formal or informal. They also ought to publish annual reports documenting what sorts of tactics schools are using and whether these tactics violate applicable laws or NCAA regulations. Independent oversight would reassure taxpayers that their money is not going to pay for strippers for 18 year olds and fans that their teams' victories are not coming at the cost of turning a blind eye to rape and other criminal activity.
In the long run, the creation of independent monitoring agencies would also benefit the universities themselves, by boosting their public image. Universities given a clean bill of health would prove that they care about social responsibility, not just wins and losses. In doing so, they would earn the trust of the very public they depend on to maintain support for collegiate athletics -- a trust that is noticeably absent in the wake of the Colorado scandal.
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