Barry Tompkins: NIL has done little to solve issues with recruiting

Many years ago a now-Hall of Fame running back named Hugh McElhenny left Washington High School in Los Angeles, stopped for one year at Compton Junior College, and to the shock of USC and UCLA went on to play his college football at the University of Washington.

A local superstar opting to go a thousand miles away to play. How? “He followed a trail of $20 bills to Seattle,” was the cynical response.

Many years later I had a chance to ask McElhenny if that statement was at all true. “No’” he said, “they were $100’s.”

The “thousand-dollar” handshake later became de rigueur in college football and basketball – particularly in the Southeast. Recruiting has always been a dirty, under-the-table business — one that everybody knew about but took an “honor amongst thieves” approach to.

I experienced a personal and logical example of how things worked in college revenue sports when I was asked to do a series on recruiting for NBC. I wound up at Texas A&M speaking to then-basketball coach, Shelby Metcalf. He was a gregarious, good ol’ boy type, and when I asked him about recruiting violations he said, “95% of schools don’t violate any recruiting rules at all.” Which led to the obvious follow-up question, “What about the other 5%?” Shelby didn’t miss a beat. “They’re nationally ranked,” he said.

Stories of recruiting violations were rampant amongst those of us who chronicle the events of these athletes and their circuitous route to stardom, or in some cases failure.

We all kidded that if recruiting violations were a felony offense, UNLV basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian would be on death row. That Mike Krzyzewski didn’t recruit, he selected. That Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (nee Lew Alcindor) drove a Bentley to classes at UCLA. That Kentucky basketball players all had a summer job at a company that sold road pavers, and they all sold one. Commission on a road paver: $100,000.

And now – I give you the world of the transfer portal and NIL. McElhenny would roll over in his grave.

It used to be that if an athlete wanted to move from one school to another, he or she would have to sit out one year before becoming eligible to play anywhere else.

Ahh those were the days. Now, if a player decides his current team isn’t worthy of his notable skill set, he merely plunges headlong into the transfer portal and sells himself to the highest bidder.

Which brings me to the NIL – name, image and likeness. Here a player is allowed to sell his name, face, and voice to anyone willing to dig deeply into his or her pockets to pay for an athlete’s services. Mind you, I’m not against this rule. Colleges and universities have been profiting off their marquee athletes for years. I’m fine with reciprocity.

What I’m not fine with is the rich getting richer while schools like Cal and Stanford try to compete on a non-level playing field.

What got me to thinking of the landscape of college sports and its future, was a story this week that had nothing to do with college. It was a story about a high school kid.

According to a story in the Orange County Register and ESPN, the same NIL rules that apply to college athletes also apply to California high schools.

At 18 years of age, T.A. Cunningham is the No. 1 defensive end prospect in the country. He’s from Georgia. And he was just declared eligible to play for Los Alamitos High in Orange County.

Enter a guy who goes by the moniker “Coach Frogg.” Chris Flores is the founder of Levels Sports Group — one of a number of roving jackals who profit off efforts to place elite high school athletes in positions to earn more than the school principal through the NIL windfall.

So Cunningham will suit up for Los Alamitos this weekend, the proud tenant of a house for him and his family, a car, all of his meals while attending Los Alamitos, and another home back in Georgia for his mother to live in. Any future commercial revenue for Cunningham is on hold, however. The doors of Level Sports Group are temporarily shut because “Coach Frogg” was arrested and charged with multiple counts of sexual assault of a minor on Aug. 8.

Here’s the rub. Los Alamitos is not even amongst the elite of Southern California football teams. If it’s happening there, it just makes you wonder about St. John Bosco and Mater Dei, the two SoCal powerhouses. I’ve broadcast the California State high school football championships for the past decade or so and one or the other of those two schools has beaten the Norther California representative (always either De La Salle or Serra) by an average of 21 points the last five times they’ve met. This year between the two of them, there are 50 Division I prospects.

Marin Catholic is the best team in our area, maybe by a longshot. I’m going to guess the over/under on D-I prospects there is, maybe three.

They’re talented, well coached, and fun to watch.  And you can be sure that “Coach Frogg” isn’t hanging around while he awaits indictment.