Yes, I know, it’s a thirty year old movie. But I was just talking to somebody about Lea Thompson and it reminded me of a question I had.
For those who don’t remember, the movie was about a high school football player, played by Tom Cruise, and his coach, played by Craig T. Nelson. The team was having a good year and both of them were being recruited by college teams.
But they didn’t like each other. After one big confrontation, the coach kicked the player off the team and then called around to all of the colleges the player had applied to. He trashed the player’s reputation and all of the colleges withdrew their offers.
In the end (do I really need a spoiler?) the coach and the player are reconciled. And to make up for ruining the player’s college hopes, the coach tells him he has accepted an offer to coach at a college and he’s allowed to pick one player for a scholarship. And his pick, obviously, will be the player. So happy ending with the coach getting the job he wanted and the player being able to go to college after all.
But would something like this fly in the real NCAA? If I was any of the other Division I coaches who had been recruiting this player, I’d be saying “You sandbagged us. You told everybody this kid was no good so we withdrew our offers. And then you recruited him with no competition as soon as you got your own college coaching job. You had this planned out all along. And the college was probably in on it.”
Would this fall under the general principle of “If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying hard enough”? Or would it be a clear violation of NCAA rules that would lead to sanctions?
