Social Class & Recruiting

College athletics and deviance seem to go hand in hand these days. With the Sandusky/Paterno scandal of last year surfacing, we can see now more than ever that there are flaws in our supposedly perfect NCAA world. Coaches do any and everything they can to get the top recruits to their schools, they lie, they bribe, they promise that if they come to their campus and play for their team that they will be rewarded with success and no more financial burden. To a kid coming from a lower class family, the promises made to them by these college coaches seem like a dream come true, and it is. College coaches promise success and financial security to recruits, especially to those with crazy athletic talent and very little financial support. Kids that come from poverty and rough family backgrounds are, a lot of the time, the kids who flourish in college sports such as football and basketball because those are the types of kids that coaches can have the most control over and the coach can be seen as a parental figure. Coaches will make these kids the stars of the team and use them to boost their own reputation within the coaching world. Poverty stricken kids are the central target of big time football and basketball programs because their success will not only benefit themselves but also the coaches. 

-Taylor Jackson T/Th 9:30-10:45