On Tuesday, NFL teams learned that, at least for the time being, their scouts cannot go into the University of Alabama to watch tape and practice. Why did this happen and what does it mean?
It has been reported that Alabama DE Marcell Dareus and some players from other schools were seen at a party earlier this summer that an agent had in South Beach.
ICONWill Marcell Dareus be eligible for the upcoming season?
There is nothing wrong with players attending the party; it is wrong if someone other than the player himself paid for him to be there. That is against NCAA rules. If the NCAA finds that an agent or a booster paid for the players’ trip, then the players involved could be ruled ineligible for as much as the whole season or as little as having to repay those expenses.
Obviously, this has Alabama head coach Nick Saban upset. Dareus is an important member of the Crimson Tide defense and to lose him for any period of time would be a huge blow. Saban has a right to be upset, but to react by banning scouts from watching tape and practice is not the solution to the problem. The NFL and scouts are not the problem, unscrupulous agents are.
By banning scouts, all it will do is make it more difficult for NFL teams to scout Alabama’s players. Good scouts will find ways to get all the information they need. There are other schools that have always had limited access and we have found a way to get the job done.
The unfortunate thing is that as long as Saban has been a college head coach, he has had an open policy as far as scouts having access. He is one of the good guys and it’s always been a great visit for scouts. Saban has always been scout friendly and his staff has been very cooperative in providing scouts with pertinent information. If you were a scout that happened to know Saban, he would almost always take the time to talk to you and give very important information on some or all of the prospects. That can be very valuable when trying to get accurate reads on a player.
If no access or even limited access goes on for the whole season, it won’t have much of an effect on evaluating the top prospects but it will have a huge effect on scouting down-the-line players. Why?
In the last few years, Alabama has had a large number of prospects each season. When there is an open scouting policy like Alabama has had, that gives scouts plenty of time to do enough work on all the prospects. When there is limited or no access, then a scout has to pick and choose who he is going to evaluate. He may not have the time to do the proper amount of work on the lesser known prospects. The result of that is a little known or new prospect might not get drafted or even signed as a free agent. The players most affected by this are guys who may be in their first year as a starter or are coming off an injury. The player could have a strong year but because scouts can’t talk to coaches they may not even know about the guy. It’s too bad, but it happens and I have seen it happen many times before. What the coach doesn’t realize is that by closing the door on scouts, he hurts some of his own players.
Let’s get back to the problem. The problem is with agents breaking rules and trying to buy players before their eligibility is up. The NFL cannot fix that problem. Those who can fix the problem are the individual states and the NFLPA. The players association licenses and governs agents. They have rules in place to prevent these things. They need to do a better job policing the agents and severely punishing those who break the rules. If the punishment is strong enough, the rules won’t be broken as much.
The same can be said for state laws. Some states have laws in place that are supposed to prevent agents from early contact with college players. Not enough states have these laws and the enforcement isn’t as strict as it should be.
Another solution is the schools have to do a better job watching over their own programs. If they see a player driving a new car or wearing expensive new clothes and jewelry, they need to immediately find out how the player purchased these items. If they are strict with their own players, then just maybe the underclassmen will learn from it and not let themselves get involved too early with the wrong people.
As we talked about last week, a new rookie wage scale will help alleviate some problems. If rookies can’t make the money they are making now, then agents won’t have the incentive to break rules and buy players early. It just won’t be worth it to them.
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