Routine visit or something more?

By Jay Coulter
jccoulter@gmail.com

It seems the NCAA is paying a visit to two of Alabama’s top recruits. In a Birmingham News article yesterday, high school coaches for Alabama commitments Tyler Love and Julio Jones acknowledged receiving phone calls from the NCAA.

On the record, the visit has something to do with the association’s Top Prospect Program. Each year the NCAA visits with 40 top signees to gauge how the recruiting process was carried out. The program is meant to deter schools from improper recruiting practices.

As Love’s coach, Chris Yeager put it, "(It’s) like the IRS coming to visit."

Some believe this is a way for the NCAA to gather information on Alabama without having to launch an announced investigation. More than a few people have questioned Bama’s recruiting methods this year. Whether there’s any truth to it is still just speculation.

The NCAA says this is all standard operating procedure and does not indicate a suspected violation at any of the schools it visits as part of the program.

One big name high school coach in Ohio says he’s never heard of the program. Mike Crabtree, who coached Ohio State signee Mike Adams, says those kinds of things typically happen more down south.

"You're talking to someone up north," Crabtree said. "I'm just going to tell you, down south, I think that happens a little bit more and the NCAA gets involved with more of that."

An NCAA spokesman speculated that Adams, who was the number three rated player in the country, didn’t receive a call because of the staff workload at the NCAA.

Interesting indeed.

Click here to read the story...