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Gophers to look at football recruitment practices
by Brandt Williams, Minnesota Public Radio
January 28, 2004

Joel Maturi says student athletes can lose their scholarships if they repeatedly break rules. He says he hopes the investigation into the incident will get to the bottom of who was involved and how the alcohol was acquired by the recruits. (MPR Photo//Brandt Williams)

Officials at the University of Minnesota's athletic department say they're looking into reports that Gopher football players took a group of high school recruits to bars and a strip club. One heavily recruited offensive lineman changed his mind after his recruiting visit and decided this week to attend another school. Some say this incident is an example of aggressive recruiting tactics that are a part of big time college athletics.

Minneapolis, Minn. — According to news stories published by the Star Tribune and Pioneer Press a group of high school football players considering attending the University of Minnesota were given a night on the town last December. The reports say the young men visited a downtown Minneapolis strip club that doesn't serve alcohol, and requires that patrons be at least 18 to enter.

However, some of the young men say they were also taken to bars where they were served alcohol. University of Minnesota Athletic Director Joel Maturi says he's disappointed that recruits were reported to have been taken to the strip club. But he says he's most troubled by reports that some were drinking illegally.

"The potential consequences of driving and drinking, the consequences of if somebody did drink more than he or she should have ... We all know what else can happen. Whether there be something involved in violence -- some sexual activity -- something happens that shouldn't happen," Maturi said.

Maturi has known at least a couple of student athletes who died in alcohol-related incidents. While a football coach in Madison, Wisc., he lost a player to a drunken driving accident. As the athletic director of the University of Denver, a female soccer player there was killed by a drunk driver.

I'm not shocked by the Minnesota incident. In fact, I'd be very surprised if such things never happened. - Murray Sperber

Maturi says student athletes can lose their scholarships if they repeatedly break rules. He says he hopes the investigation into the incident will get to the bottom of who was involved and how the alcohol was acquired by the recruits. Maturi says he doesn't have any indication that Glen Mason or any other Gopher coaches approved of the activities.

"I know coach Mason pretty well and certainly on his watch, he doesn't want this to happen; none of us do. There's nothing gained by allowing this to happen. We've got to convince our young student athletes that there's a lot of things you can do for the 24, 48 hours that recruits are on campus, we don't need to do that," he said.

"I'm not shocked by the Minnesota incident. In fact, I'd be very surprised if such things never happened," said professor Murray Sperber, an English professor at the University of Indiana and the author of several books, including Beer & Circus: How Big-Time College Sports Is Crippling Undergraduate Education. He says some Division I schools or their boosters use cars, money and women to entice male athletes to come to their colleges.

Sperber says he doesn't know if coach Mason had anything to do directly with last December's recruiting trip. But he does believe that Mason is under a lot of pressure to get good players to come to Minnesota. He says compared to other states, Minnesota doesn't produce a lot of high caliber football players.

"Recruiting for a school like Minnesota is huge. It's an ongoing problem. It's never solved. Except in hockey. Because the state of Minnesota produces huge numbers of blue chip hockey players."

Mason will very likely miss recruit Lydon Murtha. The 6'8", 305-pound All American lineman from Hutchinson was considered one of the top players in the country. Murtha told the Pioneer Press that he was turned off to the U of M by last December's recruiting visit.

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