Your Daily J: 12/9

(Tennessee hostesses (?) courtesy of hottestgirlsofcheerleading.com)

Oh Rocky Top, you sure do know how to make a recruit, uhh, excited (in more than one way). You have an electrifying new coach and a proud tradition. Today, we learned that you also have a bunch of girls lining up to greet prospective players. The University of Tennessee football program is currently under investigation by the NCAA for its use of "hostesses" to help in recruiting. Now, to be fair, the use of hostesses to help with recruiting is both legal and widely used around college campuses. However, it is against NCAA regulations to have hostesses tied to the university travel off campus to help recruit athletes. The investigation is young and it's not yet known for certain whether this was the case, but I know a couple of guys who find it hard to believe the University of Tennessee (or any other public university for that matter) would ever sign off on having university "hostesses" travel several hundred miles to prospective football players' high school games to hold signs. Kind of makes you wonder what else these "hostesses" have been doing for the good of the cause, and just who has been putting them up to it (interesting side note: Tennessee has been charged with 6 recruiting violations in the 1 year since Lane Kiffin took over). Beyond that, it's had us wondering: If there were no recruiting rules, how would the landscape of college football be changed?

(Lane Kiffin post-Tennessee recruitment courtesy of collegeotr.com)

Jonah: Without knowing everything that goes on in big time college football recruiting, it's hard to say how removing all the rules around it would change the process. It's safe to say that many programs are not following some (or most) of the recruiting rules currently in place. I think the major difference would be the openness of some of the things going on behind doors today. When Marcus Lattimore, one of the recruits in question at Tennessee, was asked about the hostesses, he said they were:

"real pretty, real nice and just real cool"

According to ESPN.com, Lattimore went on to say that he felt the hostesses' presence at he and his teammates' high school game had:

""a lot" of influence in his teammates making oral commitments"

To me, while this seems like it is giving Kiffin and Tennessee an unfair advantage, I find myself thinking, "that's it? That's what they're so worried about?" I mean, let's think about some of the other stuff that we've seen go on in the past few year. We saw Reggie Bush come under scrutiny after it was alleged that he and his family received close to $300,000 in cash and gifts during his time at USC. We saw Maurice Clarett's career end prematurely due to similar allegations, among other things (cough, jail time, cough, cough). When we think of these recent allegations as compared to the big picture, they are really quite minor. But it baffles me to think of all the things that are going on behind closed doors. If those doors were opened and schools were allowed to do whatever it takes to get recruits, I think things could get ugly in a hurry. I think we would see an arms race between the wealthiest, top-tier teams in the country. I think schools like Notre Dame and USC would rise to the top and never come down. I think schools like Boise State and TCU and even Iowa would never stand a chance.

( Maurice post-OSU handouts courtesy of ESPN.com)

The problem is that there is so much incentive for these schools to get the best recruits and the punishments are so minimal, that it almost makes sense for them to go out and get these kids at any cost. This would be Kiffin's 7th recruiting violation in under a year if Tennessee is found guilty and guess where his team is: second in the SEC East with an opportunity to knock off Florida for the title next year. Do you think Lane Kiffin is going to take a hit if there's another violation? Not a chance. Because guess who gets paid when Lane Kiffin brings in those top recruits. That's right, the good old University of Tennessee. Removing the rules in place would ruin college football, but the current rules don't exactly stop unfair advantages from being taken advantage of. Until the NCAA can come up with a way to break the tie between the university's wallet and the recruits the coaches bring in, violations like this are inevitable. So anybody interested in heading to St. Paul one last time before signing day (good looking "hostesses" preferred)? If so, let us know. If not, go ahead and give us your thoughts anyway.

Note: Due to blizzard conditions in Iowa City, Jerry has been trapped in a dorm room all day and was unavailable for comment on this thought.