From AL.com
Review by Ethan Miller in SRM 334 (section 2)
When I was graduating 8th grade, the only thing I had on my mind was what summer camp I was going to attend or how to avoid getting shoved in lockers my first day of high school. I was not at a stage in my life where I could make one of the biggest decisions of my life and choose where I would attend college. That’s why I believe that there should be an age limit on when college recruitment can begin. Dylan Moses is currently an 8th grade student, who next Fall will be attending University Lab High School, which happens to be 2 miles away from LSU’s football stadium. Moses has received scholarship offers from both Alabama and LSU, two bitter rivals, but has not signed a letter of intent for either. For now, he has only given a verbal commitment, which allows him to change his mind if he chooses later on.
This whole system is wrong. It is wrong to recruit an 8th grader. It’s wrong to put a 14 year old under that kind of pressure. It’s wrong to expose a child to the media scrutiny that Dylan Moses is now going to face. Moses is being forced to choose between the two best schools in the SEC. He’s going to be playing for a high school that is within walking distance to the LSU football stadium. Do you really think there won’t be any backlash if he chooses to play for Alabama? Do you really think that people in the community aren’t going to try to persuade him to choose one school over the other? Through their recruitment of Moses, these college programs have forced Moses under a microscope from the media that could change his life forever. One thing that increased media attention could bring would be more exposure for Moses and possibly lead him to getting more offers from other schools. If he has the proper support system that is able to help advise him amongst his newfound fame, then he will be able to benefit from the media exposure. However, it seems to rarely happen that way. The majority of the stories that we hear about are how kids’ lives are ruined because of the increased media coverage. Often, the kids turn into celebrities within their communities and it ends up ruining them as a person. 14 year olds aren’t supposed to supposed to be making the decisions that Dylan Moses is now forced to make, and I believe that the NCAA needs to step in to ensure it doesn’t happen in the future.
Within college recruitment right now, early recruitment is a growing problem. I think that the NCAA needs to be proactive in facing this problem rather than being reactive as they normally are. The recruitment process is beginning earlier and earlier, but we need to make sure that these athletes are still able to have a childhood instead of being forced into the spotlight. The focus needs to remain on the well being of the athlete, rather than the well being of the universities.
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Review by Jonathan Parker in SRM 334 (section 2)
Dylan Moses is a 6 foot 1 inch, 215 pound eighth grader from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Dylan plays both running back and linebacker in football. He was invited to the University of Alabama’s Junior Day, which is a day where Alabama offers scholarships to rising seniors in high school who were personally invited. Dylan met the whole coaching staff and personally sat down with Nick Saban, the head coach. Coach Saban informed Dylan and his parents that he would like to offer Dylan a scholarship to play football at the University of Alabama. He told Dylan and his parents that he could be the best player in the class of 2017 and that Alabama wanted to reach out. LSU had already reached out to Dylan earlier by offering him a scholarship, after attending LSU’s football camp for the last couple of years. Dylan will be attending University Lab High School, which is an ear shot away from the LSU stadium and where a recent signee to Alabama attended. This situation could lead to the media following this rising star from now to where ever his career might take him.
Sports Media and Communications should find something like this as an extraordinary opportunity for a story. There are not a lot of eighth graders, or really anyone, that get offers from two of the best football schools in the nation. I feel the media could make it or break it for Dylan because the media could start highlighting him and putting his name out to the nation to follow. This could lead to more scholarship offers for football from other universities. The media could also over hype Dylan, which could put more pressure on Dylan to perform. This could also make him play off his game which could lead to offers being taken away for bad performances. It is possible that it could force so much pressure that it might lead to a career ending injury and ruin Dylan’s plans for his future in football. The media might also ruin Dylan’s parents by the added pressure of being nationally recognized. This in turn could cause the parents to put even more pressure on Dylan to perform better. The parents might cause Dylan to burn out of football by sending him to too many camps and having him completely focused on football instead of life as a 14 year old. The pressures from the media could also affect Dylan’s parents by not allowing their son to participate in any other sports or events that might lead to an injury damaging any chances for other scholarships. Sports Media and Communications in sports are so important because they bring us stories about scholarship offers for sports about young rising stars.
This article is relevant to SRM 334 because it deals with an unusual eighth grader getting scholarship offers from two of the best football school in the country and some of the media attention it has drawn. Since it deals with how the media handles a story, there are certain ways the media could affect a person’s life. One way is that the media could just highlight the player with his play, awards, and his sports career, which could lead to more college offers of scholarships. The other way is that the media could ruin a young rising star by all of the publicity they would implement on this star. Young Dylan would receive and feel the added pressures that come with the territory. So again, this article is relevant for this course because we are not sure how the media will take this young man and shape the rest of his football career. Dylan Moses, a 14 year old just trying to live a normal life, will no longer. This would be due to the media putting the spot light on him at such a young age.
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