This is the backwards thinking of 30 years ago that keeps travel ball still alive.
Lets get the petition startedI 100% agree, let's ban all AAU sports
This has a trickle down effect, finding competitive rec leagues for anything is becoming impossible, my boys are freaking 9, i shouldnt have to travel 2 hours to find a decent basketball game. But we found something that's local, competitive and its working out. But there is no need for this, kids should be well rounded be engaged in several hobbies and sports.
Have you ever watched a little league game or atom (I've dated myself) where a kid is an absolute beast and by the time they are 15 they don't even play, happens more often than not. Kids develop mentally and physically at different times, I prefer casting a very wide net with rec ball and high school ball where we are teaching all sorts of stuff. Sports can just be a hobby where we don't spend a mortgage payment or have to rearrange our entire lives to participate.
AAU basketball is more popular and tied in to recruiting than it has ever been what are you talking about?! Also D1 is full of players that played AAU. You are out of touch. For starters the poor and talented kids are having their expenses paid for by all kinds of different characters. The top teams literally have sponsors. You would be giving terrible advice to any kid looking to go next level but you got it man.
Not to be mean about it but they get tossed by aside by the staff and because they are an Academy and not and educational institution that is a much easier thing to do.
One problem there is that participation would greatly diminish. There are still lots of kids who play with their friends just to be involved. If you turn youth sports into a development program, scads of kids and families will disengage.
The US has the greatest overall athletic prowess of any country in the world in terms of all sports and I would argue a lot of that comes from the structure of how sports is intertwined with school systems. It allows for a lot of kids to be interested or stay interest in sports that maybe wouldn't have or couldn't due to funds.
For the record, I would much rather have kids wanting a basketball scholarship to go to college-run camps like they do for football than waste their summers on the AAU circuit.
Agree 100% with the bolded part, outside of football the vast majority of those kids in your bolded comment that are all state and being contacted are also participating in AAU or Travel.
The point is that a player who is a d-1 talent can be spotted by a coach/scout by watching film in about 2 minutes. They stand out or they are not really a d-1 player. Scouts see them on High school game film....NOT AAU games. Do they pop in to see their d-1 players play some AAU games...maybe. But they don't decide who they want by watching rec league style ball hog summer games. ITS A SCAM. The Yankees are not giving you a scholarship for winning a fall ball game travel game. If you are playing JV ball as a Junior , you are not getting a d-1 scholarship or going have the Yankees sign you to a million dollar contract parents. Clueless. people on here.
Agree- but the point is outside of HS season these kids are getting 100,s of at bats to prep for the season. The scholarship players are playing for the Bo Jackson Elite, The Cincy Flames etc. Guarantee either of those or similar teams beat the D1 State championship HS baseball team. That is todays reality. No coaches are not following travel and AAU, but travel and AAU are prepping these kids for their HS teams and future success and often with more reps then they get in a HS season/. That is the reality of the day.
Then AAU and travel ball and club sports should be sold for what they really are. A way to get reps in the off season but not really going to affect if you get a scholarship or signed by a mlb team. You might get a little better with extra reps but either you have D-1 talent or not. These off season league are irrelevant as to who is getting a college d-1 scholarship.
Going to college camps is a much better way of getting recognized and recruiting camps then doing a off season 7 on 7 league for football. No need for it. Would it be nice for qbs and wrs and dbs to get extra reps, sure but seeing how AAU teams turn into recruiting tools by cheaters. I will take a pass. Let the current sports fleece the parent of average kids who have zero shot of getting a d-1 scholarship.
Funny thing about D-1 baseball is there is only 11.5 (something close to this) scholarships for 25 kids, there is no money in d-1 baseball, d1 juco is another story. Essentially a lot of these parents are paying thousands and thousands of dollars to be d3 baseball players where they pay 30k a year for tuition. A smarter long term investment for parents would be teaching their child some type of trade or skill that they can use long term and just play that sport as a hobby and in the local rec league. In football and basketball if a kid is basically under 6 foot, you are essentially wasting your money playing club sports if the goal is to become d-1 unless that child possesses freakish speed or quickness.
Daughter currently plays travel softball and very similar situation.
As long as travel ball, club teams, and AAU exist, you will need it to get recruited. It's much easier for college coaches to do their recruiting at the travel tournaments, since it doesn't interfere with their season. I can agree that if travel ball or AAU didn't exist, then colleges would find kids through school ball, but currently, particularly when talking about baseball, softball, soccer, volleyball and to some extent basketball, travel ball, club teams and AAU are a critical part of the recruiting process.
Maybe marginal d-1 players not not solid ones or elite ones. They always get found. Dont need joke leagues for that. Keep selling the dream that these league swill MAKE 5'7'' players who are jv players MLB stars.
Yeah 90% seems awfully high. I am more a baseball guy, but don't feel like the majority of players and parents I know had bad experiences overall with AAU and travel baseball. Less than half really complain.
Again, this is simply untrue. Coaches do their recruiting through film, and kids pop out in the first 15-20 seconds. Since Hudl and similar programs have been introduced, recruiting on the travel circuit has become pretty useless.
Correct, and the marginal ones aren't getting scholarship money, they are getting walk on status.
Nah, Holiday Inn Express points.
This is simply untrue. What about the athletes who get D1 offers before playing a varsity game? When these 9th graders are getting D1 offers especially in baseball, it's not coming of of varsity baseball videos lol.
These are the freaks of nature who would get recruited regardless if they played travel ball. You are proving my point and you don't even realize it.
Even more so the NCAA added an extra evaluation period in July for scholastic events only to help balance out the shift in recruiting. So even they noticed
You mean found like the numerous players that had to walk on or play D2 because they didn’t look a certain way or run a 4.4 and then earned their way to a scholarship or even spot on an NFL team only after slumming it or paying their own way?