Smartest thing you've said in a long time.

Very true. I'd settle, though, for recruiting players that don't have injuries they haven't told the staff about.

To me, if a player has a known injury, and the coaches make him a scholarship offer, they take the risk that he never recovers knowingly, and that's fine. As an example, consider Brian Sweeney, a QB recruit back in about 2006. He was known to have a shoulder injury, so Ohio was the only school that offered him. He never recovered, and never played. Ohio knew the risk they were taking, and it didn't work out. In another case, Duckworth had a knee injury as a Junior, and Ohio made an offer knowing that. He may or may not work out, but Ohio knew about the injury when they made the offer, so it was all above board.

What about a situation where they make an offer to a guy who assures them that he's perfectly healthy, yet he has physical issues that will prevent him from ever playing? To me, that's sort of a fraud. If you want go the HIPPA route, and take the perspective that they don't have to reveal the injury, that's fine, but to make things fair at least give the schools the same option that businesses have: When the kids report, the schools should be able to give them a physical and medical exam, and if they don't pass, they don't qualify for the the scholarship.

So, are you saying you think this is happening disproportionately more at OHIO than elsewhere? Why do you think this is a big problem? What examples do we have of players coming in with pre-existing conditions that were unreported? Also, I cannot believe that at OHIO we don't require the players to have physicals to play for the team. I know my brother played for Virginia Tech and it was required there. So, if that's the case, that is on our team, not the fault of the players.

Then, if you're saying that the player should, out of the goodness of his heart, outwardly confess to nagging injuries, we should hold coaches to the same level of honesty. Shouldn't coaches at every collegiate level tell the players about their future intents rather than to hide them from the incoming players? And if they're dishonest, what recourse does the player have? Can he/she change school without any penalty?

I don't think it's fair to put this blame on the players. Like with any organization, you need to look at the top (and I'm not specifically speaking of OHIO, I'm talking all collegiate athletics).

Sounds like a slippery slope with the pass/fail physicals dependent on the legitimacy of the scholarship. Is this a year-to-year thing or just upon entry as a freshman? Is it before fall practices? When does this physical for scholarship happen? Who performs it, the school or the child's personal physician? What happens to players who cannot pass the physical at the time but the school still wants them, are they exempt (e.g., Duckworth)? I just think if the school gets to have the say, there could be some shady workings at bigger schools, when they decide they don't want a kid, they could just have them mysteriously fail that physical and cut them loose.

The question to be asked is how complete is the physical? Are there X-rays of knees and shoulders to identify any existing injuries, is there blood work, ekg's and ultra sounds to detect cardiac issues? I'm willing to bet the answer is no. So the question is, who pays?

It's not power, it's an investment. Would you pay 100k for a known defective product that you will never get to use. Let's don't kid ourselves, athletics has a business side and your resources are limited and both sides have obligations to up hold. Being honest is one of those obligations.

I just want it to be fair on both sides. I'm not talking about a guy like Duckworth, say, who was known to be hurt, and was offered anyway, and I'm not talking about a guy that gets hurt after he arrives. I'm talking about a guy that is hurt, knows he is hurt, but conceals it deliberately. Here's a hypothetical example, so tell me if you think it's "fair" to both sides:

Player X is a promising high school senior offensive lineman, not a five star guy, but a solid two star player with an offer from Ohio. In his second to last game, he hurts his shoulder. Since he doesn't want to lose his offer, he doesn't tell anyone about it. He no longer cares if he has other offers to choose from, so he quickly accepts the offer from Ohio, then plays the last game, and tries to hide that he's hurt. No one notices, so on Feb. 1 he signs his letter of intent. He shows up for fall camp and says "oh, my shoulder is kind of hurting, could you check it out?" The doc looks, and says, "your shoulder is a mess. We can do surgery, but even then, you may never play again". So the kid says, "It's OK if I never play. At least my college education is paid for, and I get my shoulder fixed for free." Ohio pays for the surgery. After a year of rehab, the shoulder is still not good enough to play, so Ohio medically disqualifies him, and can use the scholarship again, but continues to pay on the scholarship for 4 years.

Will Ohio benefit from the 2014 Athens High class?