Testimonials
Limited Sampling of Written Responses from Anonymous Survey
“Decreased non-scholastic recruiting opportunities increases stress on student athletes and their families”
“The number of girls participating in basketball may be plummeting but that doesn’t mean they don’t count. These girls spend countless hours practicing, traveling and dedicating their youth years to a sport they love. Taking away opportunity for more exposure is appalling. Eighteen days compared to the other sports is discrimination. We should be looking to increase the amount of days these girls are seen and not eliminate days. Exposure events are a key to a lot of these young women’s future. Very disappointed to hear this news, coming from a coach, father and fan of girls basketball.”
“The lack of adequate recruiting for basketball has placed a long term affect on the academic, physical and mental performance of a lot of female athletes. Things need to change.”
“Limiting opportunities for girls basketball is wrong. Every time changes are made in the interest of the athletes it seems to take away opportunities for players and coaches to make make a better more informed decisions. Thus an extremely high portal rate.”
“To take away recruiting days from the girls is to deny them the opportunity to be seen in their efforts to obtain a free college education.“
“We support Girls basketball and grassroots development for youth!” #SFKHoops
“We are living in a society where no one wants to work hard, college coaches don’t want to spend the time to evaluate players, high school coaches say things like I am not paid to do this; so what happens the female sports (basketball) suffer. This is at the expense of the hard working travel club directors/coaches who do work hard to get these young ladies the exposure that is needed to complete their quest for achieving academic and personal goals. People just do not want to work hard.”
“Absolutely makes no sense and is not right that non-scholastic/grassroot basketball is being limited and targeted, while the other sports have at least over 4 times the amount of recruiting periods. Absurd!!”
“Basketball has a high number of minority players and yet the sport has the lowest number of non scholastic recruiting days. I am not sure the correlation but find it odd that this is the case. These girls deserve a fair and equitable opportunity to be seen in the sport that they work hard in. Also if there were more recruiting days they wouldn’t have to play or be on the road for 2 straight weeks in July. Which can lead to exhaustion and injuries during a major period of opportunity.”
“NCAA is targeting a certain segment of the sports population because of systemic oppression. Girls Basketball is overwhelmingly a minority sport and that is why you see the difference in calendar’s.”
“This is a once in a lifetime chance for these young women to demonstrate their talents in front of a live audience–to unfairly punish them because college coaches don’t want to exert the effort to view them speaks volumes to the injustice”
“Work hard in silence, let your success be your noise” Let her play!!!!!!!!
“Girls basketball should have the same recruiting opportunities as other sports whether it’s girls or boys.”
“I am in favor of more certified recruiting days for girls basketball that would be in line with the other youth sports.”
“Let them have the same opportunities as other sports. It’s no wonder Women’s basketball has declining participation. It’s hard to get exposure compared to other sports”
“Why not return to your roots and scout through high school games as an additional recruiting tool.. like it was before this crazy world got to be where it is today?”
“With the extra year given to student athletes due to COVID-19, plus the WIDE open transfer portal and limited opportunities to be “seen” by coaches it has been difficult to find the “best” opportunity for our high school senior. College rosters are already bloated. College coaches are basically skipping 2022 grads and 2023 grads because they don’t have room for them and if August comes and they need a player, they can always go to the transfer portal. All of this has combined to make recruitment difficult.”
“As a General Manager of an Elite 2027 girls basketball team, many of them have desires to go further in life to play basketball on the Collegiate level as well as on the Professional level. For them to be allowed to play exposure ball in front of recruits is a PLUS! Women’s Basketball is one of the most popular sports for a young lady to play and excel at. Not only that, it mimics the NBA, so the female youth are looking forward to making basketball a career. Unfortunately when I was younger, there was no profession for me to continue playing the game of basketball after school.”
“I think evaluation should occur non scholastically, I think spreading July out more would be wiser, the length of days is taxing on the parents and I feel like the transfer portal question is due s synergy of what the question posed and ego as well, more days to really evaluate could help but we can’t control ego and what’s been instilled in a kid going to college”
“The NCAA has a long history of supporting successful non-minority programs while limiting access to athletes of color and Hispanic origin. If the NCAA wanted to be inclusive of all female athletes it would embrace longer periods of recruitment and invest in the human and physical infrastructure in community of color and Hispanic origin”
“But the shoe companies and a corrupt men’s basketball recruiting practices and summer teams are ruining this for everyone.”
“There are so many student-athletes that are not Tier I or High (Mid) majors, that count on the exposure tournaments to assist in college exposure. Due to the lack of budgets in the recruitment for smaller D-I’d, it is essential to provide not just the student athletes but also the smaller universities proper equity. “
“Girls youth basketball is treated like a red headed stepchild.”
“The young ladies should have the same time of exposure as the other sports. You don’t allow them time to be exposed like the others. My Question is why is that? Why has it taken so long to acknowledge this? Why have they not been given the same opportunities as the other athletes? It’s time for a change!”
“Being on both sides I understand the aspect of this move. You’re taking away chances for kids to be seen by schools. Not to mention the smaller division one schools that need to take time to watch these kids are gonna get hurt the most. This only truly benefits the top programs in the country that need to just throw an offer down and can get a kid. This whole thing is stupid and makes no sense!”
“This is a direct threat to women’s basketball players of all aspirations. It is offensive and contrary to everything the game is trying to accomplish. I strongly oppose the shortened non-scholastic exposure period”
“Girls basketball should have the same opportunities as any other sport. Show respect to our girls! We demand same rights!!!!-“
“Girls Basketball should have an equal opportunity as all other sports across the board. The sport has evolved and the athletes are wide spread and growing and becoming versatile. More time for recruitment would be a blessing for a lot of the girls working year round and get one month to display their talents. Equality would truly be appreciated.”
“My program Maritime Elite Girls Basketball Academy originates in Halifax Nova Scotia Canada but these decisions made by NCAA also have impact on Canadian players as we travel to USA many times during the year”