College athletics continues to be at a standstill but recruiting has been running smoothly for the most part. Kids are still committing to places as of now and Indiana has been involved in a lot of talk on both the football and basketball sides of things.
Dustin Dopirak from The Athletic covers Indiana, Butler and Purdue and touched on some of the things going on in college sports.
Indiana received bad news over the weekend when 2021 commit Rodney McGraw decommitted from Indiana and committed to Penn State. Dopirak said that it's tough for schools on the bad side of it, but that's just the way recruiting is nowadays.
“Obviously that’s sorta how it goes in football recruiting. There are so many of them [recruits] and so many more moving parts it's just easier to convince these guys over time like ‘hey there is more playing time for you here'..." Dopirak told the Indiana Sports Beat. "Football is just bigger since it's not just basketball taking two or three guys in a class.”
Despite the loss of McGraw, Tom Allen has done a great job at landing talent thus far during the pandemic.
“It just comes to show you how Tom Allen hustles," Dopirak said. "It’s gotten him to where he is and where IU is… it seems like he has kept that in mind and knows this is a period where he may lose some people. Basically you are at a disadvantage and won't be able to do as much to strengthen the bonds.”
The Big Ten announced on Monday morning that it would be suspending activities until June 1, something everyone felt was coming.
“It seems like a formality at this point but it makes sense," Dopirak added. "They just don’t want to cancel anything until they have to… it's just a case of when they can bring these guys back on campus to have organized workouts.”
With certain states opening up and others beginning their re-opening phases, universities may have big decisions to make on when they will allow students to come back to campus. Dopirak touched on how that may impact the impeding college season.
“I think you will see bigger discrepancies where state regulations are allowing places to open… some people will take advantage of the fact when it’s not as dangerous," Dopirak said. "You look at professional sports… you can take everyone to Vegas, or Arizona or Florida and put them in a hotel and play the season. For college you can't do that. You have to either play on that campus or not and it's going to be such a hit to not just the athletic departments themselves if you take that revenue stream away so there is a big time motivating factor for people to push the limits here… it wouldn't surprise me to see people play an unsanctioned football season away from the NCAA."
As for the state of college basketball, a lot of the talk has been about making the jump from high school to the G-League. People are mixed on if it will be good or bad for the game and Dopirak chimed in.
“Every year there are only so many guys that are ready to go pro… I just cant see that making any sense because your development in the game isn’t as big," Dopirak said. "Most guys need college and aren’t more ready for the G Leauge than the NBA. You wont torpedo college basketball that way and there isn’t a safer way for them…"
To listen to the rest of the interview and more, check out the tweet below.
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