(do not be holding out on this man)
Perhaps the following will be of some comfort to the recovering Urban Myer ; the New York Times’ Pete Thamel and Thayer Evans report the NCAA is taking a long, hard look at the University Of Tennessee’s use of “hostesses” to lure recruits, claiming the young ladies are considered “folk heroes” on certain Volunteer message boards. Typo alert!
Interviews with multiple recruits and their family members revealed that the N.C.A.A. has strong interest in Tennessee™s use of recruiting hostesses, students who are part of a formal group at the university that hosts all manner of prospective students at campus visits, including athletes. It is not clear whether the university sent the hostesses to visit the football players.
In one case, hostesses traveled nearly 200 miles to attend a high school game in South Carolina in which at least three Tennessee recruits were playing.
Marcus Lattimore, a running back who made an unofficial visit to Tennessee but said he would not enroll there, said multiple Tennessee hostesses attended a game at James F. Byrnes High School in Duncan, S.C., in September. He said they brought signs, including one that read, œCome to Tennessee.
œI haven™t seen no other schools do that, he said. œIt™s crazy.
The hostesses are considered representatives of the university, which would mean they could not recruit players off campus. Therefore, the visits may be considered violations of N.C.A.A. recruiting rules.
Two of Lattimore™s teammates, Brandon Willis and Corey Miller, have orally committed to Tennessee. Lattimore described the hostesses as œreal pretty, real nice and just real cool. He said he thought they had œa lot of influence in Miller™s and Willis™s commitments to Tennessee.