The news that the University of Nebraska rescinded its scholarship offer to West Scranton running back Shawn Bodtman was stunning, to say the least.
The rationale for pulling the scholarship was also stunning, giving the timing in which it came to light. In fact, the rationale offered by the Nebraska assistant coach didn’t offer anything except the notion that it was a “CYA” operation. You can fill in what the letters mean.
Conventional thinking would lead you to believe that if there are some walk-ons that caught the eye of Cornhusker coaches, shouldn’t the scholarship have been pulled sooner?
Likewise, if the Big Red were that concerned about Bodtman’s durability and health, why would it have even extended an offer to the Invader senior? Or, if they were that concerned, wouldn’t they have pulled the scholarship at the first sign of an injury, and not string this out till the last possible minute?
It just doesn’t make any sense. Not that it should. A situation like this, from an outsider’s perspective, is unfathomable.
Who can imagine what Mr. Bodtman is feeling right now? His whole world, the one centered around spending the next few years of his life in Lincoln, in the land of the corn, is shattered. Seven months of the young man’s life, in which he could have fielded more Division-1 offers, or 1-AA offers, for that matter, is gone.
This sad, sad situation brings to light two things: 1.) in the world of college recruiting, a lot is made of verbal, non-binding commitments, and 2.) this story will lead to a little more skepticism when it comes to a college offering a scholarship, moreso of the D-1 variety.
In the world of the 24-hour, seven-days-a-week need for information that has become the media machine, verbal commitments seem to be treated as a bigger deal than signing the letter of intent. Lost in the shuffle is the fine print – the verbal commitment, while it is an important step in the recruiting process, is not the be-all, nor the end-all.
Verbal commitments, remember, don’t mean that there is ink drying on the paper. It is, at best, a verbal contract, with nothing guaranteed or set in stone.
But no one expects to have the rug pulled out from under them. Not like this. Not in a way that showed the lowest amount of possible class.
For a college to act in this way is very rare. It isn’t rare, though, for the student-athlete to change his verbal commitment. Two recent examples of this come in the form of Steelton-Highspire’s Jordan Hill and Montour’s Christian Wilson.
Hill, remember, had taken a visit to Rutgers, and liked everything he saw, verbally committing to the Scarlet Knights. But Hill, having second thoughts about his initial decision, changed his mind and decided instead that he wanted to play for the Nittany Lions.
Wilson, a 2,000-yard rusher and hard-hitting linebacker for the 2007 WPIAL “AAA” finalist Spartans, originally was looking to attend Michigan. Instead, Wilson chose North Carolina.
Changing one’s mind isn’t a bad thing – choosing which college one will spend the next few years of his life at isn’t quite the same as choosing a prom date. But Bodtman never changed his mind. He never wavered. He was fully committed to Nebraska.
From a public relations standpoint, this could really turn into a nightmare for the Cornhuskers, as well it should. Every other athlete the Huskers extended an offer to might have the thought in the back of their heads, “Is that same thing going to happen to me? Am I going to be the next one hung out to dry?”
How this impacts Nebraska’s recruiting in the immediate future, or for the long-term future, is unknown. Right now, there will probably be a lot of letters sent to Nebraska asking for a better explanation than the one published in the Scranton newspapers.
This once-proud Big-12 powerhouse has a lot of explaining to do, not just within the borders of the Keystone State or the borders of the West Scranton School District.
Hopefully, for Mr. Bodtman’s sake, he finds a college to attend and play football for.
Hopefully, no other colleges ever fumble the ball as badly as Nebraska did in this situation.
Hopefully, for the sake of all student-athletes across the nation, we never hear of a story like this again.
