Watch the video interview here as well. Couple points of interests from it:
1) At 24:35 Godfrey says that every archetype of the SEC schools and their culture of bagmen applies to a school like Florida State, like Clemson and then says “Maybe a couple of years ago it applied to Georgia Tech, they may have fallen off.”
He suggests in the article the bribes can fall off due to the bagmen “not liking their coach” and finding the president or AD won’t “make a change.” That fits the attitude of many around Tech. Yet . . . that coincides with CPJ clearly thinking they are getting better at recruiting now, there is less turnover of Tech coaches the last couple years, and last year’s class certainly seemed strong. So that may counter some of the perception that bag men are a dominant force in the recruiting at Tech.
2) 100% of 5 stars take bribes. 80% of 4-stars are approached by bag men . . . and the reporter did not give an estimate of how many of those recruits take the bribes.
Look at what CPJ said to that Lunch Bunch group about how there has to be a) authentic interest in going to GT and b) they have to actually fit the model for a student that can make it through Tech.
Then couple that with the claim from Godfrey that those kids who accrue the most in bribes do so by generating bidding wars between college suitors. That is, they get the staffs at Schools X, Y, and maybe Z after them so much that the bagmen really try and “help” the recruit and his family make their decision. This works especially well with in-state rivals or contiguous state rivals/conference rivals.
So when a 5 star or 4 star visits Tech on the way to Clemson or UGA? Interest? Are they a potential fit for Tech? Are they trying to get money?
Put it all together. And then seriously try and compare recruiting results at Tech with any other programs recruiting, it can’t really be done very well can it? How much is coaches “recruiting ability”? Be honest with yourself about that point 2 above from the video on 5 and 4 stars.
Also, this is much worse in basketball (as far as amount of cash to individual kids) so when you read that a certain top ten caliber guard everyone thinks is heading to Tech is suddenly interested in UF and UK then again be honest with yourself about what is really going on there. Especially when Izzo has such a strong reputation for integrity and his coaching tree has people like Gregory that seem to demonstrate the same kind of character.
And lastly, to make a ceteris paribus argument let’s assume that the “bag man money” is equal amongst schools, including Tech . . . so how does the recruit who is motivated by bribes going to make their actual decision of where to play? It still comes down to their having to be willing and able to make it work at a school like Tech.
