Just thought I'd share a little history on the NCAA clearinghouse. This nonsense started in the early 1990 or late 1980s. I believe 1991 was the first year but it may have been 1990 or even 1989. I know because I was a student athlete at a small college and our athletic department and athletic director were still trying to figure things out when a bunch of us were trying to get cleared. At that time, there was a $25 fee associated with the clearinghouse. Essentially, every prospective student athlete had to pay the $25 fee and get "cleared" before you could even practice with any team. Today, that fee jumped to $50 for domestic students and $75 for students out of the country.
Over the years, me and my family got to be friends with the athletic director. He subsequently went on to be the AD at TCU and is now president of the Carolina Panthers. He told me in no uncertain terms this clearinghouse stuff was nothing but another ploy and shake down by the NCAA to pad its pockets. He said nothing had really changed with how the NCAA cleared prospective student athletes but the NCAA figured out they could shake down every student athlete for $25 and when you consider number of student athletes nationwide, this is amounts to several million dollars annually in additional revenue/found money for the NCAA.
Over the years, me and my family got to be friends with the athletic director. He subsequently went on to be the AD at TCU and is now president of the Carolina Panthers. He told me in no uncertain terms this clearinghouse stuff was nothing but another ploy and shake down by the NCAA to pad its pockets. He said nothing had really changed with how the NCAA cleared prospective student athletes but the NCAA figured out they could shake down every student athlete for $25 and when you consider number of student athletes nationwide, this is amounts to several million dollars annually in additional revenue/found money for the NCAA.
