Investigation reveals need for more background checks for college football recruits

According to a recent investigation by Sports Illustrated and CBS News, one in 14 players from the preseason Top 25 NCAA football teams was found guilty for a crime, leading many to call for stricter background checks before scholarships are handed out. In a recent column for the Huffington Post, S. Daniel Carter, director of public policy for Security On Campus said despite the fact that the information is available to them, many recruiters and college coaches fail to perform criminal background screenings on potential players. He writes that only two of the 25 schools had done any sort of check before they made their signings. Carter suggests that the NCAA create a new rule to force stricter background checks for athletes being recruited. "Any individual institution that began running them on their own would simply be at too great a competitive disadvantage without a universal mandate," he writes. "This will put all institutions on a level playing field - certainly something that should be a key objective of the NCAA." In one of the most recent cases of a college athlete getting into legal trouble, it was revealed that Cincinnati freshman Antwan Darling was arrested in high school for felony burglary and had twice been convicted of marijuana possession.