Nothing unusual about schools paying recruiting services

An investigation into the University of Oregon's use of recruiting services has shed a light on what is common practice among college football programs — including the University of Washington's.

In response to a question from The Seattle Times, Washington released information on the recruiting services it has used in the past year. It pays for nine different services at a cost of just less than $40,000 — an aspect of recruiting that had gone under the radar until the Oregon news broke last week.

Through a spokesman, UW reported that "our general philosophy with regards to services is that they are used to supplement what the coaches do. ... The services are designed to provide the coaches with the information (occasionally including film) on a player, and then our staff does the evaluation and analysis. One of the services (Recruiting Radar) is more like a software database that helps organize information about prospects."

Washington's biggest expense is $25,000 paid to Digital Sports Video (also sometimes referred to as Player Direct). On its website, DSV states that eight of 10 Pac-10 schools are clients and specifically lists Oregon, Oregon State and Arizona, and also states that "over half the Big 12" are clients, as well as schools such as Boise State and Texas Christian.

According to UW, it uses that service because it is an online film service that gives the school the ability to download games and watch video on specific players.

Washington pays $7,500 a year to Recruiting Radar, a database that allows schools to track prospects as early as their freshman seasons.

The school also pays $5,000 to $10,000, depending on the year, to Collegiate Sports Data, a service that provides information about high schools as well as top prospects (the price varies depending on how many states UW orders in a given year, the school said).

Washington also pays from $100 to $750 a year each for five other services, including premium subscriptions to websites Rivals.com and Scout.com.

The Oregonian recently reported that Oregon State also paid "about $40,000" on recruiting services in the past year.

Various reports have stated the NCAA is looking into whether two men that Oregon paid for recruiting services might have guided recruits to sign letters-of-intent with the school, which would be a rules violation.

Bob Condotta: 206-515-5699