From the Files: Interesting Article On Myron Rolle and Recruiting Analysts

One exciting development came out of an otherwise dull meeting of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics. Highly touted Florida State signee Myron Rolle told the meeting of the Knight Commission that he was instructed by recruiting analyst Tom Lemming to keep Notre Dame on his short list of schools in order to increase his chances to be named MVP of the U.S. Army All-American Bowl all-star game and ensure that he would be a featured player during the telecast of the game. NBC, which showed the high school game in San Antonio on Jan. 7, also has a contract for Notre Dame home games.

This is not the first time that Lemming has been linked to negative recruiting surrounding FSU, but it is certainly the most noteworthy. Lemming is one of many widely known recruiting wonks whose rankings are used by media outlets and fans to determine the quality of a particular class of incoming freshman football players. Lemming's rankings are used by several major media outlets including USA Today. After he made the comments about being told by Lemming to consider Notre Dame, Myron Rolle repeated the remarks after the end of the committee's session.

"He told me if I kept Notre Dame in mind, the NBC (TV) guy would interview me and they would showcase me during the game. He told me I'd have a higher chance of being MVP. I took it as having less of a chance of getting MVP if I didn't keep Notre Dame on my list."

Lemming denies that the conversation ever took place, and claimed that Rolle misconstrued questions about his choice of a college. Rolle has stated several times that he plans to attend medical school after his football career ends and that academics would come first in his selection of a school. Lemming claimed that any questions he had about Rolle's choice of a school only stemmed from trying to discover why he selected FSU over more-ballyhooed academic institutions such as Stanford and Duke. He also accused Rolle of being eager to gain as much exposure for himself as possible.

"Myron is the biggest media hound that I've ever seen, I selected him for this game in September, and he played in the game. (Criticism) is part of the business when you select an All-American team. Myron's taking it to a new level. It hurt his ego when he wasn't first-team All-American."

Lemming's recruiting rankings have Rolle ranked 28th in the nation, while other services such as Rivals.com, ESPN.com, and Scout.com have Rolle ranked as high as #1 in the whole nation. Rolle has enrolled at Florida State already and will be available to join the rest of the team during spring practice and is expected to immediately compete for playing time at safety.