The New Movie Stars…High School Athletes?

I just read an interesting article in the New York Times about the phenomenon of student athletes shelling out big bucks to have professionally produced “sports highlights videos” showcasing their talents. From football to field hockey, these athletes are hoping their varsity videos will help them earn competitive college scholarships.

The popularity of these expensive slick sports videos, ranging from $300 to $5,000, has made recruiting easier for universities, since many are now opting to skip the school visits to find new talent. And why would they need to, when they’ve got a stack of DVDs, complete with fancy edits, rockin’ pop music, and “best of” footage put together in a nice little package?

While I can see the allure of these varsity videos, here’s my problem with them: what about the fantastic high school athletes who can’t afford to hire one of these companies to make him or her a video star? And isn’t it these students who are most in need of available scholarship money anyway?

I know that competition to get into college and snag scholarships is getting tougher and tougher, but I think it’s a shame that these highlights reels are just going to widen the gap of an already unequal playing field.

What are your thoughts? Share them here!