Having a friend who has been a UA coach in the past, there are two things that happen that I suspect most people unless you're the benefactor, would not be okay with. First, the coaches, of course, pick their own players. The evaluation is not "independent" as UA claims. The coaches pick the teams for the most part. The second is the horse-trading - meaning coaches from different age groups talk and make deals. You take my 202X player on your team and I'll take your 202Y player on mine. These are facts, gained by knowing an actual former UA coach.
If, and this is a _BIG_ if, American Select avoids these same mistakes, and has actual independent evaluators, they will be a better showcase in the long term.
Personally, I think it was a mistake to have AS at the same time as UA this year. I think AS should have built up its reputation more because trying to directly compete with UA. Just my opinion.
Here we go again... (It's not all rigged and political) The below post represent facts by actually looking at the players who made the team and then looking at their college career. The large majority are current Seniors, 5th or have graduated so it gives a pretty accurate evaluation of the caliber of player they are / were.
The below post is "cut and paste" from an earlier post. The numbers represent two separate years 2014 and 2015, back then there was one team all graduation years played on the same team. There were complaints back then about the selection process but looking at these numbers the evaluators / coaches selected some very good players.
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*** "Some time on my hands so I did a little research... my apologies if I miss by a number here and there... : )
2014 and 2015 Under Armour Underclass Teams from Long Island:
- Total of 39 players were selected. (some played more than 1 year).
- 20 College Programs Represented. 13 -15 would be considered Top 20 Programs.
- 13 Division I All-Americans (so far, many still playing)
- at least 21 All-Conference (so far, many still playing)
- at least 17 Team Captains (so far, many still playing)
- 35 Starters / Players who play in every game.
- a few injured players I think Two career ending Injuries.
- 1 or 2 Reserve Players who have not seen much playing time.
Where did the players go to college?
5 - Stony Brook
4 - North Carolina
4 - Princeton
3 - Florida
3 - Syracuse
3 - Notre Dame
2 - Penn
2 - Penn State
2 - USC
2 - Georgetown
1 - BC, Northwestern, UVA, Maryland, Richmond, Duke, Columbia, Yale, Lehigh.
The bottom line is that the complaints about the tryouts come every single year. The reality is that over the years Under Armour has done an excellent job with the selection process. The vast majority of the players selected go on to prove themselves at many of the Top College Programs. At least for these two years it looks like all but two players are excelling or excelled (graduated) at many of the most competitive programs.
Kind of goes against the narrative that "UA is a joke and it's the friends and family network".
The biggest surprise that also "busts" a narrative is how many players went to Stony Brook. I read on this site constantly how JS does more with less than anyone and how he brings in no-name recruits etc... Well SBU brought in the most of any program... If they made the Under Armour Underclass they were most certainly known players." ***
