Florida-based IMG Academy is taking on "latest experiment in prep football" and "could produce, depending on one’s view, bountiful harvests of talent or a blight of professionalism," according to a front-page piece by Jere Longman of the N.Y. TIMES. IMG is "trying to enhance its academy brand with football, perhaps the most visible sport." Helmets include IMG's "corporate logo," and games are "played in a 5,000-seat stadium outfitted with suites and a jumbo video screen." But coaches and officials around the country are "watching with curiosity and wariness." IMG is "applying a business model to the gridiron that has long been profitable for tennis and has expanded" to other sports. The school "offers high-performance training, college preparatory courses, coaches with NFL playing experience, facilities that resemble a small college more than a high school, and a chance to play a national schedule and on ESPN against some of the highest-rated teams." It is "stocked with six of the nation’s top 100 senior recruits," and the roster "has players from 21 states and six countries." The "full cost of tuition and boarding for a year of football at IMG Academy is $70,800, although need-based financial assistance is available." School officials would not provide specific figures, but they said that payments by families "could range from tens of thousands of dollars to a competition fee (from $3,750 to $4,500) to nothing." IMG officials are "upfront about their profit motive." IMG Performance Senior VP & Co-Managing Dir Chip McCarthy said, "We run a business. We call it sales and marketing. Some people call it recruiting. We’re promoting our program” (N.Y. TIMES, 9/19).
