Charlotte-based RealRecruit is a new service where athletes "could provide candid feedback about their experiences" at different schools, and where athletic officials could "learn of potentially explosive troubles in their midst," according to Rachel Bachman of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. RealRecruit is now in use at about 70 schools, and "includes a tool for administrators to communicate with athletes while maintaining athletes' anonymity." Athlete Viewpoint is another company that "contracts with athletic departments to gather detailed end-of-season feedback from athletes," and recently "added a 24-hour 'alert' feature for reporting urgent concerns." Demand for these services is "rising in an era of sweeping scandals that begin in athletics but sometimes cause havoc across a university." Anonymous platforms "facilitated via smartphone encourage frank feedback and more of it." Athlete Viewpoint co-Founder Michael Cross, who also is Penn State Assistant AD/New Business Development, said that his company was hired to "conduct end-of-season surveys for all varsity teams" at Penn State (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 3/5).
