National Collegiate Athletic Association

The NCAA News - News and Features

September 29, 1997

New model offered for basketball recruiting

The Division I Academics/Eligibility/Compliance Cabinet has approved the concept of a new recruiting model for Division I men's basketball as proposed by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC).

Meeting September 15-16 in Kansas City, Missouri, the cabinet approved the concept of the NABC model with a few modifications. The model would create eight regional camps conducted by USA Basketball over a period of three consecutive weekends in the spring.

The proposal also would restrict out-of-season evaluations by coaches to the USA Basketball camps, state high-school sanctioned all-star events, state high-school association sanctioned events designed for postseason evaluation of prospects and National Junior College Athletic Association sanctioned all-star events.

According to the NABC proposal, the new model would "alter the recruiting process away from the summer and increase the opportunity for high-school, junior college and college coaches to return to a more prominent position in the recruiting process of prospective student-athletes."

In its discussions, the cabinet agreed that options for both spring and summer camps should continue to be explored and noted that if the spring option was chosen, the regional camps should not conflict with the national standardized testing dates.

The cabinet also urged the use of an educational component in each camp that provides information on NCAA initial-eligibility regulations, gambling regulations and a life-skills program.

If the spring option is chosen, the cabinet identified additional modifications that should be considered, including the use of only three coaches in evaluating prospects participating in USA Basketball regional camps, moving the signing period for the National Letter of Intent program to start on the second Wednesday in December, changes in permissible telephone calls, and modifications to the recruiting calendars.

The cabinet also opposed NCAA funding of the USA Basketball regional camps.

Other actions

In other actions, the cabinet agreed to ask the Division I Management Council to authorize the appointment of a member of the cabinet's Subcommittee on Initial-Eligibility Issues to the NCAA Initial-Eligibility Clearinghouse Committee to facilitate communication between the two groups.

The Management Council will also be asked to sponsor legislation to involve a representative of the Division I Student-Athlete Advisory Committee on the cabinet.

The other piece of legislation recommended by the cabinet for Management Council sponsorship is creation of a dead period in Division I men's lacrosse from the Friday before the Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship to noon on the Tuesday after the final game.

The cabinet also referred a number of items to various subcommittees, agreed to discuss 1997 Convention Proposal No. 62 (student-athlete employment) at its next meeting, and noted that the Legislative Review/Interpretations Subcommittee has begun considering the format of the NCAA Manual.

Proposed legislation

Amendments approved by the cabinet include:

  • Amendment to Bylaws 15.2.5.3 and 15.2.5.4 to permit all student-athletes who are recipients of permissible outside financial aid awards to receive such educational awards directly from the awarding agency, provided the aid is awarded prior to the recipient's initial enrollment at a member institution and the awarding agency provides written notification of the award to the institution.

  • Amendment to mandate that the eligibility of a student-athlete should be certified by a designated individual outside the athletics department pursuant to a process approved by the institution's faculty athletics representative.

  • Amendment to permit the Initial-Eligibility Clearinghouse to use either the transcript from a student's original high school or the high school from which the student-athlete graduated for purposes of certifying the student's initial-eligibility core-curriculum requirements in those instances in which a student attended multiple high schools.

  • Amendment to Bylaw 13.8.2.6 to exempt National Girls and Women in Sports Day activities held on an institution's campus from the limitations on entertaining a prospect.

  • Amendment to Bylaw 11.7.5.1 to permit two coaches in men's volleyball to contact and evaluate prospects off campus at any one time.

  • Amendment to Bylaws 13.01.6, 13.1.1.1 and 13.1.3.1 to permit institutions in the sport of men's and women's basketball to make one telephone call to a prospect (or the prospect's parents or legal guardian) after June 15 of the prospect's junior year in high school, and to permit only three calls to a prospect (or parents or legal guardian) during the month of July following the prospect's junior year, with the understanding that no more than one telephone call may occur per week.

  • Amendment to Bylaw 13.1.9 (limitations on number of evaluations) to specify that violations of such legislation will not render a prospect ineligible while retaining the fact that such a violation will be considered an institutional violation.

  • Amendment to Bylaw 10.3 (gambling activities) to apply such legislation to conference staff members.

  • Amendment to mandate that the continuing eligibility of student-athletes be certified by a designated individual outside the athletics department pursuant to a process approved by the institution's faculty athletics representative.

    In accordance with Association bylaws, these proposed changes will be published within 30 days for the information of the membership and to solicit the membership's review and comment prior to its initial review by the Management Council.

    Initial-eligibility requirements

    Following up on an August 20 meeting of representatives from various NCAA committees regarding the Association's Divisions I and II initial-eligibility requirements, the cabinet's Subcommittee on Initial-Eligibility Issues and the Division II Academic Requirements Committee met to continue their review.

    The two groups agreed it would be prudent to consider the issues more fully upon receipt of an additional year of data on the students in the class of 1997, which will be available for the committee's review in January 1998. The groups also asked the research staff to provide them with additional detail on the profile of the students who fail to meet the standards and to provide information on the impact of incremental changes to the standards on the predicted graduate rates of student-athletes.

    Reacting to the Division I Board of Directors' directive to develop a comprehensive plan to implement a recommendation that would vest determination of an individual high school's core-course curriculum in that high school's administrators, the cabinet's initial-eligibility subcommittee generally supported the plan. The Division I subcommittee and its Division II counterpart supported the desire to create a partnership with the high-school community to develop the concept.

    The cabinet also noted the need for the NCAA to continue to monitor the new plan and to define more clearly its expectations for what constitutes a core course.

    In addition, the two groups will seek the support of the NCAA Initial-Eligibility Clearinghouse Committee and the Core-Course Review Subcommittee concerning the following areas:

  • The impact on clearinghouse operation and potential changes in the nature and scope of the work of the clearinghouse staff.

  • Development and delivery of materials that will be necessary to accomplish the objective outlined by presidential governing bodies.

  • The means by which to maintain ongoing communication concerning the revised procedures to key constituent groups.

  • Identify other issues that may affect the ultimate success of the core-course review process.