With an eye toward protecting the academic success of prospective student-athletes, an NCAA working group has been appointed to examine the issue of �early commitments,� particularly in football and basketball.

Early commitments are informal, non-binding agreements between a coach and a prospect, and some people believe they put the latter at risk.

The Collegiate Commissioners Association requires institutions to wait until a prospect�s senior year in high school before offering a letter of intent, but that hasn�t stopped prospects as young as 15 from �verbally committing� before their senior year.

Some prospects like the early commitment because they think it alleviates pressure from the recruiting process and allows them to focus more on their senior year. While athletics officials might agree with that intent, they also warn that many prospects � and their parents � aren�t aware that any verbal commitment, or even a letter from a coach offering a grant-in-aid before the official signing date, can�t be enforced by either the coach or student-athlete.

In other words, coaches might continue to recruit at that position and student-athletes can continue to assess other offers. Until a student-athlete is accepted by an institution�s admissions office and a formal National Letter of Intent with a grant-in-aid offer is extended by the institution, the �early commitment� can be broken at any time by either party for any reason.

Some officials fear that early commitments occasionally leave student-athletes without the means or opportunity to attend college, much less participate in collegiate sports. That unfortunate outcome could be for a number of reasons, including the prospect not meeting academic admissions standards at a particular institution, the prospect not meeting NCAA Initial-Eligibility Clearinghouse criteria, or a change in the coaching staff. Some parents and students are unaware that the student must still apply for admission to the institution after both a verbal commitment and a non-binding written scholarship offer � and they must pass through the Clearinghouse, too.

Early commitments also have the potential to create a void for a coach if a verbally committed prospect reneges, though some officials suspect that happens much less frequently.

Thurston Banks, faculty athletics representative at Tennessee Technological University and a member of the NCAA working group established to examine the issue, said the goal is to protect the student-athlete.

�Right now, there is more benefit to the athletics (department) than to the student-athlete � the student-athlete could end up getting more of a bad deal out of this than the coach or the school,� Banks said. �These coaches have been in this business quite a while, and they�ve typically got two or three backups.�

Intertwining academics and athletics

A student-athlete well-being subcommittee of the Presidential Task Force on the Future of Division I Intercollegiate Athletics recommended the working group after discussion of its own. The working group met late last month for the first time, establishing a set of recommendations with the intent of gathering feedback from the membership and other constituencies before pursuing possible legislation.

The group�s first recommendation is to require a review of a prospect�s academic credentials before any written offer of aid is made. That offer also must indicate that it is not a binding contract. Those requirements would ensure that the prospect�s academic record has been evaluated by the appropriate authority on campus � and that the likelihood of admission is discussed � before a written offer of athletics aid is extended.

�The group felt that we needed to intertwine academics and athletics,� said Shane Lyons, group member and associate commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference. �An individual committing that early is going solely on the basis of athletics � whether he or she can even meet the admissions requirements for that specific institution isn�t even clear.

�What we don�t want to have happen is for prospects to misunderstand that they�re going to be admitted and so they shut down their academic performance in high school � then all of a sudden, they don�t meet the admission requirements. Blending the emphasis on academics and athletics is in the best interests of both the institution and the student-athlete.�

The group also was interested in hearing the membership�s reaction to the possibility of eliminating verbal offers completely. While acknowledging that such a rule would be difficult to enforce, some officials believe it would influence some coaches and certainly prospective student-athletes.

�If it were in the book as an NCAA bylaw, at least coaches and institutions would understand that they�re not supposed to do it, and they might not do it as liberally as in the past,� Banks said.

According to Lyons, such a rule could serve more as an education tool for prospective student-athletes.

�A coach can offer you a full scholarship as a sophomore, but that means nothing. It is very difficult to monitor, but people (need to know) that it doesn�t mean anything until they have that written offer,� Lyons said. �If the two go together, the academic component and athletics component, it�s more concrete evidence of a true commitment from that institution.�

Earlier signing date

Jean Lenti Ponsetto, athletics director at DePaul University, said she believes that in some cases, the current system of early commitments is practical and effective. For example, she said, some students might begin at-

tending summer athletics camps on an institution�s campus as early as elementary school, and if they are bright students in honors courses and know in their sophomore or junior year that they want to attend that institution, an early commitment is appropriate. Also, students who already are familiar with the institution because their parents or other relatives attended might also find it beneficial to commit early.

�They do it with a lot of knowledge and a lot of information,� Ponsetto said. �They might not have had their academic credentials reviewed yet, but they have a good feel for an academic program and a good feel for the athletics program.�

A third suggestion made by the working group is to examine the impact of earlier signing dates � perhaps in the summer between a prospect�s junior and senior year in high school. Such a change might safely relieve the recruiting pressures prospects are after in the first place. It also might allow coaches to set their rosters before the academic year, giving them the opportunity to focus on their current student-athletes throughout the school year instead of spending part of it � sometimes during their season � recruiting heavily.

�For any student who has done their homework early, having the signing date moved up would allow them the opportunity to sign with an institution of their choice and make a good, responsible decision based on both academics and athletics,� Ponsetto said.

The working group will seek feedback on those suggestions during the summer months, with an eye toward formulating possible legislative proposals to present to the Academics/Eligibility/Compliance Cabinet in September.

Dartmouth College President James Wright, a member of the Presidential Task Force who has been outspoken on the subject of early commitments, said he believes the mingling of academics and athletics is imperative.

�Focusing in academic admission along with athletics admission is just crucial. The two have to be intertwined,� Wright said. �I can�t imagine why an athletics offer could be made before any review of academic credentials. It just strikes me as inconceivable that anyone could even think of doing such a thing � we�re talking about admission to a class and to an institution.�

Ponsetto said the working group�s goal is to educate prospects about the process and encourage them to have their academic credentials reviewed by any institution they are interested in attending.

�We want to make students aware of the fact that it�s important for them to go through some sort of academic screening at the institution to make sure they have some predictors for success. We need to have academic credentials reviewed before there is any financial aid offer,� she said. �We want to make the recruiting process as simple and uncomplicated as it can be. The more we can make it similar to students generally, the better.�