National Collegiate Athletic Association

NCAA News Archive - 2010

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Jan 13, 2010 11:13:19 PM

ATLANTA – The Division I Student-Athlete Advisory Committee met Wednesday with Division I Recruiting and Athletics Personnel Issues Cabinet chair Petrina Long about the cabinet's ongoing effort to deregulate the recruiting model where possible.

SAAC members voiced concerns about the ethics of recruiting, especially relating to early offers of aid (both verbal and written) and the ability of coaches to police themselves. They also expressed anxiety about early recruitment in general, agreeing that sometime in a prospect's junior year would be a good time to begin developing a relationship with a coach.

When Long, the senior associate athletics director at UCLA, asked the group about how to reach prospective student-athletes, SAAC members suggested requiring information about the Eligibility Center and the recruiting rules for each sport to be shared with a prospect during or immediately after a coach's initial contact. Mississippi State's D.J. Looney suggested reaching out to high school counselors.

"A lot of (prospective student-athletes) don't know how it works. They think you just pick a school and walk in," said Looney, a football student-athlete. "There needs to be something done to raise awareness of the recruiting process. A lot of high school counselors don't know (the process)."

SAAC members also urged Long and her cabinet to consider a high school student's ability (or inability) to set boundaries with coaches who are recruiting them. Some student-athletes believed that it would be difficult for prospects to control the amount of contact with a coach, particularly if the prospect was interested in attending the school.

In other SAAC news, members elected Scott Krapf, a track and field/cross country student-athlete from Illinois State, to serve as vice chair for the next year. Krapf will become chair of the committee in January 2011.

"I will stand firm in expressing the thoughts of this committee and all student-athletes," Krapf said. "This is a chance to make a difference and impact the lives of other student-athletes."

At the end of the Convention, Nick Fulton, a swimmer from Wisconsin, will become chair of the Division I SAAC, replacing Matt Baysinger, who chaired the group for the last year. Baysinger, a track and field student-athlete, represented Kansas.