2011 Boise State commit Emil Smith died in a car crash last month in California. Over the course of his recruitment, the Broncos coaching staff had of course gotten to know his family pretty well. But there won’t be any sympathy cards coming from the university, thanks to an NCAA stricture that says because Smith wasn’t a signed commit (being a rising high-school senior and all), the Broncos are forbidden from any contact:
NCAA Helpfully Bars Boise State From Commenting On Recruit’s Death
They could not attend his funeral. They could not send flowers. They could not call his grieving parents or any other family members.
“There was nothing the school could do,” said Scott Hobbs, Boise State’s assistant athletic director for compliance.
Hobbs said the Broncos contacted officials at other schools, the Western Athletic Conference and the Mountain West Conference to discuss their options.
The answer was the same.
It’s a world gone mad. NCAA recruiting regulations, ostensibly designed to protect any one school from having an unfair advantage over another, are really showing their best face here. Yes, let’s not give Boise State an edge in personnel by allowing coaches to express sorrow over the death of a recruit. Can’t have that! Once commits to rival WAC schools see the bitchin’ flower display the Broncos deliver, they’ll be trampling each other to play for Boise! More than they already do, I mean.
HT: OBNUG.
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