The NCAA will reconsider some of its recently approved proposals that would permit schools to have staffers dedicated solely to recruiting, unlimited phone and text contact, and an earlier initial contact date, according to John Infante of the Bylaw Blog.
NCAA could change new recruiting rules on texting
Could recruits get a reprieve from a barrage of electronic communication?
The proposals, which I first covered for SB Nation in early January, are a big deal.
To go from one call per week and no text messages to unlimited calls and text messages? That's a drastic shift.
But remember the stories of Urban Meyer texting recruits as coach of the Florida Gators while he was in church? If approved, coaches can go back to the practice of bombarding recruits with unregulated calls, text messages, Facebook messages and direct messages via Twitter!
The proposed rule will reduce the need for burner phones, as coaches will no longer have to use an anonymous prepaid cell to call recruits when they're not supposed to because, well, the communication is now unregulated.
There are already whispers about schools (cough::Alabama::cough) assembling huge staffs of former or aspiring coaches who will handle nothing but recruiting, including texting recruits, calling recruits, tracking them on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, evaluating them on film, talking to coaches and parents, etc.
The worry of most schools is that some will spare no expense in building a huge recruiting army, which could give them a big advantage in recruiting over schools who are either unwilling or unable to spare no expense.
Some of these concerns were echoed by Jimbo Fisher of Florida State:
“It sounds good. But here’s the difference between football and basketball: In football, you’re recruiting 25; in basketball, you’re recruiting three or four. I’m going to tell you what, for an assistant coach’s life right now, it’s fixing to change dramatically. You’re not going to have a family life. You talk about burnout? I mean, I’m for communication and opening it up, but how are your coaches going to have a life? Because if you’re not spending the time, somebody else is. Your staff, they may need to grow. I don’t know if you have enough people on your staff to do that. That’s a very scary avenue to go down, in my opinion.”
Infante explains the process of changing the propsals, which is a bit complicated for those not versed in the nomenclature of the NCAA rulebook. The gist, however, is the NCAA will listen to its member institutions, and we should know more on the direction of the rulebook
