gasgrill9 wrote:

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JoeKing wrote:

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Since coaches can only contact a player one time before their junior year, I'm not sure I understand the issue.

I believe the rule was that college coaches could only contact High School players one time before their junior year...they could contact Jr High and Middle School kids as many times as they wanted.

This is been a major source of confusion with the talking heads on ESPN, at SI, etc. While they understand the game, they rarely have any insight whatsoever into the behind-the-scenes side of college athletics (I'm specifically referring to shows like PTI and Around the Horn, which are populated by journalists, rather than former coaches).

Until the NCAA (at the request of the basketball coaches association) changed this rule, it was permissible to make one contact with players who were not considered Prospective Student Athletes.

PSA= any high school aged player.
Non PSA= anyone else.

The act of initiating the first contact with a non-PSA changed that player's status, making them a PSA for all future contacts. Therefore, coaches in all sports other than men's basketball (maybe women's basketball as well, not sure about that) can have one otherwise unregulated contact with a player, whether that be a phone call, email, or letter. Anything afterwards must abide by the NCAA regulations. That's why you'll see some 8th graders in volleyball receive a handwritten note from a head coach then only receive a questionairre afterwards.

What the NABC asked the NCAA to do was to label 7th and 8th graders as prospective student athletes in order to regulate the contact in which coaches are allowed to engage. Prima facia, it looks to the uninformed (your Jay Mariottis, Bill Plachkes, and Wilbons) like the NCAA is saying to Coach K and Rick Pitino, "Go ahead, these kids are fair game," when in fact the NCAA is merely placing stricter "rules" on how college programs interact with middle schoolers. I agree with the SI article when it suggests the NCAA should just ban all contact with non-PSAs, but that's just my opinion.

I wouldn't be surprised to see the AVCA suggest similar legislation to the NCAA in coming seasons. In fact, some sports such as women's lacrosse and softball are spearheading tougher legislation to slow down the recruiting process. Because the NCAA doesn't recognize verbal committments, a lot of the proposed legislation affects recruiting indirectly by limiting the age at which recruits can stay overnight on unofficial visits and by possibly eliminating the one-time transfer exception. Eliminating the transfer exception would force players to complete a "year-in-residence" after transferring, delaying their eligibilty by one year as in basketball, football, baseball, and ice hockey.