Earlier today, JT got y’all caught up on the new playing rules the NCAA passed (or rejected) for the 2013 football season. Now, the NCAA’s Rules Working Group has announced its recommending the suspension of two recruiting deregulation proposals that will surely make Big Ten athletic directors and coaches happy.
In a release, the NCAA announced that Prop. No. RWG-11-2 and Prop. No. RWG-13-5-A will undergo further review and modification. The specifics of those rules are as follows:
- Prop. No. RWG-11-2, which eliminated the definition of recruiting coordination functions that must be performed only be a head or assistant coach, be suspended until appropriate modifications can be made. The concept will be considered as the membership ponders its approach to non-coaching personnel.
- Prop. No. RWG-13-5-A, which eliminated restrictions on printed materials sent to prospects other than general correspondence, be suspended to allow for a broader discussion of the rule.
Those two rules were part of several that were adopted by the NCAA in January. The NCAA’s Board of Directors will meet on May 2 to discuss the possibility of suspension.
NCAA guru John Infante noted in his blog late last week that those to proposals, along with 13-3 (allows unlimited phone calls and texts to prospects), would most likely be the ones that receive enough opposition to be sent back for further review. The concern, per the release, consists of “possible adverse impact the changes would have on college coaches, administrators and university resources, in addition to the impact on prospects and their families.”
Furthermore...
“Much of the anxiety is specific to football, though the concerns could translate to any sport.”
In other words, there was an anticipation of a calling/texting free-for-all that could occur once the deregulation rules take effect in August. The counterargument is that many of the recruiting rules deregulation was designed to loosen weren’t able to be fairly or evenly enforced to begin with.
Either way, the NCAA is taking another look at two of these rules.