Compliance Question Of The Week - Indiana University Athletics

Compliance Question Of The Week
For the week of: April 26, 2006

Question:

Is it permissible for a coach to have face-to-face contact with a prospect or his/her parents at either a banquet/meeting at which the coach is speaking (per Bylaw 13.1.9) or at a "college night" the coach is attending with IU Admissions personnel?

Answer:

Depends - Per Bylaw 13.02.3, any face-to-face encounter between a prospect or the prospect's parents, relatives, or legal guardian(s) and an institutional staff member or athletics representative in excess of an exchange of a greeting is considered a contact. Further, pursuant to Bylaw 13.1.1.1, in-person, off-campus recruiting contact may only be made with contactable prospects (i.e., July 1 following junior year of high school). Therefore, institutional coaches may only have contact with prospects at activities conducted by admissions offices or other institutional entities (e.g., college night events, team banquets) if the prospect is defined as a contactable prospect. It should be noted that pursuant to Bylaw 13.02.4.1, for sports with legislated recruiting periods, contact may only be made with contactable prospects during a specified contact period. Per Bylaw 13.1.2.2, it remains permissible for institutions' regular admissions program representatives to make off-campus recruiting contacts with prospects provided the contact is directed at all prospective students, including nonathletes

Here is a follow up to one of last week's questions because it generated quite a bit of discussion.

Not according to a recent interp! "[P]ursuant to NCAA Bylaw 13.14.1, all funds for the recruitment of prospective student-athletes shall be deposited directly with the member institution, which shall be exclusively and entirely responsible for the manner in which such funds are expended. Therefore, institutions should note that it is not permissible for any outside organization or individual (e.g., recruiting or scouting service, event operator) to provide institutional coaching staff members with expenses (e.g., travel, lodging) to attend any event for recruiting purposes. Such expenses are considered funds donated for recruiting purposes and NCAA rules require that such funds be deposited directly with the member institution, as opposed to being provided directly to an institutional coaching staff member(s)." [NCAA Educational Column 03/17/06 - emphasis added] The idea behind 13.14.1 and the 03/17/06 educational column is that the institution should maintain control over the recruiting process and should not let outside parties that are involved in the recruiting process (e.g., prospects, parents of prospects, high school coaches, AAU event organizers) use money to influence that process. That doesn't mean that an institution is required to self-report every time a coach stays at a friend's house during a recruiting trip or gets a ride from a friend to attend a prospect's competition. The institution should approve of the arrangement and an individual providing such assistance will trigger booster status (see below), but there is no 13.14.1 concern. On the other hand, the educational column explains that it is not permissible for an event organizer financing/subsidizing the cost of a block of hotel rooms for the purpose of enticing college coaches to come watch the event. If the event organizer is spending funds from the event budget for the purpose of providing travel expenses to attending college coaches, then that organizer is dictating - or at least influencing - the recruiting process by enticing coaches to come to his/her event rather than another event that is not offering a similar incentive. This is the type of regulation that should be interpreted with a degree of common sense based on the specific situation and the intent of the legislation. An event organizer cannot spend money to pay/subsidize the cost of a recruiting coach's hotel room, but that doesn't mean it's a problem if the event organizer calls a local hotel, inquires about the availability of a discounted group rate, and then provides information about that rate to attending coaches. Similarly, I don't see a problem with the event organizer providing reasonable hospitality at the event. Similarly, the parent of a prospect cannot fly a coach to watch the prospect play (see the 3/22/89 SI below), but we've said that a coach can eat a meal in a prospect's home during a recruiting contact. The lodging piece is in the middle of the continuum between the PSA's parent financing the entire trip (not permissible) and the coach eating home-cooked beef stew at the prospect's house (permissible). The Big Ten is uncomfortable with a blanket statement authorizing coaches to receive lodging from parents of prospects, and even more uncomfortable if such lodging is offered by a PSA's parent as an incentive. So, as in the past, continue to run all offers of lodging by the compliance office, so that we can ensure institutional control over all recruiting activities and expenditures.