Indiana University Athletics
Compliance Question Of The Week
Compliance Question Of The Week
Question 1:
What are the issues I need to be aware of when out recruiting? Can I talk to prospects? Can I call them? Please break it down for me?
Answer 1:
OK, if you insist. Referring to the long and sometimes confusing section at the start of bylaw 13, specific information covered in 13.1.6 will get us to SOME of these answers, though not all.
- You can only contact prospects (who must be seniors or released transfers, not JUCO nonqualifiers in their first year) during a contact period.
- On the day/days/ of competition, you cannot have any contact with any prospect until AFTER their competition is completed and they have been "released."
- For the purposes of that, contact includes face-to-face, phone calls and the passing of notes or verbal information through an intermediary, etc.
- Even e-mail is limited on the day of competition before competition, so in the interests of keeping this e-mail shorter, check 13.1.6.2 for those conditions (don't e-mail while they are on call and at the site of the competition).
- More conditions relating to contacts exist for tournaments, travel to the game and even in between games on a road trip. Check first if not sure.
- There are also differing conditions for men's and women's basketball and football, depending on the timing of the evaluation and contact periods.
- Although it is a subject of much debate, it seems such that you may have contact with the parents (or other family members) of your prospects during or before the competition, as long as you are in a contact period and you count this as one of the countable contacts. So, you can't have ANY contact with anyone or their family who is not otherwise "contactable."
- Phone calls count as contact for the purposes of this bylaw, so don't call before the competition, but you DO otherwise have unlimited calls on the day of permissible off-campus contact, and some sports now have unlimited calls during ALL contact periods. So make those adjustments as necessary. Nothing before/during; free after!
Question 2:
What about signed prospects?
Answer 2:
- You get marginally more leeway here in that you may have post-competition contact with your signed prospects outside of a contact period. Also, you can continue to have contact with the parents (relatives/legal guardians) before or during the competition, even if you are not in a contact period. Again, your specific sport and other rules may apply, like in men's basketball, if it's at the guy's school it DOES have to be during a contact period for the prospect to be contacted, regardless of his signing status.
- Otherwise, a signed prospect can be contacted outside of a contact period but again, only after he/she is done with the competition, bylaw 13.1.6.2 continues to apply. You can go to see them at their home (if it's not before competition) at any time as often as you want (except during a Dead Period, when no off-campus contact can occur at all - period).
- Remember that even if you get unlimited evaluations for a signed prospect, the rest of the team that he or she might play on does NOT get that break, so if you are watching them compete with their team, you have to stay within the 7 (or 5 or 3) evals that you have for your sport.
- If your signee is NOT competing and you want to have him/her hang with you while you're evaluating, that'd be OK, if the prospect has made his/her own way to the event at their own expense.
- Watch out for your current student-athletes though, they are NOT allowed any off-campus contact with even signed prospects until the prospect's academic year has finished. So, that also goes for visits to campus for signees... keep them ON campus if your team is hanging with them. Only during official visits can any of your current student-athletes be off campus with any prospects. So, no, they don't get to stay overnight with off-campus residents until they're officially here in summer, and thus registered with compliance.
OK, that's some of it, be careful of contacts around competitions, they're tricky!
Question 1:
What are the issues I need to be aware of when out recruiting? Can I talk to prospects? Can I call them? Please break it down for me?
Answer 1:
OK, if you insist. Referring to the long and sometimes confusing section at the start of bylaw 13, specific information covered in 13.1.6 will get us to SOME of these answers, though not all.
- You can only contact prospects (who must be seniors or released transfers, not JUCO nonqualifiers in their first year) during a contact period.
- On the day/days/ of competition, you cannot have any contact with any prospect until AFTER their competition is completed and they have been "released."
- For the purposes of that, contact includes face-to-face, phone calls and the passing of notes or verbal information through an intermediary, etc.
- Even e-mail is limited on the day of competition before competition, so in the interests of keeping this e-mail shorter, check 13.1.6.2 for those conditions (don't e-mail while they are on call and at the site of the competition).
- More conditions relating to contacts exist for tournaments, travel to the game and even in between games on a road trip. Check first if not sure.
- There are also differing conditions for men's and women's basketball and football, depending on the timing of the evaluation and contact periods.
- Although it is a subject of much debate, it seems such that you may have contact with the parents (or other family members) of your prospects during or before the competition, as long as you are in a contact period and you count this as one of the countable contacts. So, you can't have ANY contact with anyone or their family who is not otherwise "contactable."
- Phone calls count as contact for the purposes of this bylaw, so don't call before the competition, but you DO otherwise have unlimited calls on the day of permissible off-campus contact, and some sports now have unlimited calls during ALL contact periods. So make those adjustments as necessary. Nothing before/during; free after!
Question 2:
What about signed prospects?
Answer 2:
- You get marginally more leeway here in that you may have post-competition contact with your signed prospects outside of a contact period. Also, you can continue to have contact with the parents (relatives/legal guardians) before or during the competition, even if you are not in a contact period. Again, your specific sport and other rules may apply, like in men's basketball, if it's at the guy's school it DOES have to be during a contact period for the prospect to be contacted, regardless of his signing status.
- Otherwise, a signed prospect can be contacted outside of a contact period but again, only after he/she is done with the competition, bylaw 13.1.6.2 continues to apply. You can go to see them at their home (if it's not before competition) at any time as often as you want (except during a Dead Period, when no off-campus contact can occur at all - period).
- Remember that even if you get unlimited evaluations for a signed prospect, the rest of the team that he or she might play on does NOT get that break, so if you are watching them compete with their team, you have to stay within the 7 (or 5 or 3) evals that you have for your sport.
- If your signee is NOT competing and you want to have him/her hang with you while you're evaluating, that'd be OK, if the prospect has made his/her own way to the event at their own expense.
- Watch out for your current student-athletes though, they are NOT allowed any off-campus contact with even signed prospects until the prospect's academic year has finished. So, that also goes for visits to campus for signees... keep them ON campus if your team is hanging with them. Only during official visits can any of your current student-athletes be off campus with any prospects. So, no, they don't get to stay overnight with off-campus residents until they're officially here in summer, and thus registered with compliance.
OK, that's some of it, be careful of contacts around competitions, they're tricky!