College basketball coaches will be allowed 24 days of recruiting this summer.
The NCAA Div. I Board of Directors did not kill summer men’s basketball recruiting on Thursday.
Not by a long shot.
“Summer basketball I think will be able to continue if it is able to reform itself,” KU chancellor/NCAA Board member Robert Hemenway said Thursday night after returning from a meeting in Indianapolis where the 18-member board voted unanimously to “eliminate summer basketball environments as we now know it.”
The Board on Thursday approved several recommendations of the NCAA Management Council, including ones concerning summer basketball recruiting.
This summer, as in the past, college coaches will be allowed 24 days of recruiting. The evaluation period will be cut to 14 days in 2001 and eliminated entirely in the summer of 2002 with one big asterisk.
A new system is to be put into place by a yet-to-be named NCAA Div. I basketball issues committee which will likely be made up of at least 20 members including hoops coaches, athletics directors, college presidents and faculty reps.
“Like most university presidents and chancellors, I am very concerned about what we see happening in the summer,” KU’s Hemenway said of a somewhat seedy environment which includes prep players being paid by summer coaches and camp organizers.
“I think this is an identifiable problem, yet very complex. There is every reason in the world to believe we can find a solution so there can be an opportunity for NCAA institutions to be involved in summer recruiting, though it will be different than the format it is today.
“I think all options will be on the table (for issues committee). The most important thing is there have to be serious discussions between shoe manufacturers and entities supporting AAU teams, the high school athletic associations, the (college) basketball coaches.
“It’s very important their voices be heard in this. They (coaches) are the ones who see what is happening. This basketball issues committee will have time to go in there and seriously change the way summer basketball exists.”
KU coach Roy Williams has long called for discussions between all those groups mentioned. He is in favor of summer recruiting to continue.
“No summer recruiting … I think that would be the worst possible thing we could have,” Williams said recently. “I think people say the top programs do not need summer recruiting that it is for the mid-majors and all that, but I think we need it also. I think it’s crucial for the mid- majors that don’t have the amount of money because it is so much more cost effective.
“I go to Las Vegas for four days (in summer) and see 256 teams in one location. Games start at 8 a.m. and the last game is at 10:30 at night. It’s a lot more cost effective and very good competition. The elimination of summer recruiting is not a cure-all.”
After all, the camps will continue to go on, whether or not college coaches are there to watch the action.
Improprieties could still occur in such a scenario. Perhaps moreso.
“I think almost all the coaches agree and most of the athletic administrators when they say eliminating summer recruiting doesn’t solve the problems we are concerned about,” KU athletics director Bob Frederick said Thursday. “There still will be summer leagues and tournaments and questionable people involved.
“One thing that worries me about eliminating college coaches from the summer … it might produce another layer of people who would act as representatives of institutions summer scouts or something, then it would make it even worse. Whomever the people are (on the issues committee) will have a tough job,” Frederick added.
“I’m not sure the NCAA can solve this problem they are talking about, but I just hope they work out something so they don’t eliminate college coaches from being involved in summer recruiting.”
The NCAA Board also voted to allow men’s and women’s basketball recruits to receive scholarships to attend classes in summer school before their first semester in college if they enroll in at least six hours of courses.
The NCAA said it will provide $3 million per year to provide up to 50 percent of an institution’s cost for the program.
The NCAA is also asking the management council to develop legislation that would strip basketball teams of one scholarship if the graduation rate of the program falls below 50 percent.
“Asking the management council to come up with a way to tie graduation rates to scholarships … that’s significant reform,” Hemenway said. “The fact the students are able to start in the summer and the NCAA is willing to put $3 million of scholarship money to help students do that, to make progress toward a degree is significant. The NCAA is proposing to pay for half the cost and the institutions paying half, also.”
“That’s a positive thing,” Frederick noted. “If we get freshmen in and get a couple courses under their belt, it makes the adjustment a little easier.”
Another proposal would limit initial scholarships to no more than five in one year and eight over two years. The purpose is to slow the pace of athletes transferring from one institution to another.
The board also approved a two-tier system for punishing student athletes who engage in forms of sports gambling.
Under the first tier, student athletes who try to influence the outcome of a game, influence a game’s scoring margin, solicit or accept a bet or take part in any form of gambling involving games played by their school will permanently lose eligibility in all college sports.
Meanwhile, student athletes who solicit or accept a bet in any gambling activity involving intercollegiate athletics or professional athletics will be ineligible for all regular and postseason competition for at least a year and also will lose a year of eligibility.
The board also approved legislation that would not allow midyear transfer student-athletes in men’s and women’s basketball to be eligible for competition until the following academic year. This would apply to both two-year and four-year transfers and would be effective Aug. 1, 2000.
The board also approved the implementation of Life Skills programs at member schools, programs that would focus on the total development of student-athletes.
“We were unanimous on all the issues. It was a real consensus on the board,” Hemenway said. “It was not a matter of making it unanimous to make a statement. As a matter of fact near the end of the voting Buzz (Shaw) said, ‘These have all been unanimous.’ Nobody really had noticed until that point.”
