SoCalHoops Recruiting News

Don't Believe Everything You Read:
The Summer Show Will Go On--(Apr. 28, 2000)

Now we know why the old saying exists:  "Don't believe everything you read."  Especially headlines in newspapers. Or on websites. Even reputable websites.

We've been reading all day today, on any and every website and in every newspaper we could find, that the NCAA's Board of Directors voted to "eliminate summer recruiting" yesterday at its annual meeting. 

That's what the LA Times said.  The lead to the Times story was as follows: "The NCAA Division I board of directors unanimously approved a package of basketball rules changes Thursday, including a proposal to eliminate men's summer recruiting in 2002."

We don't mean to pick on the Times, because every single other paper we read came to the same conclusion.

Of course,  this is not what the NCAA Board of Directors did. 

We'll say it again:  THE NCAA BOARD OF DIRECTORS DID NOT VOTE TO ELIMINATE SUMMER RECRUITING.

Ok, sorry we felt we had to shout. . . . but it's just so darn frustrating that no one, including respected newspapers, apparently read the text of these proposals.  Had ESPN, or the Times, or several other papers done so, they would never have used the word "eliminate" in connection with "summer recruiting." 

The NCAA Board of Directors yesterday approved a proposal originally conceived by the Division I Basketball "Working Issues Group" late last year.  That proposal was sent on to the NCAA Division I Managment Council which voted to approve it  two weeks ago.  By voting to approve it, that sent the proposal to the Board.   So much for the process.

What's in the proposal?   In a nutshell, the proposal provides for changes  to the model for summer recruiting other than that which currently exists.  But neither the Working Group, nor Council, nor the Board of Directors,  voted to eliminate summer recruiting, and anyone who tells you otherwise, is just plain wrong.

We've already posted the complete text of each of the proposals voted on (if you click the link, be sure to scroll down to where the text is located) together with an analysis of each of these proposals. Suffice it to say, the proposal concerning summer recruiting  (which still may be voted on by the general membership of the NCAA) changes the current model of recruiting in the summer in the following ways: 

1. This summer (2000) is unchanged.   There will be an "open-evaluation" period from July 7 through July 31.   Division I coaches will be able to attend camps, tournaments and other events which are certified by the NCAA, as before.

2. Next summer (2001), the summer open evaluation period will be scaled back to just 14 days, and the evaluation days during the high school season (when coaches may come to games, scrimmages, or practices to observe high school players with their high school teams) will be increased from 40 to 70.

3. The following year, the summer of 2002,  an entirely new system will be put into place. 

The fact is that no one, and that includes the NCAA, knows what that new system will look like, how it will work, or who (precisely) will be in charge.  The proposal approved yesterday by the Board of Directors calls for replacement of the current summer system, rather than eliminating it entirely.   In fact, the proposal expressly states:

"any new summer evaluation period will consider the interests of prospective student-athletes during the fall of their senior year in high school, the interests of first-year student-athletes if coaches are off-campus recruiting during the fall, and . . . balanced access to prospective student-athletes in basketball for all Division I schools."

Eliminate summer recruiting?  No way. It will not happen.  You can count on that.  Even Cedric Dempsey, the NCAA President who is calling for a drastic overhaul of the system, who "wants to make a statement" recognized that some form of summer recruiting will continue.  Here's what he said two weeks ago:

"We can no longer support the present summer evaluation system. We must immediately begin to develop a system different from what we have now. It may have some of the same elements but it must be controlled differently and we must develop a more accountable system."

Instead of eliminating the summer recruiting,  there will be a new system of accountability instituted by the NCAA's own "Basketball Issues Committee" working in cooperation with high schools, reputable tournament and camp operators, and the shoe companies. 

Shoe companies?  Absolutely.  They have the resources, the personnel, the incentive, the know-how, and most of all the incentive (did we say they have an incentive)  to continue to be involved in the process of recruiting.  One difference will be that the NCAA will take a more affirmative role in controlling what goes on, how players are handled, where the money goes, and how much accountability those running the events and camps will have to subject themselves to in order to obtain the all-important NCAA "certification" without which Division I coach cannot be present.  And when it comes to "following the money," you can bet that the NCAA will need to have some enforcement staff in place to monitor all of this, and that costs money. . . and the shoe companies, the camp and tournament operators, and even the players, will pay for it, one way or another.  The NCAA will have it's hand out, and the biggest source of revenue will be shoe companies.  It won't be the high schools, it won't be the CIF (or any other state high school association), and it won't be the players.  Because the kind of changes that most anticipate won't come cheaply.  Somebody's got to pay for it, so why not the deep pockets, the guys who have been involved all along, the ones who created in the first place what some view as "the mess"?  Who better to pay for cleaning it up than the shoe companies themselves.  

But the summer will not be eliminated.  And there won't be a whole summer of camps without coaches, attended only by Clark Francis, Bob Gibbons, Tracy Pierson, and other scouts. . . Nope.  Won't happen. We noted this two weeks ago when the Management Council approved the proposal, and at that time the NCAA press release stated:

"The Council clearly does not favor eliminating all opportunities for coaches to evaluate prospects in the summer, but it has many of the same concerns about the summer recruiting environment that the Board of Directors and others have," said Ted Leland, athletics director at Stanford University and chair of the Management Council as he summarized discussion about various proposals to curtail summer recruiting opportunities. "We combined a number of proposals to send a clear message that change is coming. The summer evaluation structure this year will be unchanged. Next summer, we'll reduce the evaluation period to 14 days, and by 2002, there will be a completely new structure in place," said Leland.  

Sure, it sounds a lot more dramatic to say that the NCAA voted to "eliminate summer recruiting."  And it made for some big headlines in today's newspapers.  But those headlines are wrong. 

If anyone really believes that summer recruiting is going to end, or that Division I college coaches give a rat's patootee about NCAA President Cedric Dempsey's call for the NCAA "to make a strong statement for change," then we've got some great swamp land in Florida for sale. . . real cheap.  We also think it's interesting that the new "Division I Basketball Issues Committee" will be chaired by Syracuse chancellor Kenneth Shaw, a strong proponent of coach Boeheim, who is a strong proponent (and a grateful beneficiary) of the summer recruiting process. 

There are too many D-I college programs with insufficient recruiting budgets and not enough personnel or time during the regular season to enable them to continue to be competitive without summer recruiting. The top prospects will always seek out Duke, Kentucky, Kansas, etc. and while those programs certainly take advantage of the summer, they're not the ones who need it most.  It's the rest of the NCAA, those other 246 Division I schools not within the top 64 (and the college presidents of those schools) who will insist that economies of scale dictate that some form of summer recruiting exist.  It's good business, and it makes good sense.  

Where else besides these summer camps and tournaments can college coaches see the best college prospects, all in one place playing with and against each other?  Nowhere, that's where.   And that's precisely why the college coaches will demand that summer recruiting continue.  Sure, it will be more organized.  Or at least differently organized. There will be more financial controls and more accountability of those involved.  There won't be any more Myron Piggies, at least not if the NCAA can help it.  Maybe the NCAA will require background checks for coaches involved at any NCAA certified event.  Who knows. . .  There will be changes, that's for certain.

But the summer will go on.  For the players. For the coaches. For the NCAA.

You can count on it.

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